Musical Range

Among the qualifications a musician carries is her musical range.  This already has several meanings, and I wish to generalize from there.  For a singer, musical range will include which part she sings, say, soprano or alto, but more specifically, what the notes she can hit (at all) and the notes she can hit comfortably, say, C4 to A5.  A musical range for a singer or instrumentalist will also include the musical styles she is comfortable in--jazz, rock, ska, whatever.  Moving away from the purest definitions, the musician's range will also include the sorts of venues she is adept at--big crowds, house parties, Southern locales, etc.  And moving away again, this sort of definition applies to contract workers in every field: where can their skills be applied?  What is the range of those skills?  Professionals have to have specific knowledge and depth in specialties, but also have a range of capabilities.  And moving away again, this is true for all skills, professional or otherwise.  An athletics trainer can know a breadth of training modalities, or understand nutrition, or physiology and injury recuperation, etc.  And coming full circle, an amateur musician needs to think about her range and interests to match with the community of musicians she wants as band-mates and potential listeners.