Music and Gender

I was born into a semi musical family. My dad was in choir for most of his high school career and my brother was in the orchestra. Because of them, I became interested in music a little bit more than I already was. I have had many experiences with different music activities as I have been in band, chorus and now college as a music major. I want to share just a few stories. :)

Both my dad and my brother played the guitar. For my dad it was the acoustic and for my brother it was the electric.  I was told by my dad, though I have never heard him play, that my grandpa was an amazing guitarist. He would play and sing all the time. He had a black acoustic guitar, with a rose on it, that he gave my dad. Eventually, my dad passed it down to me. Though I don’t play, I still have it in my room as a reminder. Moving forward to my brother. He is still to this day, a brilliant guitarist. He used to play in his room all the time and I loved listening to him. Though, I think he put the amp on the highest volume he could, so that he couldn’t hear me in my room jamming to One Direction and Hannah Montana. Anyway, He was always so good, and I wanted to learn how to play the guitar because of him. I took lessons for a while, but I ended up not continuing with them as band and chorus was pretty much my priority. 

Long story short- I have always seen the Guitar as being a "boy instrument." I feel like I only ever saw boys playing it; at least when I was younger. When I took those few lessons, the instructor was  also male. I began to see more women playing it as I got older. There were female guitar players with some of the bands I enjoyed but I saw it more with the country genre. 

converse has definitely changed my opinion on the guitar being just a male instrument. This is thanks to the music therapy program that makes guitar class a requirement. 

Moving ahead to high school. I have been in choir for practically my whole life. While in choir, I noticed there were always more females than males, participating in any chorale activity. If the number of girls to boys were put into a ratio, the girls would most certainly be the highest number. The boys tended to be loud in thier speaking volume but never quite could sing loud enough while the girls, especially the sopranos, would try to over sing. I think we had a couple of girls sing tenor but that was really all the mixing that happened. There could have been a possible boy singing alto as well.

I have found a list of instruments that are said to be either "boy instruments" or "girl instruments," and I will share these with you but for right now, I want to share another story: 

My brother was in the orchestra in high school. He played the Violin and had lessons often- probably 3 times a week. I vaguely remember going to his concerts, but I feel as if he was the only male violinist in the orchestra; Though, i’m sure he wasn’t the only one. Even when I got into high school, I saw this same thing. What was in the violin section? Only girls for the most part. This is why I think violins are considered feminine. However, it did turn to gender specific when I started going to converse. I, for sure, see a mixture within the violin section now when we have community players with us. When their not, however, it's all girls (as expected). 

I was in band for two years. I played the clarinet even though, I had my heart set on the flute. For the most part, the girls would either be playing the flute or clarinet and the boys would be playing the trombone, trumpet or saxophone, along with the percussion. There was one girl, however, that played the trombone and I also believe thier was a female on percussion. This was odd, at the time, as it was very uncommon for girls to play the trombone or anything of that sort. Being surrounded by women, I have seen more girls playing the instrument. It's a more common occurance for me now and it's definitely not considered weird or odd anymore. 

Lists of female instruments:

Piano, harp, flute, clarinet, violin, viola and oboe 

Lists of male instruments:

Bassoon, bass, trumpet, saxophone, organ and euphonium

All in all, I have definitely spotted changes during my time at converse. Every time I go to a concert, I am always amazed at how much variety there is on stage. I see girls playing the trombone, trumpet and bass along with percussion while, I have seen some men on the cello or viola. Sometimes, too, the girls will be asked to sing with the guys if they can get low enough. Being able to be apart of such a diverse music program is so rewarding. :)