Should drummers call themselves musicians?

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permutation

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Wanted to get a consensus on this. Just because we play a musical instrument, does that define us as being a musician.
Say if your a drummer that only plays the drums/drumset, would one consider themself to be a musician? What if you also played a, woodwind, brasswind, or stringed instrument, along with a drum/drumset, would that qualify you as being a musician?
You know the old joke,"Who do drummers hang out with?"
So what qualifies us as drummers, to be considered as musicians?
I'm curious to hear your thoughts on this.
 
Drummers that can hit things with rhythm, time keeping, and dynamic control should be considered musicians.

Although, I a fan of using the word Percussionist.

I also play:

Mallets
Bass Drum
Timpani
Crash Cymbal
Suspended Cymbal
Triangle
Wood Block
Cow Bell
etc.
 
Of course.
Drummers play music, make music, not just hit things.
I f you are not being musical you are not drumming well.
 
I'm sorry, but this is borderline ridiculous.
Someone who plays drums (and only drums) is most certainly a musician.
Why wouldn't they be? Because we don't play specific pitches or harmonized chords ?

I also play guitar and bass and mandolin and some piano...but that doesn't make me any MORE of a musician than if I only played drums.

Those dumb drummer jokes don't work on me.

N
 
Nah, I personally do not appreciate being clumped in with the 'musician' riff-raff. I'm an eeeeen-dividual.
 
We play a musical instrument, ergo we are musicians. Drummers and percussionists are both musicians.
 
Tempos, rhythm, quarter notes, 8th notes, 16th notes, triplets, shuffles, dynamics, etc, etc, ec..... Sounds like music to me.
 
I think that boy drummers are musicians, but not girl drummers.
 
Just watch any video with Antonio Sanchez, especially if he's playing with Pat Metheny, and ask yourself if he's a musician. Of course he is! Not every drummer is at the same level of musicianship, but we're all musicians.
 
I'm curious about why you are asking this. I hope that you are just trying to elicit a response from us, and that you don't actually believe that you are not a musician. Music is a feeling felt through sound. If you contribute to that feeling, you are a musician.
 
Real drummers should. So what's a real drummer? I look at it this way, someone who can
pick up a hammer and hit a nail is not necessarily a carpenter.....someone who can take a stick and
hit a drumhead is not necessarily a drummer...it takes more, but not a lot more to become
a beginning musician.
 
We play music, we are musicians.Simple as that.
I think the attitude coming from some non-drumming musicians that drummers are "just the drummer" says more about their level of musicianship than the drummer's.
If they listen to a fairly decent drummer and hear what he is playing as timekeeping, not music, then they clearly haven't got a clue about the subtleties of groove, dynamics, mood etc.
I don't think we'll ever get rid of this attitude, not until we can play chords on the drum kit. Then they'll accept us as musicians.
 
Us drummers play more then one instrument. We play:

The Snare
Bass Drum
Tom
Floor Tom
Hi hat
Ride
Crash



Each one of these on their own could be considered an instrument, And many drummers use even more instruments in their set up.

Melody, Harmony and Rhythm are all part of music. Which instrument or musician has the key role of filling the Rhythm a lot of the time, The drummer. I would consider a drummer to be a musician.
 
The answers are going to be biased (posing on a drum forum and all ).



"The greatest contribution jazz has made in music has been to replace the role of the conductor with a member of the ensemble who, instead of waving his arms to keep time and convey mood is an active member of the musical statement. That person is the drummer."
 
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