I recently posted a question on my Facebook page asking my friends (many are musicians) what they thought the definition of a professional musician is. I love the answers they gave.

My friends weighed in on a broad spectrum including everything from earning a living by playing to playing your first paying gig and from that point on you can consider yourself professional. Education seemed to play a role for some people as well as how often a musician works.

It seems difficult to define a professional when we pair the word with musician. This is because so often there are many people who play part time, once in a while or just for fun. As a musician there are many options to play without getting paid: community bands or orchestras, community theaters, or jamming in the garage with friends. It is a profession “often engaged in by amateurs.” (Merriam Webster)

Because there are so many opportunities for music lovers to play music for fun and at varying degrees of skill, it muddies the waters for what is expected of a professional musician. The lines are not clear cut like in other professions. For example, teachers, we know that teachers will have a four year degree (at least) before we hand our children over to them in a classroom.
There is no way to measure talent. It is subjective. That’s why American Idol is/(was?) so popular. I guarantee if you had working musicians as judges (instead of the general population) the results would be much different.

The perception of the general population also plays a role. I have been asked by audience members countless times “Do you get paid to do this?” Yes! Of course I get paid to do this. If we are expected to do this for fun and never get paid, it will be harder to be considered professionals. There are also musicians who will play for free and others even worse; who will undercut other musicians or bands by offering to play a gig for less money than the current band is getting paid to get gigs.

Even though I use the term professional musician, I am not specifically talking about how we conduct ourselves while working; I would be remiss not to mention that it does play an important role. If you’re in a band and your main focus of playing is to earn enough money to pay for the bands drinks and act as rock star for a couple nights a month, fine. There is nothing wrong with this as long as you take into consideration that there are other musicians that do want more and treat playing as their job. While taking this into consideration, realize that if you’re getting sloppy drunk on stage or stoned during breaks then this serves no one well. Not yourself, not other musicians and not the profession as a whole.

It also hurts the image of other bands who take their careers more seriously by adding to the perception that we all do this ‘just for the fun of it’ and should not expect to get paid or at least not very much.

There is no implication that it is better to be a professional musician or an amateur. If you love to play then dust off that instrument and play.

I am assuming whether you are technically a professional or working musician vs. an ‘amateur’ musician, (not playing for money or not supporting yourself 100% from playing) that you are conducting yourself professionally.

If we look at other professions there is another aspect to consider and that is education. As I mentioned before, when I send my daughters to school I know that every teacher working in the district has at least a bachelor’s degree in teaching. If they didn’t they would not have a job.

This does not always apply to musicians. Many of us have not gone to college for music and have, at best, informal education (such as taking lessons). But we are still working musicians.

If someone has a college degree in music, but has decided on a different profession, meaning they are not active in the music field and never were, does that mean they can still adopt the moniker of a professional musician? Perhaps not, I think that if you were to apply the same circumstances to teachers then they would say that they have a teaching degree but are not currently teaching.

There are other musicians who have a college degree in music, have made a living solely by playing music and are not currently gigging for money. Life circumstances change and working as a musician is not always compatible with other life goals such as raising a family. For some though, their level of playing is so superior how could you not call these people professional musicians? Truly they have paid their dues and earned the right to still call themselves professional musicians. Perhaps they are not a ‘working’ musician but definitely professional.

These are the musicians who will hopefully volunteer for community bands and community theater musicals. Perhaps they can give lessons part time. I have not met a musician who has totally given up music one hundred percent. As the idiom goes, ‘it gets in our blood’ and becomes a part of us.
I consider myself a professional musician. I do not have a formal education in the field of music but I have taken lessons from some very talented and respected musicians. In short, I’ve got the chops. I have played music and have gotten paid to do so since the age of 14 and have-in the past supported myself by playing music alone.

Even though I consider myself a professional musician, I’m sure some people would argue that I don’t have the education to consider myself as such. There are times in my musical career when I choose not to play full time or to support my family solely by gigging. I have alluded to the term ‘working musician.’ You can call me a professional or a working musician. I am fine with either term.