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I've always thought of the word 'Practice' in the site name 'Musical Practice & Performance' as alluding to musical practices and music practitioning, rather than practicing an instrument or practicing for a performance through exercises and rehersals.

How do you conceive the word in the context of this site's name?

How do you think_ most people_ (including non-native english speakers) conceive the word in the context of this site's name?

Which meaning is the intended?

The musical practices-meaning I think includes not only practicing your instruments and performances but such things as composing and song writing, orchestrating, arranging, producing, theory, history, musical acoustics, etc. Topics that are all on-topic here as far as I understand. This I think is good. However if people tend to read 'Musical Practice & ..." as the more narrow exercise and rehearsal-meaning of the word practice then I think that is unfortunate since in that case a large portion of the site scope is not conveyed very clearly. I know there have been naming discussions and I don't necessarily mean to start that up again. As a non-native english speaker I'm mostly just curious of how the word 'Practice' is conceived as per my questions above.

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    I've always thought of it as practicing as in for a performance.
    – American Luke
    Aug 20, 2013 at 22:05
  • ^ me too AmLuke
    – Doktor Mayhem Mod
    Aug 20, 2013 at 22:09
  • @DrMayhem & AmLuke (and anyone): Would the phrase (or site name) 'Musical Practices' be conceived in the "wider" meaning? And do you think that it would be a relevant name candidate for the site, that should be added to the naming discussion?
    – Ulf Åkerstedt
    Aug 21, 2013 at 21:21
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    When you put it "Musical Practices", it comes across as musical professions. It definitely has a wider meaning, perhaps a little to wide.
    – American Luke
    Aug 22, 2013 at 13:02
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    Per discussion quite a while ago, almost everyone prefers the simple name "Musicians", which works well since we cover virtually all concerns specific to musicians including all the senses of practice you've mentioned.
    – user28
    Aug 22, 2013 at 15:12
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    I think of it as both, and love the dual meaning of the word, since both meanings are in scope of the site.
    – awe
    Aug 23, 2013 at 11:13

2 Answers 2

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Scope-wise, we do have questions on practicing, arranging music, composing, theory and performance, so to be honest I think we are covering all the areas you mention.

As sites grow, more traffic comes from search engines and Google will do this through our content, not are specific name.

tl/dr - I think we are fine, and don't need to worry about exactly how the name is interpreted.

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Rather late finding this, I'm afraid! 'Practice' can mean 'something that is usually/normally done or carried out'.Pretty well the partner to theory. So, even now the title has changed, it is apposite. Why would anyone be asking questions relating to HOW to practise - yes, they do get posed, but they are in the small minority. In English, practise with an 's' is the verb - something one does, as opposed to practice with a 'c' which is what is done - a noun. Difficult to tell when there's no difference in the spelling, as in American!

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