{"id":10005438,"date":"2025-12-19T09:59:00","date_gmt":"2025-12-19T08:59:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thomann.de\/blog\/en\/?p=10005438"},"modified":"2025-12-18T12:39:55","modified_gmt":"2025-12-18T11:39:55","slug":"why-being-an-amateur-musician-amazing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thomann.de\/blog\/en\/inspire\/why-being-an-amateur-musician-amazing\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Being an Amateur Musician Is \u201cStill\u201d Amazing"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Why are amateurs less encouraged to play music, or to simply, enjoy making art?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

There are several reasons behind this and in the last century, it looks like amateur musicians or hobbyists are less inclined to pickup an instrument. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes picking up an instrument is seen as too difficult or too competitive and is in favour swapped with a different hobby or, in most cases, a sport.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lots of amateurs and intermediate players want to start bands, but find themselves without a bassist, a drummer or a singer (yeah, you can always find a guitarist though<\/em> \ud83d\ude05)… but how did we get here?<\/p>\n\n\n\n


Before recorded music: from amateur musicians to professional music listeners<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"amateur<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s take a big step back, before the dawn of recorded music.

Prior to 1877 (ca.) people would only have access to music through their communities or through travelling musicians that would stop by their towns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Learning an instrument or just learning music was widely encouraged also for amateurs. A focus on the process of creativity was more important than the finished composition or of an extraordinary execution, seen often in today\u2019s virtuosos.

The possibility of tasting music was not just for the elite but for everyone, however, this changed as soon as radios and vinyls were widely accessible to the public.

There was no need to sit around the piano and tentatively play your favorite tunes, recorded music would do the job for you.

Recorded music was, of course, played by professional musicians creating thus a new standard. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This pushed the amateurs to put their instruments and immerse themselves in the music. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The decline of the amateur musician
<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

With the growing nature of capitalism, music was changing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once a true form of art music became a product, mass produced in record plants and then transmitted on radios to be heard all over the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So if professional musicians were \u201cproducing\u201d great works of art, what\u2019s the point of investing into amateur musicians?

From a label record\u2019s view, amateurs only produce a fraction of the economic value of a professional musician, that\u2019s why they invested all of their capital into professional recording studios and sustaining professional artists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If we look at these stats from different countries, we can see now why are musicians hard to find and why you can\u2019t seem to find any band members.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"amateur
(stats from NEA Arts Basic Survey, 2020, UK Music Education data, Australian Music Association, 2022)<\/strong><\/em>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today thing\u2019s have changed and even though picking up an instrument isn\u2019t as common as before, smaller communities both offline and online are encouraging people from different social backgrounds to pursue music, even if you don\u2019t become a star. These communities are small but very active although most of the attention is on the professional musicians widely present on social media platforms. <\/p>\n\n\n\n


We at Thomann <\/strong>always encourage picking up an instrument and trying something new! We also have a variety of YouTube Channels open to aspiring musicians: <\/p>\n\n\n\n