Musician
There is more to being a professional
musician than simply playing an instrument or singing in a band. Musicians
can write, perform or teach music, or even compose and perform music
for commercial purposes. They can also serve in management positions
for musical
or other arts groups. There are many types of music in which musicians
can build a career -- for example, from classical music to rock and
country. 
Today, more and more music is being composed and recorded electronically,
using computer-generated sounds and software to create the music. Musicians'
jobs range from performing independently to working for large corporations
in the entertainment industry. Examples of larger businesses might include
a recording company such as Virgin Records, Inc. or Arista Records, Inc.
or an independent business owner who deals with recording and composing
music for clients.
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Job description
Musicians are usually people with many artistic talents and who like
work activities that deal with abstract forms, designs, and patterns.
They enjoy self-expression in their work and prefer casual settings where
their work can be performed without the kinds of rules that might be found
in a corporate setting. Studio musicians perform a wide variety of tasks
from creating new music to modifying existing pieces to a new or different
sound.
Some other work activities include:
- Thinking creatively-originating, inventing, and designing music,
or creating new applications, ideas, relationships, systems, or products
including
artistic contributions.
- Coordinating members or other musicians to accomplish
a task
- Judging qualities of sounds and judging and assessing its values
and usefulness
- Getting information to get the job done by observing,
active listening, receiving, and obtaining all relevant information.
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Education
Professional musicians often have at least a bachelor's degree, and nearly
all have pursued some kind of specialized, advanced training outside of
school in order to perfect their crafts. Many musicians, especially teachers,
composers and classical musicians, obtain graduate school degrees depending
on their major interest.
Job training may also be another way to learn the skills needed to be
a professional musician or to enhance one's career. But most occupations
in the music field assume that the person already has the required talent,
skills, knowledge, work-related experience, and/or training.
Basic knowledge for musicians includes music theory and the techniques
required to produce, compose, and perform works of music. Musicians often
find it helpful to speak another language, such as French or Italian,
and many are students of world cultural history.
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Technical skills
Some important skills to have as a musician are:
- Hearing Sensitivity
-- The ability to detect or tell the difference between sounds that
vary over broad ranges of pitch and loudness
- Auditory Attention
-- The ability to focus on a single source of auditory (hearing)
information in the presence of other distracting sounds
- Memorization -- The ability
to remember information such as words, numbers, pictures, and
procedures
- Wrist-Finger Speed -- The ability to make fast, simple, repeated movements
of the fingers, hands, and wrists
- Speed of Closure -- The ability
to quickly make sense of information that seems to be without
meaning or organization. It involves quickly
combining
and organizing different pieces of information into a
meaningful pattern
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Communication
Musicians are by nature communicators. Communication is a very important
part of a musicians' ability. A musician must be able to communicate in
a way that other musicians can understand and decipher specific meanings
when performing music or in using musical terminology. Music has its own "language" in
its specialized terminology and in how music is written, by the notation
of musical notes. Most important, musicians need to be able to communicate
to their audiences when performing.
Teamwork
Musicians must work as a team in order to achieve their desired goals
in creating, composing, and editing music. Working well with other musicians
and writers is essential to achieving the best overall results.
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