For years there has been a friendly feud between members of the Classical Music Community: vocalist and instrumentalist. The only difference Between these two “factions” is the instrument used; one is man-made the other is organic. Their education is generally the same with emphasis on their chosen form of sound production and they read roughly the same music. So what divides them within? What drives them to cast seemingly harmless, sarcastic remarks towards one another and sometimes degrade one another?

From being in school for many years as an instrumentalist, I saw the forefront of this. Though not noticeable on the surface comments such as “Well who cares? He’s just a vocalist” become more obvious as the days past.

In my opinion (and feel free to disagree with me), Vocalist tend to be more self-conscious and comfortable with themselves. This tends to lead to arrogance and a feeling of higher self-importance; which in most cases will rub people the wrong way.

Instrumentalist though lean more towards the “left wing” and are prone sarcasm. Their self-worth might not be lower than vocalist but it is not reflected outward as much. The major conflicts between the two groups seems to be the resentment of vocalist because of their attitude which builds and builds.

However all is not lost, we are all together for the same cause. We love music and similar to other “classifications” or titles, musicians tend to stick
together. They just feel comfortable around other people that they can relate too. It’s human nature. I relate better to people who are overly sarcastic.

This happens everywhere. Say you walk into a class. On one side of the room there’s people who you’ve never seen before. On the other side there’s a few from you dorm. You may not really know these people but you at least recognize them. Which side do you think you’ll go to? Obviously the one where you feel at least marginally more comfortable. It’s happened since the dawn of time and will continue to.

Part Two delves deeper into why each Vocalist and Instrumentalist either develop these traits or even why they are drawn to their “faction”.