Introduction

For as long as I have been playing there have been people asking questions about that. I am sure that many musicians were asked these questions long before I came along too, but this post is about my experience with those questions and later, yours.

It was almost as though everyone had received a pamphlet or a primer: "Things to ask a musician". Because the questions were almost always the same, and almost always in the same order. In no time at all, just being asked the questions was enough to start shaping my perception of what it meant to be a musician.

Here are the questions

Oh, you are a musician...

Do you sing?

Do you write your own songs?

Are you in a band?

Are you playing anywhere around town?

Do you have an Album? (later... do you have a CD?)

---

What the questions might have meant
Let me add what might have been behind the words in purple

Oh, you are a musician...
I like music. This is good, we have a reason to talk. I am interested.

Do you sing?
I like music. I like the sound of someone singing. I like to sing sometimes. Do we have that in common?

Do you write your own songs?
I like music. Music is creative. Are you creative in this way? Maybe you can tell me more about that.

Are you in a band?
Most of the music I hear is from bands. Do you fit with my understanding of how it works?

Are you playing anywhere around town?
Is there any place where I could come to hear your music?

Do you have an Album? (later... do you have a CD?)
If I can't come to a show, can I get your music to hear it at home?

---

What I heard
After hearing these questions a couple of hundred times (I'm slow), and never having been in a position to simply say "yes" to all the questions, (having always been a side-man), I started to hear something different at an emotional level.

So here are those questions and I've filled in what I was hearing with my emotions in blue.

Oh, you are a musician...
Oh, so you think you're a musician? Well let's see if you pass the test

Do you sing?
When I listen to music, I listen to the words. Do you sing the words? Are you the one I listen to?

Do you write your own songs?
Musicians create music, create songs. Are you a musician?

Are you in a band?
Real musicians, good ones, have other musicians who want to play with them. They form bands. Are you a real musician?

Are you playing anywhere around town?
You're not a real musician unless you are playing for real money in front of real people in real live venues. So are ya?

Do you have an Album? (later... do you have a CD?)
Real musicians record their original songs and perform to support the albums. So do ya?

---

So over time these inevitable questions became challenges: Challenges to my fragile perception that I *was* a musician.

It seemed as though there was some common belief that the ultimate goal of a self-actualized musician was:

• to be a singer-songwriter
  
• with a band that toured
  
• and had lots of albums.
  

The band, the tours and the albums all attested to the legitimacy of the singer-songwriter role. All of it together seemed to be the big mold one had to fit and fill to be 'a musician'.

Please understand... this is not my personal definition of what it means to be a musician. Instead, it is these conversations with the audience that contributed to the struggle to define myself within the music.

How about you? Do any of these questions ring a bell for you?
How did they influence your choices?
How do they affect your goals?

I think these are good questions, some of them I ask myself some never occurred to me till now.


First question: Are you a Musician?
I'm a drummer I'll say and usually I get that look like I just told them I was the garbage collector. (Not that there is anything wrong with that. It is just the way most people perceive that job.)
Once they have established what instrument I play, they usually jump right to question


# 3) Are you in a band?
Well I had better be or I am obviously having a conversation with a flake.

Fourth Question: Are you playing anywhere around town?
I'm thinking they are interested in knowing where I'm playing next and is it worth the drive. I have never thought they were secretly thinking "You're not a real musician unless you are playing for real money in front of real people in real live venues. So are ya?" If I thought they were asking me that, I would tell them straight that some of the best players I have ever seen or heard have never toured or recorded and I'm dead serious.


Fifth question; Do you have an Album? (later... do you have a CD?)
They must have enjoyed the music because they are about to buy a CD!

Fortunately for me I have toured with a reasonably successful band and I have cut numerous Cds none of which have done extremely well but all have been profitable. I’m happy with the choices I've made and where my musical career has taken me. Thanks for asking.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Starvin,

Before the age of about Thirty:
Oh,you are a musician...cool

After the age of Thirty:
Oh..............you are a musician
what's your real job?

After the age of Fifty:
Oh,you are a musician..you must have a great pension plan from your real job