Originally Posted By: 90 dB
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Actually, I was agreeing with you. grin I was paraphrasing a previous poster who made the statement:


“What tickles me is that many of the folks who would swear the guy in the video is not a musician will get up on stage with pre-recorded backing tracks and pretend to be a band!”


I could have made the reference more clear.

Regards,

Bob


Sorry, I misunderstood.

Bob

Originally Posted By: HearToLearn


Well said in many ways. A few questions for you my good sir.

1-Is a person who composes and plays a keyboard with piano samples instead of an actual piano, a musician? (Bear in mind, this person did not record the piano samples on their own). Why or why not?

2-Is a "DJ" who goes into a recording studio and creates his own samples, meaning he actually records various sounds and manipulates them to what he needs for his song, THEN plays those sounds via his keyboard a musician? Why or why not?



1) IMHO yes. A sample is a very different thing from a loop.

2) Depends on the various sounds and what kind of keyboard he/she is playing them on.

And if the DJ can also play keyboard he/she can be both a musician and a DJ. They are not mutually exclusive.

In the early 80s I played in a 4 piece group that classified itself as "BJs" - Band-Jocks. Play a few live, spin a couple of recordings, play a few more live, etc. Not a bad idea. It didn't go over well, perhaps it was just ahead of its time.

There are from time to time songs a client wants to hear and that may be either inappropriate for us to learn, or too studio intensive for a duo to properly cover. I'll happily "DJ" them during our act, and even noodle along on the guitar while doing so.

There is nothing wrong with various ways to make music. Whether you are pushing buttons on Ableton Live, assembling loops, using an auto-accompaniment app like BiaB, or playing a piano.

There is nothing degrading about being a DJ or making music by assembling loops of what other people have already played. There are different talents involved.

Personally, I'm in awe of what some people can do with sampled loops, a skill I've never wanted to learn.

But we have specific terms for specific things, and when we start using those terms incorrectly, we impede communication.

Since this conversation started, I've taken the liberty to ask non-musicians - some friends - some regular customers about it. I usually pose the question as, which of these would you call musicians, pianists, guitarists, saxophonists, singers, drummers, DJs. Nobody picks DJs.

IMHO that's a good thing because the skills involved in both 'art forms' are different.

So call it what you want. I agree with both my own reasoning and what the general public perceives, DJs make music but aren't musicians.

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Bob "Notes" Norton smile Norton Music
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