Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum What's the difference between a pianist and a piano player?

Does 3 out of 4 make me a 3/4 pianist?

Yes, the pun was intentional.

Matt H posts: "What is the difference between a violin and a fiddle?

A violin has strings. A fiddle has "strangs"."

Ay-yup -


For jwjazz, from an earlier post of mine: "True confessions.

I thought of the title as the intro to a joke and was looking for punch lines.

I don't - seriously - find any difference.

Maybe I should have titled the thread 'A pianist walks into a bar. . .' " - FATS WALLER AND MARCIA BALL FOREVER!

and from Matt H again: "Note: I'm not endorsing the value judgment implied by this distinction, just pointing it out." - I was just poking fun at it, myself.

This thread reminds me of the time when I passed out a bunch of flyers for a tennis tournament and asked my (computer programmer) colleagues to color them before I posted them around work - wow! were they good colorers! And not in the lines, either! We hadn't had so much fun since Hector was a pup -

Cathy

J. Mark,

I liked the "playing by ear" joke the best.

Dear Members, To be called a pianist has to be earned . Many years of lessons and talent. Hard work and talent... not ego...makes a pianist. In fact, my pianist friends are quite humble and admit they do not know it all...Sandy B

Well, it seems to me the difference is not so much as to definition as to word origin together with historical curcumstances. A quick look to the dictionary tells us the suffix "ist" to be an inflexed ending. This makes the noun verbal. The inflexion is typical of latin origin. So I see, this term to have french origin or in a broad sence perhaps europian. Which is problely an older term than "Piano Player" Also note, the inflexed term seems to my ears to have a more subjective or personal meaning to it. The syntax "piano player" seems to include the notion of many surrounding instruments. But my feelings on this are only from my own mind and life experience as a user of English. One would need to do a major corpus search in order to find when and how this syntax was first used. I think it to be more vulgar and of course less established than "pianist".

Furthermore, words have a phenomenon moving from phrase to a fixed form know as collocation to hyphenation and than lastly becoming single word. This is no guarantee that "piano player" will ever move into one word. It probably won't because pianist is already doing the job.

But remember which ever term you chose to use the meaning should be understood to as the users intention first and context. Not historical definition.

Just my pedantic ramblings.
David P

Sandy writes: Dear Members, To be called a pianist has to be earned . Many years of lessons and talent. Hard work and talent... not ego...makes a pianist. In fact, my pianist friends are quite humble and admit they do not know it all...Sandy B

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I don't know that I would apply either word to myself. If asked what sort of pastimes I like, I would probably include playing the piano.

Neither word is entirely satisfactory. Pianist sounds like it is your profession. Piano player sounds patronizing, and suggests "self taught."

Sandy's quote suggests the importance of recognition for a person's extensive training and effort. No disagreement. However, the back side of that is, if you call yourself a pianist, you had better be GOOD. If you are mediocre and term yourself that, you will look like a prime fool.

I always only play for my two cats, and they don't really care what I call myself.

They easily avoid this in popular music, credits are usually

vocals: person 1
guitar, piano: person 2
bass: person 3

or some similar permutation.

I suppose it really depends on the value the individual applies to the words in question if someone calls themselves a pianist and they're not particularly good, pointing that out to them could make you look overly pedantic and just as foolish.

Great one, Monica! Two years after making your joke you are still making people laugh.

I've always thought of a "pianist" as somebody who makes their living (or at least tries to make their living) off of playing the piano. I suppose though that anybody who plays the piano can call themselves a pianist... it's shorter and funner to say!

However, it would probably be misleading to call yourself a pianist or piano player if you haven't yet reached a skill level where you can either entertain or move people with your piano playing. If you are at a beginner level, it's probably more straightforward to just say that you are learning to play the piano.

In the dictionary, beside the entry for pianist, one will not find a picture of me.

I'd be more than happy to have anyone call me either one - but if I played a flute I definitely would slap silly anyone who called me a flautist - I know it's supposedly "correct", but is there any term more pretentious in the musical world - one does not play a flaut - one plays a flute - thus, one is a flutist - can we shelve the term flautist forever and henceforth flog anyone "uppity" enough to use it!

Regards, JF

Note: if flaut is French for flute then go to France with the rest of those spaghetti-spinned weasels and be a flautist... (French piano players and pianists excepted)

WOW! This is a blast from the past!

From another current thread - I referred to our octave mandolin player as a "mandolinista" and bluekeys said it was his new favorite word!

Should we start on banjo jokes, too?

(Nice one, Home)



Cathy

In spanish both terms are directly connected as we use flauta and flautista.

It's only your perception that makes it sound pretentious, I think. If it's always been used where you are, like here in Oz, then it just sounds normal.
But I'll respect your wishes and never call you a "flautist"

Thanks - but calling a flute player a "flautist" will never sound "normal", neither in the Land of Oz nor elsewhere - this is like calling a garbage man a "sanitary engineer" or a salesman an "account representative" or a clerk a "customer service agent" - after all, Mozart didn't write no stinkin' flaut concertos (concerti) - and while we're at it shouldn't the proper term be pianoforteist since that's the correct historical name for our beloved instrument? And perhaps the term keyboardist would be most nearly all-inclusive since it could reasonably cover DP players, organists, harpsicordists, etc.

Regards, JF

Cranky today are we, JF?

So, here's an adjunct to this thread:

What do you call a person who plays -

a piano

a guitar

a violin

a tympani

a mandolin

spoons

a banjo

a flute

a marimba

an ocarina

a didgeridoo

the radio

??

Cathy

He also didn't refer to a flute as a "flute" either . (Except on the days he was speaking US English to keep you happy )

Not just today, but every day - I take a pill to get that way



A freakin' flaming foreign flautist... or, a flute player...



Someone with a broken CD player...

Regards, JF

I concede your point (although I'm sure given the choice - if he had spoken USA English - he would have used "flute") - tradition has it that he always referred to the flute as "that girly-man instrument" (although I can't seem to verify the accuracy of this assertion) .

And I'm sure that you will now concede that there's absolutely no good reason to call a flute player, i.e., a flutist, a "flautist" except the carryover "snob appeal" from polite, aristocratic European society - a culture that died a couple of centuries ago, but which few there have been brave or honest enough to accept yet.

Regards, JF

Did you just launch a broadside attack against the entire population of Europe?

To set the record straight, Fats Waller played Carnegie Hall twice, in 1942 and 1944:

http://jazzlives.wordpress.com/2009/04/15/fats-waller-at-carnegie-hall-1942-and-1944/

And, Fats Domino also played Carnegie Hall in 1971:

http://www.concertposterart.com/pos...ino-Carnegie-Hall-Concert-Poster-Type-Ad