Hannemann’s Music Corner
Column by RICHARD HANNEMAN
What Is A Musician?
Recently on one of the Facebook guitar group pages the question was asked, “when can I say I’m a musician?” Interesting question.
There are other questions and statements I have heard or read that seem to overlap – for instance:
- The only reason to learn an instrument is to perform;
- I don’t need to know how to read music or know music ‘theory’ to be a musican (by the way, it seems that only guitar players say this);
- I just need to play with ‘feeling’;
- If you know three chords you can play anything; and
- My kid is going to be a scientist or engineer – not a musician.
You have probably heard, or even thought something similar. All of which goes to the question “when can I say I’m a musician” which, in turn goes to the question: What is a musician?
I am a musician. I play music, I write music. I use music as a medium to express and communicate a thought or idea or a feeling and to comprehend the musical thinking of others just as I use verbal language to communicate a thought or an idea or a feeling and to comprehend the verbal thinking of others. I use my instrument, in this case the guitar, to express that musical thought or idea in the same manner in which I use a keyboard, or pen and paper, to express a verbal language thought idea. I have a level of musicianship — knowledge of musical construct and application — to do this reasonably well; to at least be musically comprehensible (you don’t have to understand it, or to like it — though it would be nice if both were true).
This is what it means to be a musician — to be able to think and comprehend in musical terms and then express those musical thoughts, yours or someone else’s, with an instrument — which could be anything from the voice to a kazoo to a pipe organ. The degree to which one can do this is referred to as “musicianship” and there is a level of musicianship which separates being musical from being a musician.
The fact that I perform is co-incidental to being a musician. One can have a high degree of musicianship and never perform for anyone but one’s self. Nor can it be said that being able to perform is to be a musician — that one can sing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star in the school talent show may show a certain amount of musicality but it does not a musician make.
That I happen to get paid to be a musician is co-incidental to being a musician. One can have a high degree of musicianship, perform, and never get paid for it — amateur musicians who play in local music groups or who play in un-paid solo situations (e.g. the local church organist) are every bit as much musicians as those who get paid for it. Nor can it be said that getting paid for musical performance is to be a musician — there are any number of people out there whose knowledge and skills are less than rudimentary yet through a monkey-see monkey-do approach can perform something in a manner which is pleasing enough to an audience – the entertainment factor of performance — as to merit being paid for it.
The fact that I teach music and guitar is transitorily tangential to being a musician. Teaching, regardless of subject matter, is its own art/craft/science/ability which does not derive from the subject being taught. Many very good musicians either do not or cannot teach what they know; some people with only limited musical knowledge are very good at teaching that limited knowledge to others.
To be a musician, then, entails a certain level of musical training and knowledge, just as with verbal language; and a facility of usage of that musicianship in some manner just as with being a writer (one does not have to paid to write to be considered a writer — I don’t get paid for this column, but I have been told I’m a good writer).
How one acquires this training and knowledge is beside the point — to be a musician does not require formal education (though it is certainly helpful) — and that would be better the subject of a separate column.
All of which means your kid can grow up to be a musician and a scientist or practitioner of any other trade or profession. Neither precludes the other. Better to say, “I don’t want my kid to try to make a living as a musician” — which entails certain pre-suppositions about music as a profession — that, too, is a subject for a separate column.
