Primarily for my fun and amusement, I thought I'd open up this:
 

 
So, what do you think?  Is someone who only sings considered a musician or not?  In other words, do you feel that the human voice IS an instrument or that only those that play an instrument are musicians?
 
This should be interesting! 

I don't understand why there would even be a question of whether or not they're musicians - the human voice is an instrument, and singers are often called upon to improvise even if it's just adding ornamentation to the notes they're given. Singing requires technique and musicality, so I would say 100% yes. 

Hi,
 
Hard to say ... I think that many singers, are more poetry addicts than they are musicians, and folks like Bob Dylan, Roy Harper, even Peter Hammill, all sing what they feel and most of the music is about helping define what they say.
 
As such, I think of them more as actors, than I do musicians, although I sincerely doubt that either of them do not know music at all ... they probably do better than we think.
 
But a singer, has to have some kind of musical ability, and it comes in the area of timing, however, if the music is made to support the words themselves (think Peter Hammill or Kate Bush), I tend to think that they define the music around what they wish to say, not the beat, or anything else. Thus, I suppose, that one could say that some of them are not musicians.
 
I won't discuss the rock'n'roll side of things as I do think that many singers are not musicians, but have a good feel for what they are doing, and while you and I can think this is cheating, it works in most rock music on the radio .. in what I know call MOS!

Singers do at least require a sense of pitch.

Drummers, however, don't. So I'd say singers are musicians.

Karyn
Singers do at least require a sense of pitch.

Drummers, however, don't. So I'd say singers are musicians.

Yeah ... though listening to Peter Hammill or a Roy Harper, or even Bob Dylan, I don't think they are specifically working a "pitch" as such, as most of the music is specifically rounded out to their words ... as opposed to most other rock music, where words are added to the music (a la Mick Jagger) and yeah, at that point I think that having a good pitch sense is a great thing, and I would say that most singers have some of it in one form or another. I often think that PH kinda creates a pitch for himself off his words first and the music blends in to it, and this makes for a singing style that is really hard for many folks to listen to as it comes off non-melodic more times than otherwise, and this is the part that is difficult to learn to listen to. 
 
I tend to think that many of the pop styled singers, though, are actually very good at pitch ... 
 
Honestly, I do not know about these mechanics as much as I should or would like to, in order to discuss it more clearly ... but I have no issues with folks like Roy, or Peter, flying out on their own, and sometimes you wonder how the heck does the music fit, and yet ... it works.

sharke
I don't understand why there would even be a question of whether or not they're musicians - the human voice is an instrument, and singers are often called upon to improvise even if it's just adding ornamentation to the notes they're given. Singing requires technique and musicality, so I would say 100% yes. 

I've tried.  People that sing well have my deepest respect as musicians.

Yes.

Depends. Do they own the PA and/or van?

I own a van AND a pa...  does that make me a musician?

Similarly, are golfers athletes?