I am currently the bass drummer for the local bagpipe band. Whether that means I'm a muscian or not is an open question. I have also played violin, guitar, and drums in decades past. Mark C.
"What do you call people who hang out with musicians?" Drummers. {rimshot, cymbal crash}
You might get points for playing violin, however, unless you quit that to take up drumming...
In 30+ years of audio, I've only worked with a couple of folks who had no - and I mean zip, nada, zero - music background. No Jr. High chorus or band, no church music, no 2 chord guitar playing, maybe not even singing in the shower.
One was a volunteer at a church. The tech team needed someone, and he was their 'blessing.' Oy. Not a dismal failure because he was easy to work with and tried really hard, and he wanted to do a good job. Somehow, though, he was never able to connect his ears to his fingers and had this propensity to push the wrong button or manipulate the correct control in the wrong direction. I'm not sure how the team eventually utilized his talents but mixing & recording clearly would not be among them.
Another was a guy we hired because his pastor (a childhood friend of my boss) came in and "sold" him. I've posted in another thread about teaching him to hear and listen, how to explore the sounds instruments make and the relationship players have with their instruments. And when the discussions turned technical, he'd let me ramble on and on... and when I'd take a breath he'd respond "That's all great. Now, can you translate that into hillbilly?" That was frustrating at first, but it made me really work on MY comprehension of a topic. If you can only explain something one way, you really don't understand it... and it was rewarding to see him grow in his understanding and abilities.