Instrumentalist - Definition and Overview

A musician is a person who plays or composes music. Musicians can be classified by how they make music:

• A singer (also called a vocalist) uses his or her voice.
• An instrumentalist plays a musical instrument.
• Composers and songwriters make up music and write it down.
• A conductor coordinates a musical ensemble.

The concept of the musician and the status of the musician in society is culture-specific. Think, for instance, about your own concepts relating to "the heavy metalist", "the folk musician", "the DJ", "the sarangi player", "the female drummer", and so on.

It may also be relevant to mention the songs produced by some animals, including birds. Although many would surely debate whether birds are musicians, their ability to produce variations on the characteristic song of their species is a subject deserving more research (though relating less to music and more to animal communication). The freestyle chatter of even common birds, although lacking the complexity of methods employed by human beings, must be regarded as having some relation to the origins of music. Human beings did not begin producing music by banging away on a keyboard, nor are they the only creatures which respond to (or produce) rhythm and melody.

A special exception must be made to so-called "performers", for example Britney Spears or Christina Aguilera, as they sing other peoples songs, dance other peoples choreography, achieve their popularity solely due to good looks, and require the help of an auto-tuning device in order to sound remotely acceptable. As a rule of thumb, as the ratio of 14 year old female listeners to other listeners approaches 2 or more, it becomes increasingly unlikely that the performer in question is actually a musician.

Types of musicians

• Singer or vocalist
• Composer
• Conductor
• Instrumentalist (a musician who plays a musical instrument).
  • Bassist or Double bassist
  • Bassoonist
  • Cellist
  • Clarinetist
  • Drummer
  • Electronic musician
  • Flutist or Flautist
  • Guitarist
  • Hornist or Horn player
  • Keyboardist or Keyboard player
  • Oboist
  • organ grinder
  • Pianist
  • Percussionist
  • Recorder player
  • Saxophonist
  • Timpanist
  • Trombonist
  • Trumpeter or Trumpet player
  • Tubist or Tuba player
  • Turntablist or DJ
  • Violinist
  • Violist or Viola player
• Arranger
• Orchestrator
• Record producer

See also: List of musicians by genre

Usage note

It should be noted that although in many cases the name of the player is made from the name of the instrument + "ist", it does not work for all instruments. Trumpetist for example is nonsense. There are also widespread differences in the acceptability of some of these terms: for example percussionist is in general and uncontested use whereas violist is not.

Suggested reading:

• A. P. Merriam, Anthropology of Music, 1964
• John Blacking, How Musical is Man?, 1973
• Sheila Whiteley, Music, Identity & Sexuality, London: Routledge 2000

External Links

• Lyrics and Chords for Musicians (http://www.vagalume.com.br/) by Vaga-Lume

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:

Musician

Example of Musicans: [1] (http://www.soundclick.com/BandLabelSearch.cfm?Label=P-Reckords)