If we take the “wiki” definition of a musician, then it’s very broad, …… and even includes conductors. For the sake of this topic, let’s assume the conductor doesn’t play an instrument, or sing.

Obviously the conductor knows a great deal about music, the feel needed for a particular piece, timing, nuance and what it takes to make the difference between a good performance and a great one, and how to make it happen.

Then let’s recreate the “social gathering” I mentioned before.

I ask the conductor what they do for a living and their response is, “I’m a musician”. My natural response will be “What instrument do you play?”. They say “I don’t play any instruments, …… I conduct an orchestra”.

At this point, I’m gonna have a real hard time NOT saying “Then you aren’t a musician. You are the one shaking the stick at musicians. The musicians are the ones having a stick shook at them!”

Obviously, this would never happen because a conductor would think it "beneath" him/her to be considered a musician! The musicians are the "worker bees" in his/her mind to reach their ultimate goal.

All of the people involved in getting the music we all love have a role to play in delivering that music to us. Each role is defined, (although most of the time people would fit into several categories because of their skills).

Singers sing, musicians play their instruments, conductors conduct if needed, recording engineers record it all, and a whole host of other folks get involved in the music industry before we get the final product, ……… music!

Please note that only one group in this chain are musicians.

Last edited by bobcflatpicker; 12/31/10 12:05 AM.
Bob
................................
http://soundcloud.com/bobcflatpicke/music-in-the-mountains