Yes.
If you can play an instrument and make or contribute to a piece of music with said instrument then you’re a musician. Defining what constitutes an instrument is another discussion. Whether you get paid for playing is irrelevant.
I’ve been paid for playing instruments, I’ve played and not been paid, I’ve played in rehearsal spaces and I play at home. I don’t see how any of those pursuits make me more or less of a musician? I know some extremely talented musicians who’ve never earned a penny from their playing (a couple of friends who play in a brass bands spring to mind for example) and I’d never suggest they’re not musicians.
But hey, they’re just labels that in themselves are irrelevant too. Step away from the forum and make some music!
4 Likes
If you can play an instrument and make or contribute to a piece of music with said instrument then you’re a musician. Defining what constitutes an instrument is another discussion.
A short story on how I arrived to the same conclusion:
When I started with electronic music some 4 years ago I had this immense dread that I wasn’t playing an instrument, from years and years of people in my childhood saying that electronic music isn’t really music, if you are not performing, mechanically intricate movements, to play an acoustic instrument and striving for virtuosity you aren’t really playing an instrument. All that gatekeeping bullshit most of us in electronic music are pretty familiar with.
I started to hang out more with other artists over the past years, including other musicians: violinists, orchestra drummers, bass players, etc. and felt I could never say I “played” something when I was around these people I considered “real musicians”, I only use synths, I barely learnt the most basics of piano just so I could improve my own music a little… It was rather surprising when I told those musicians I “used” synths and they’d correct me saying I played them, they wanted to jam with me, they didn’t know how to play a synth, how to operate them, it was a completely alien thing to most of them and they’d get really interested in how I played them.
I got over the hump of feeling like a fraud and embraced that even though I don’t play an acoustic instrument, I do play instruments, they create music and require skill, even if it’s more intellectual skill than virtuosity of the mechanics of bowing, hitting drums at the right time or fiddling with frets and strumming. My instruments sequence themselves, freeing me to play them in a very different way than these musicians are used to, I still need to play and it’s all music.
5 Likes
I’ve never, anywhere in my message stated any kind of hierarchical relationship or claimed anywhere to be “superior” to any celist or instrumentalist, at all, quite the contrary, I have a deep respect for any virtuoso instrumentalist because I can’t be that. It’s just different, that’s all.
I don’t even understand why it’s a devil’s advocate to my reply, did I express myself badly there?
1 Like
I’m not lambasting you or trying to invalidate the value of skills in all forms. I’m not trying to pick apart your message and find pinholes of miscommunication. I do read in your message that intellectual skill is separate and detached from mechanical skill and as it neglects to account for dedication and practice in either area of attention, thus I feel differently. it doesn’t mean anyone is correct or incorrect. sorry if I’ve read incorrectly your intent
Sorry, so I think I wasn’t clear, I meant that me playing a synth doesn’t take mechanical skill because it plays itself, not counterpointing that saying that playing an acoustic instrument doesn’t take intellectual skill, much the opposite, it requires both and I lack the mechanical one so I always thought I was a fraud.
My point is that after I had more contact with musicians that I respect and think of as “real musicians” they also thought of me as some kind of musician, even though I completely lack their mechanical skills which was what I always considered a fundamental point to be a musician. It’s more about getting validation from people I respect that I’m somewhat some kind of musician instead of just a fraud.
It wasn’t meant to say anything about those musicians, much the opposite, it was meant to say how they helped me change the view of myself.
1 Like
whatever the catalyst for self acceptance I’m glad you came to terms with your own talent or accepted your own interests as legitimate. there is no one here who would argue that a synthesizer is not an instrument
3 Likes
It was a really good experience for me giving lessons in subtractive synthesis using VCVRack to a composer friend (who has used synths before, but didn’t get lost in the details as I do) and having him not just listen but excitedly implement those lessons in a scratch score for portions of a film that went through a series of festivals.
Granted, the director wanted a more “filmy” sound and the temp cues were replaced with more traditional instruments in the end, but I still felt good that I could pass on useful knowledge in a way that someone with residencies and scoring and a lot of classical instrumentation could understand 
3 Likes
Great point about instruments from Bunker and to separate the main point from the chaff. Some things to consider:
-
What constitutes Music and hence define a musician. Is it all a matter resting on the majority of public opinion vs people within the sector/group/industry vs self.
-
Ease of accessibility to deliver time-code based music using tools or instruments through passage of time.
-
Subjectivity concerns. What is noise could be sweet music to others. One ain’t a musician until one does this or that. Are DJs musicians?
-
Scope and granularity. Broadly speaking hammering a table in rhythmic fashion is also making music. To be technically correct, must being a musician relate to a person, music making tool or some degree of both.
TLDR it’s just like any other label on others to help human beings compartmentalise and stereotype (if you will) for easier understanding and handling of information at hand.
Threads like this are why I love you guys so much and feel so at home here 
2 Likes
Next Thursday.
2 Likes
I felt similarly until I worked at a legit art school and started to meet the students and learn about what they were learning. That’s when I learned about honing one’s practice and (for lack of a better word) finding one’s voice… I could say that being an artist means you’re dedicating time and energy into being an artist, just as being a musician means you’re dedicating time and energy into being a musician. It’s about the practice. I hella for sure would not call myself a dentist. Nor would any other right-minded person. But at the art school, one student told me that I might be an artist. That ruled. Now I really respect and treasure people who are brave enough to call themselves artists, especially as young adults.
yeah, this ^^
Joining this forum is actually what makes someone a musician.
5 Likes