 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: DrH2O
Date: 2007-07-27 18:55
Thanks to those who responded to the demographics survey. If you haven't yet done so, please go back to the original post to see the survey info.
http://www.woodwind.org/clarinet/BBoard/read.html?f=1&i=251436&t=251436
25 people have responded so far and I complied the data into some graphs (see newer attachment on 8-7 post, I deleted this one to avoid duplicates)
It obviously isn't a representative data set yet so please send your info. Nevertheless some interesting things are showing up. Alomst half of the respondents had stopped playing by the end of high school or college, and in all but one case the time before returning to playing was more than 10 years, with several people stepping away for over 30 yrs!
One respondent suggested that info about whether or not clarinet is your primary instrument or not would be interesting, so you can throw that into your response as well if you want. I'll update the graphs again once I get another slug of responses.
Thanks,
Anne
Anne
Clarinet addict
Post Edited (2007-08-07 20:43)
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Author: katie_netie
Date: 2007-07-27 19:00
I would like to suggest you add Student to the possibilities of what type of clarinet player you are...
Katie
Yamaha Custom SEV, Vandoren M13, Vandoren Optimum Ligature
Buffet E11 Eb Clarinet, Vandoren leather ligature and B44 mouthpiece
Going into second year university for music
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Author: DrH2O
Date: 2007-07-27 19:29
Good suggestion! Someone else had suggested that as well so it has been added to the list in the original post.
Anne
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Author: katie_netie
Date: 2007-07-27 19:46
oh sorry for the double request then!
great idea by the way
Katie
Yamaha Custom SEV, Vandoren M13, Vandoren Optimum Ligature
Buffet E11 Eb Clarinet, Vandoren leather ligature and B44 mouthpiece
Going into second year university for music
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Author: rsholmes
Date: 2007-07-28 02:19
Attachment: Demographics summary.pdf (38k)
Thanks for doing this, Anne. I hope to see a revised version with more statistics soon! One gripe: next time can you make the axis labels and axis titles larger and/or in a bolder typeface? Even at 200% I can barely read them on screen.
For the benefit of those who prefer to stay away from Microsoft products and file formats, I have taken the liberty of attaching a PDF version. It also turned out to be 13x smaller!
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Author: DrH2O
Date: 2007-07-28 14:36
Thanks for the PDf conversion. I'll change the fonts in the next version. In the interim, the graphs are pasted in as images so you can enlarge the graphs once you download the DOC by clicking on the graph and then dragging a corner to make it bigger.
Anne
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Author: Neil
Date: 2007-07-28 23:34
If you're really into data junkie business, there's been some threads over the last few years on where we live, what work we do, what instruments mouthpieces reeds barrels etc. we play. Maybe you can sort it all out and profile us.
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Author: DrH2O
Date: 2007-08-07 20:38
Attachment: Demographics summary.doc (542k)
Here is the latest update on the demographics survey. Thanks to those who responded.
I have attached a word file (with enlarged font) with the updated results. If you still have trouble seeing the text, select print layout from the view menu and then zoom it to page width. You can also enlarge each of the graphs by clicking and dragging the corner of the graphic. Sorry I don't have a PDF writer on this computer so I couldn't attach a PDF.
Some of the highlights:
The data aren't normally distributed (in a bell curve) so standard statistical measures aren't too useful.
Most of the respondents are amateurs (pros and semi pros, and perhaps students, seem to be woefully underrepresented in these results). Very few fell in the hobby catagory meaning almost all the respondents have found groups to play with.
Members who responded range in age from 18 to 73, with a median age of 50.
Although the most common age to start was about 10, most of the members who responded started later in life with a fairly even distribution from the early 20s to the late 50's. The youngest starting age was 8 and the oldest 60. The years of playing experience are skewed to less than 15 years despite the high percentage of members in their 40's, 50's and 60's because most respondents didn't start as young children. I think this may be largely a function of the small number of responses from professionals.
Approximately half the respondents stopped playing completely for anywhere from 2 to 47 (!) years (median gap = 23 yrs). The most common ages for stopping are predictably after highschool and after college. The most common age for restarting was late 30's to mid 40's. The latest age for returning to playing was 69 after a 46 yr gap!
To sum it up, the "average" BB member (as defined by the median statistics) is:
50 yrs old, plays clarinet as their primary instrument as an amateur, played for 7 years, stopped playing for 23 years and has now returned to playing for 6 yrs (for a total of 13 yrs total playing experience). They were 30 years old when they started for the first time and 44 when they returned (for those with a gap). Because the "gappers" started at a younger age, their median age of stopping is only 21.
For those of you who find statistics and their abuse interesting please note that the math doesn't even come close to working out because some of these median values come from the full data set (n=44) and other involving gap stats come from a smaller data set (n=23) to avoid skewing the data with a bunch of "0s".
If you would like to add your info to the survey (especially if your demographic is underrepresented) please go back to the original post to see the survey info.
http://www.woodwind.org/clarinet/BBoard/read.html?f=1&i=251436&t=251436
I'll do one more iteration in about a week.
Cheers,
Anne
Anne
Clarinet addict
Post Edited (2007-08-07 23:20)
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Author: GBK
Date: 2007-08-07 21:55
William wrote:
> Tryed opening the link but got the "THIS THREAD IS CLOSED"
> message from BB.
[ We would like all responses emailed offline to
pangea1261@yahoo.com
Anne V will collate the info - GBK ]
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The Clarinet Pages
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