Types of Musicians?

Question

I really hate to over-generalize, but... What categories of Musicians do you think are out there (e.g. Classical, Hip-Hop, Rock, etc.), and what do you think characterizes them? Are they compatible? Is there an essential quality to the musician (or are essences b.s. and "it's all subjective")?

Answer 1

This topic could fill a book. There are professional musicians, amateurs, hip-hop, classical, jazz, etc. There used to be a big argument about whether jazz musicians were really musicians by classical musicians (which is of course silly but at the time it was there), but now jazz musicians often play right along WITH classical musicians. Also, I'm a blues-rock guitarist, but if I pick up a classical guitar and play a classical piece does that suddenly transform me into a classical musician? I think the real differences in musicians of any kind is their TALENT - how well do they play whatever it is that they are playing? That should be the real deciding factor.

Answer 2

Ok, I play all kinds of instruments, but my main instrument is the banjo (yes, I bare the brunt of all kinds of hillbilly jokes and wisecracks). However, I consider myself to be a musician first, banjoist second. As such, I do not limit myself to only playing bluegrass/hillbilly music. I play sacred hymns, classical, country, and I have recently began learning jazz, all on my banjo. I am a huge fan of the late banjoist, Bela Fleck (check out the stuff he plays with his band, The Flecktones). He has taken the banjo to new hieghts and places you would never expect it. He plays in all genres, literally ALL of them. And the same could be said of any instrument/musician. the previous answers got it right, a true musician can play any genre, and there can be volumns written on this subject.

Answer 3

There are three main schools of modern western music; Classical, Jazz and Popular.

These can be broken down several different ways - Classical into tonal and atonal musicians - and also into different time periods such as Baroque and Romantic.

Jazz may be broken into blues, traditional (trad jazz), swing, bebop, fusion and possibly funk and latin.

Popular music has many different forms. Folk music, country, rock, electronic, R&B - there are many different genres.

I believe that these categories are certainly compatable. I study classical music, play jazz music and listen to popular music. I have also written pieces in all three of those styles. There are however many musicians who stick to one style - though cross-over musicians are becoming more common.

It is not at all a rare occurance for jazz musicians to reference classical or popular music in their pieces, and many modern classical composers use elements of jazz in their music. Even popular music takes elements of classical music - for instance in covers of classical songs.

I don't believe that being able to sit down and physically write music is indicative of musical talent - nor even being able to compose a melody. There are even classical compositions that couldn't be scored because they use computers to apply many different effects. I believe that anything that has rhythm and some form of pitch may be called music; it all depends on how it is used as to which category it will fall into.

Answer 4

There's two types of musician. Those who can play and those who can't. A good musician can play any genre for example Apocalyptica who are trained classical cellists but do blinding Metallica covers.