25 or 6 to 4

I really need to get off Reddit. It generally just makes me mad because, in a lot of ways, it just shows the worst in people. One reason I stay on it, though, is that I follow some gear threads, and they can be fun.

A couple weeks ago, somebody asked what I thought was a pretty interesting question. It was something along the lines of "are you a guitar player or an actual musician?" That made me think that, when I started taking face lessons with my teacher, he asked my goals, and my answer was to become a musician and not just a guitar player. And right behind that, the thought crossed my mind wondering if the two were mutually exclusive.

So that's kind of what I've been thinking the last couple weeks. What actually qualifies you to be a musician instead of just a guitar player? What even qualifies you to call yourself a real guitar player as opposed to someone who just plays a little guitar? Do you have to write songs to be a musician? But what about if you're writing guitar parts within someone else's song? That's still writing melodies within a structure of chords. Is it that you have to make money from it? If that's the case, does it need to be your main source of income? Do weekend warriors qualify as musicians if they're only gigging on weekends to fuel new gear? What about someone that likes to stay at home and just play to jam tracks? What is it that delineates one from the other?

For a lot of us, music is more of a passion. It's something that grounds us. It keeps us sane. It helps us make sense of the world and brings us that inner peace even if it's just for a moment. Doesn't matter if we're playing something that someone else wrote or something we wrote. It doesn't matter what we play so long as we're making music even though no one else may ever hear it.

If you think about it, for most folks, it's a hobby. I've got a buddy that spends way more on motorcycles than I do on guitars and amps. He gets out and rides at some point every weekend. That's his zen. For many of us here, music is our zen.

Maybe that's the key to it. We can call ourselves whatever we want. Guitar hack, guitar player, musician... I guess everybody that calls themselves by one of those monikers is making music at some level. So long as you're comfortable with whatever you call yourself, you are that thing. Thinking of that, I usually tell folks that I play guitar or that I'm a wannabe musician.

I'd love to be able to call myself an actual musician, but, in my mind, to do that I'd have to have a better understanding of music theory and play at a level that I could play any style with ease. I'm not there. I still struggle with some theory, and there are some styles that I know, some that I can fake, and some that I struggle with. So from that perspective, I'm probably closer to a hack. But I also know that there are some folks that will ask me to play with them because they know that, generally, they can throw a lot of stuff at me, and I can play something that will be appropriate. So, from that, I call myself a guitar player. I don't believe I'm at that musician level, but I know some folks that say I am.

So, is a name really important? Or is the important thing just the fact that we're playing and trying to get better? Personally, I'm of the opinion that the name is secondary to the playing. The playing is paramount.