What does it mean to be a musician?

[Bob]

.... and a full musician, too.

What does it mean to be a full, complete musician?

[pianonut]

pasta works for me.

complete?  i wonder if any musician considers themselves complete in this life?  i consider my my current and past piano teachers complete, but i don't think they see themselves that way.  if you ask them a question (much like you) they either know the answer or will look it up quickly.  they are always asking questions themselves, so they have studied many subjects (not just classical music).

to me, an all around musician is one that has lots of cd's/records, goes to concerts as they can afford, is always interesting to glean performance ideas from (by watching them), and is not typically nervous about performing (that you can see).  they take music seriously, and do not like the stage lights to change while a performance is taking place (now i know what makes my teacher's pet peeve is) - which actually did happen during some recital.  some kid snuck in, and kept messing with the lights,  then ran out, and noone could catch him (but my teacher finally did). 

[ted]

Tell me and we'll both know, Bob. I seriously doubt I am a musican at all in any generally accepted sense of the word.

[LVB op.57]

To me, a real musician is a complete musician, not someone with nothing but virtuosic technic for their particular instrument. So, besides being able to play, I feel a complete musician should...

-know theory
-know composition basics, even if they don't compose
-be able to sight sing, even if they're not a vocalist
-have dictation skills
-respect music outside of that which they play

There's probably more, but that's all I can think of for now

[ted]

Oh well, that's about 0.5 out of five for me. The issue relative to me seems to be resolving in the negative ! Right oh Sybil !

[ludwig]

crazy and broke

(occasionally rich, but unlikely)