Complete Musician � As you progress with your piano or keyboard lessons and as you become better at playing your instrument, it would be a good idea to know the areas, besides playing the piano, where you can improve and which will help you to become a better musician.

A complete musician is one who has a good grasp over the various aspects involved in the music creation process. If you aim to become one, you should have a fair amount of mastery in areas such as performance, arrangement, harmony, composition, vocals and music technology.

Need to be proficient at playing your instrument

If you go through some of the big names in the music industry like Elton John, Stevie Wonder, Yanni or even if you consider legendary composers like Bach, Beethoven, and Mozart, one thing you will notice is that these guys were not only good at composing ever-lasting numbers but were also extremely good at playing the instrument. In fact, most of them got recognition early on in their career as a performer and later as a composer.

The point here is that, though it is possible to compose and arrange songs with some amount of mastery over the keyboard, one should always strive to be a very good player of the instrument. It will give you tremendous self confidence, considerably improve your image as a musician and you will be able to arrange your songs much faster. So, make it a habit of practicing daily on your instrument even if you get a lot of composing and arranging work.

You need to be an OK Singer!
I am not saying that you need to sing well to be a good keyboard or a piano player. But to be a complete musician, you need to have some skills with your vocals. Besides, just look at the advantages involved.
� You can communicate your composition through your voice.
Vocals being an important part of any song, you will be able to communicate well and extract a better performance from your singers if you have to record your own composition.
� As a musician, people around you will respect you if you can sing well and anyways they will expect you to be at least a decent singer.
� It creates a great impression if you can sing and perform at the same time on your instrument. Just look at Elton John or Stevie Wonder; don't they look amazing?

Composing, Arranging and Music Technology
A lot of students already manage to create tunes of their own after having learnt the piano or keyboard for around a year. They find it very exciting to create new things and should be encouraged to do so. What is exciting further is that as the computer becomes more and more powerful and faster, it is making composing on a computer far easier and economical for a lot people.

If you intend to be a complete musician, honing your skills in the arranging and composing department is very much necessary and you can easily do so as it is getting much easier to set up your own home studio nowadays. With some good samples and softwares, it is possible for you to create a very good mix of your composition on the computer. Even if you do not have a computer, lot of keyboards and digital pianos nowadays come with built-in sequencers which you can use to record your composition. In fact, the better ones give you all the tools to make the perfect mix on your instrument, just as in a computer.

But the point here is that you will need to spend time to learn to arrange your song. You will also need to learn how to use the various effects and softwares to create that final mix. If you think that you are not very tech savvy, do not worry. It is not difficult! It is just like learning any new thing and with practice it becomes easier to do.

This is then what you will need to improve upon as you go further in your quest for becoming a better musician, in fact a complete musician.

Complete Musician? I don't think such a musician exists for, in every art form, painting, drawing, writing, etc., completeness can't be reached for there's just too much to learn and new material, techniques and innovators keep emerging and evolving. Isn't it that incompleteness that keeps us going and wanting for more? I doubt that the above mentioned musicians and composers would call or would've called themselves complete. Their inner drive for more and better creations is proof.

I think the "complete" musician is one who always strives for perfection, but realizes that it's a lifelong process. Ray Brown was a major influence in my life. I saw him a week or so before he died in his mid 70's. He was giving a free lesson to a promising player (something he did in every town he visited before his performance). He learned from others. I recall a lengthy conversation he had with Victor Wooten. He was trying to explore Victor's sound and how he could apply playing techniques to upright.

He was as close to a "complete" musician as I've ever known.


Russ

One of the things I believe makes a 'complete' musician is his (or her!) ears...

The ability to just hear something, and know how to play it, or to play something that fits is the primary attribute of a complete musician. "Big ears' is one of the most welcome compliments any musician can get. Yes, reading can be important at SOME gigs (fewer and fewer these days!), but a well honed set of ears is FAR more important. They are the foundation for everything you do.

Technology is useless without them. Singing is futile without them. Musical growth, impossible.

I feel that rigorous ear training is the most important thing you will ever get to do to improve your chances of a long and happy relationship with music. Interval recognition, chord recognition, melody memorization, these are basic skills that few music programs give the importance they deserve. A half hour a day at JUST this, and in a year you will not recognize your own playing!

If your ears are sharp, as long as you can play a chromatic scale on ANY instrument, you can play it on a gig. The rest is just ears..! Hearing music in your head, and IMMEDIATELY being able to play it on whatever is in your hands is the goal of any musician.

Technology knowledge is useful, but ALL of us can probably remember a time we heard some guy on a beat up old DX7 or an ancient arranger just totally tearing it up! Connecting the music in your soul with whatever you have at hand is far more important than knowing element structure in a Motif, or how to use a T2 sampler...

And, yes, Russ is right... There is no such thing as a complete musician, just dedicated players continually trying to improve, knowing they will never know it all...