When are you a musician that plays guitar, rather than a guitarist that plays music?

[zmf]

What else can you play on a guitar besides music? Is this a trick question?

I enjoy coaxing music from a guitar, as opposed to other instruments. Is that somewhere in between.

[Goat Mick]

I've always been uncomfortable calling myself a musician because it doesn't come naturally for me. I don't have a musicians ear and have to approach things differently than the real musicians I know. I think of myself as an entertainer and a songwriter. My guitar, my voice and harmonica are tools I use to do those things. But all my life all I've wanted is to be a musician.

[HHP]

Originally Posted by zmf

What else can you play on a guitar besides music? Is this a trick question?

I enjoy coaxing music from a guitar, as opposed to other instruments. Is that somewhere in between.

I think he's referring to people you sometimes run into who know lots of scales, chords, phrases, and licks but can't seem to put them together as a complete musical expression. They play guitar a lot, play music very little.

[Silly Moustache]

When I was nemployed,I used to go on long country walks with a gent who was a fine folk singer with a stunningly beautiful voice and an average guitar style.

On one of those walks he stated that he was a singer who played guitar whereas I was a guitarist who sang. For reasons gthat I've never worked out I felt slighted.

In almost every band I've been in, I ended up as the front man, whether I played guitars, mandolin or dobro.

I think I am a performer.

[zmf]

Originally Posted by HHP

I think he's referring to people you sometimes run into who know lots of scales, chords, phrases, and licks but can't seem to put them together as a complete musical expression. They play guitar a lot, play music very little.

Then the question is tougher than I thought.

At some point, the phrases and licks will be strung together in a coherent piece, perhaps with a desire to express something. Hard to say where the tipping point is.

[Steel and wood]

To me, it's the ability to improvise and play a song in a multitude of different ways and styles.

[zabdart]

I've come to think that a musician is someone who has advanced beyond the merely technical aspects of whatever he's playing (like getting to the next chord or scale) and is focused on expression. You can play something as simple as a Woody Guthrie song and still be a musician. Conversely, you can play something as complex as one of Sor's etudes and still be a guitar picker.

[Muffinhead]

I feel like I cannot call myself a musician. I can't sight read. I know the notes on the staff, but I struggle with it. I don't know any music theory. I don't know what makes a chord a major or a minor, I just know how to play them.

Without these basic skills, I feel like I cannot call myself a musician. Maybe I am wrong about this. I can sing hundreds of songs and fingerpick with them all. I learn how to play them and then I improvise a little and make them my own.

Maybe that makes me a musician, I don't know. All I do know is that I have fun playing guitar. I love playing guitar and I enjoy playing for friends and family. For me, that is all I need.

[jaybones]

Well, I consider myself a musician who plays guitar. Also have played percussion, saxophone, and piano.

Got a minor in music, and had to be in the chorus for my performance requirement. Only guitar or bass slots were jazz band (didn't have the chops then or now), pep band (again, there were better players- music majors) and a band that played popular music (more of an orchestra with a guitar in the string section).

So, yeah, voice is also an instrument I play.

[eastcoast Chris]

There is a story about Django Reinhardt & Segovia.They were both invited to a society party by a lady who delighted in booking musical opposites. Segovia arrived on time with his music & guitar,Django arrived late without his guitar(asked to borrow Segovia's and was told NO) someone borrowed a cheap box for him to play& he sat down and played something fingerstyle which was unusual for him.When he had finished Segovia ask'd where he could get the music & Reinhardt told him that he had made it up on the spot & that if ask'd to play the same piece again he would not be able to remember it.. Which one was the guitar player & which one was the musician??

[zabdart]

Originally Posted by eastcoast Chris

There is a story about Django Reinhardt & Segovia.They were both invited to a society party by a lady who delighted in booking musical opposites. Segovia arrived on time with his music & guitar,Django arrived late without his guitar(asked to borrow Segovia's and was told NO) someone borrowed a cheap box for him to play& he sat down and played something fingerstyle which was unusual for him.When he had finished Segovia ask'd where he could get the music & Reinhardt told him that he had made it up on the spot & that if ask'd to play the same piece again he would not be able to remember it.. Which one was the guitar player & which one was the musician??

Reinhardt was the jazz musician and Segovia the classical musician. Apples and oranges.
Answer your question?

[mc1]

When are you a musician that plays guitar, rather than a guitarist that plays music?

when one is playing the pedantic semantic rag.

[SOR]

Originally Posted by eastcoast Chris

There is a story about Django Reinhardt & Segovia.They were both invited to a society party by a lady who delighted in booking musical opposites. Segovia arrived on time with his music & guitar,Django arrived late without his guitar(asked to borrow Segovia's and was told NO) someone borrowed a cheap box for him to play& he sat down and played something fingerstyle which was unusual for him.When he had finished Segovia ask'd where he could get the music & Reinhardt told him that he had made it up on the spot & that if ask'd to play the same piece again he would not be able to remember it.. Which one was the guitar player & which one was the musician??

I had not heard that story, thanks. The truth is the world is full of guitarists and very few make great music.

[mc1]

Originally Posted by eastcoast Chris

There is a story about Django Reinhardt & Segovia.They were both invited to a society party by a lady who delighted in booking musical opposites. Segovia arrived on time with his music & guitar,Django arrived late without his guitar(asked to borrow Segovia's and was told NO) someone borrowed a cheap box for him to play& he sat down and played something fingerstyle which was unusual for him.When he had finished Segovia ask'd where he could get the music & Reinhardt told him that he had made it up on the spot & that if ask'd to play the same piece again he would not be able to remember it.. Which one was the guitar player & which one was the musician??

late and looking to borrow an instrument. that'd be the guitar player!

i kind of wonder if that story is mythology.

[3rd_harmonic]

Originally Posted by RustyZombie

The best answer I can come up with is when you're more excited by getting another song down perfectly than you are by a new guitar.

"When are you a musician that plays guitar, rather than a guitarist that plays music?"

I'm surprised no one said:
When the sign says 'Help wanted. Musician with guitar skills. Nightly performances. Good pay.'