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Lawrie,

Believe it or not, I actually anticipated this exact response from you. LOL.



Of course you did, you left the door wide open for me
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May I propose a scenario for you?

Let's say you're at a social event and you meet someone who happens to be a professional singer,(but they don't play an instrument), and you don't know that.

You ask them what they do for a living.

(I'll concede the voice as an instrument for the sake of this discussion.)

Would their answer be singer, instrumentalist or musician?


Probably singer, but by the same token, if I were a professional I would probably say that I'm a trombonist... Though I will concede the possiblity that I might say musician as it is a more generic term. Would you call yourself a musician or guitarist first? I find we all tend to favour our particular specialisation when describing ourselves.

With respect to conductors, I've never met or even heard of a conductor that wasn't an instrumentalist first. Many, if not all, are multi instrumentalists. However, if they were a professional conductor then I suspect that given there is extra status involved in the position they would describe themself as a conductor, or possibly a music director.

--=-- My credo: If it's worth doing, it's worth overdoing - just ask my missus, she'll tell ya laugh --=--
You're only paranoid if you're wrong!