Do you think of yourself as a musical 'artist'?

[SimonK]

I suspect if being an "artist" is a spectrum, there is just something about bass players that make us a little more down to earth than other artists. Certainly whenever I've been in festivals/gigs etc., being someone who goes on stage and plays something does put you with a different group to other people doing stuff at the gig. While I might not consider myself an "artist" in the same way as the mentally unstable singer/song writer who doesn't get sarcasm, I do find myself in the same general group...

[zbd1960]

Most of us are self-deprecating by nature, especially Brits... When I changed career paths at age of 25 and went from being a bank clerk to a mainframe assembler programmer, I struggled to call myself a 'computer programmer' for quite a while. Later, when I started singing lessons and started perfroming in concerts regularly, I struggled with calling myself even an 'amateur musician' and definitely not 'musician'.

 

I think the terms musician and artist get tangled up with various layers of meaning. Those terms apply at many different levels and often people use the terms solely for what you might call the 'elite' levels, whereas as they apply to all/most of us at any level. I play or sing then I'm a musician - doesn't mean I get gigs at prestigious venues. I'm a serious amateur photographer and I have had work in exhibitions, so yes in that context I'm definitely an 'artist'. Do I make a living out of music or photography? No. And perhaps that's what people are thinking when they use the terms - they are applying them to professionals who make a living from their activities.   

[Bilbo]

I think of the music I listen to and would like to play as Art rather than Entertainment but I am not an artist.

[tauzero]

On 18/10/2025 at 00:49, chris_b said:

I'm an entertainer.

 

You are Bruce Forsyth AICMFP.

[chris_b]

My speciality is tap dancing whilst soloing.