 The Clarinet BBoard
|
Author: Corey
Date: 2001-09-15 22:31
Last night at our second game, one of my fellow marching band members asked me why i played a girl's instrument!!( i am the only boy in our clarinet section) but the point is why do some people think of the clarinet as a girl's instrument? and the saxophone as a guy's? thanx
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Suzanne
Date: 2001-09-15 22:35
My (albeit limited) experience is that more orchestra jobs are held by male clarinetists than female...
Ask your friend why he made an Ignorant Person's Comment! :P
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Benny
Date: 2001-09-15 23:17
Corey,
Some people stereotype flutes and clarinets as "girl instruments" because they are smaller and therefore not as heavy. If a person starts playing in public school they usually start in 4th to 6th grade. Most girls play flute and clarinet because they can carry them easily. That is why you don't see a lot of 10-12 year old girls playing a tuba or anything big - they can't (or don't want to) drag it around.
Benny
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: mw
Date: 2001-09-15 23:17
Life is too short. Consider the source of this comment. mw
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: KayR
Date: 2001-09-15 23:43
Actually, I think this is rather interesting, because it appears to be a rather recent phenomenon. My son (who is 13) is playing clarinet in school mainly because I had one that he could use. It had been his grandfather's instrument. I played clarinet in school (several years ago), and there were several boys playing then. When I played in college, the section was nearly entirely male. But in my son's school, there are just 2 male clarinet players, and they feel a bit strange. In fact, both of them volunteered to play the bass clarinet to get away from the teasing. So I'm wondering what has changed over the years to make the clarinet seem to be a "girl's instrument".
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: willie
Date: 2001-09-16 00:24
Our youth of our country is being plagued by the machoism not seen in other countries. It is spurred along with the help of shows like the WWF "wrestling shows" and such. Many kids nowdays are more afraid of being thought of as a sissy than they are of anything else. They dress macho, get guady looking tattoos, try to look and talk like bad asses. Its all to cover up this fear and the fact they are insecure about thier manhood. In my 20+ years of military service I've had the opportunity to observe this in both my shipmates and the local civilian populace quite a bit. Sometimes its pitiful and sometimes it can be so ridiculous its humorous. The real tough guys I met never acted like this at all. It wasn't till I saw them in action I knew how "BAD" they really were. So if someone thinks they are "BADDER" than you simply 'cause they bang a drum or honk on a brass instrument, pitty them. They are only insecure of something they probably don't understand in the first place.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Kyle Jubenville
Date: 2001-09-16 00:37
It is unfortunate that people have to play into these stereotypes to throw at other people to compensate for their own insecurities. I am a Clarinet player as well as a Flute player. So I have dealt with this on both sides of the "instrument" section. But I am also a Sax player and a Oboe Player and a Baritone/Euphonium player. So i also know what it is liek to NOT get made fun of for the instruemnt that you play. And When people would ask me why I play a "girls" instrument. I say in a very insinuating manner(now bear in mind that I firmly believe in equal rights of women and men and would not mean this as a bash towards women) "You are pretty stupid if you can't realize that men have been playing Clarinet(or flute) a HELLUVA lot longer than any woman has". and it is the truth. They don't need to know that there were extreme issues and Prime examples of the male inferiority complex at it's Zenith at that time...but simply that Men have been playing the clarinet longer than Women..and the clarinet was in fact invented by a man.
Good luck and happy clarinetting
Kyle :-)
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Terry Horlick
Date: 2001-09-16 01:09
When I was in high school I played sax and clarinet. The sax section was almost all Male and the clarinets were about 50%. My best friend played flute and piccolo. He got chided quite a bit about being the only male in the flutes. When folks realized he had sectionals with about a dozen of the cutest girls in the school, and frequently had dates with them, the ribbing almost went away. The last few holdouts... tuba and baritone players quit the joking completely when we were in the Rose parade. They lugged their horns about 7 miles uphill and Lance strolled along with the pic tucked up his sleeve.
Clarinet a girl's instrument? Let's ask Goodman, Herman, Fountain, Stolzman, Marcellus, Bilk, etc. You get the idea, you can add a lot to the list, it is actually much harder to find a female who plays professionally than a male.
Terry
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Mark Charette
Date: 2001-09-16 01:34
willie wrote:
>
> They dress macho, get guady looking
> tattoos, try to look and talk like bad asses..
And after that we'll start discussing how the <b>guys</b> look ...
mark C., who is glad he looked & acted "rebelliously" when he was young.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Mark Charette
Date: 2001-09-16 01:36
Kyle Jubenville wrote:
>
> They don't need to know that there were
> extreme issues and Prime examples of the male inferiority
> complex at it's Zenith at that time...but simply that Men have
> been playing the clarinet longer than Women..and the clarinet
> was in fact invented by a man.
And who the heck cares who invented or played what before? It's irrelevant to the playing of the music.
Unless you're a certain German orchestra or two, and your name is Abbie Conant ...
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: ron b
Date: 2001-09-16 01:37
And I used to believe there was no such thing as a dumb question.... :|
- ron b -
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Jack Kissinger
Date: 2001-09-16 02:21
If it hasn't come already, the time will come when you would much rather surround yourself with girls than boys. Trust me on this. ;^)
Best regards,
jnk
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Jim
Date: 2001-09-16 05:00
Think about how much fame/ money etc has come to James Galway for playing the flute (a so called girls instrument.)
Now that we are in the 21st century, it is definitely time to put away gender bias!
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: IHL
Date: 2001-09-16 05:27
I think its just a matter of "big is masculine", eg big sedans are for men, hatchbacks are for women stereotype.
And also, how do those people who make such stereotypes about instruments explain Benny Goodman? was he not a man??? I do believe he was, and always was.
The only reason you would not find male flute players in your school band is because they would be afraid of being laughed at because of this stupid notion that men should play big, loud instruments.
As for clarinets, I have never heard of it being reffered to as either a masculine or feminine instrument, and the ratio at my school is approximately 50%.
on a sad note, I have theory tomorrow. :-(
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: IHL
Date: 2001-09-16 05:30
Oh yeah, our tuba player is a girl. So there.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Gordon (NZ)
Date: 2001-09-16 10:30
You are making unjustified assumptions Jack. People saying thins like that to me stuffed upn a couple of decades of my life. NEVER assume that everybody else is like yourself. Such generalizations are as bad as the stupid behaviour that this post is about.
Corey, just assume they are jealous and get on with your life. I got a real ribbing at school by one guy for playing the flute and playing classical music. I wish somebody had told me it was just jealousy. 2 years after we left school I found him in a music shop buying a recording of Bach flute sonatas.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Ted Donaldson
Date: 2001-09-16 11:37
LOL. According to the masculine instrument/unmasculine instrument thing... MY SCHOOL IS MESSED UP! Half of the clarinet section is male and half female. We have 2 male flute players. We have 1 female tenor sax player (out of 3) 3 female trumpet players, 1 female trombone player, 2 female alto sax players, and... i think thats it...
ted
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: JC
Date: 2001-09-16 11:38
The clarinet section is exactly 50/50 in my high school's band - one of each! (yes, it's a *very* small school). I've heard the flute-gender comment before, but never the clarinet...interesting.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Dee
Date: 2001-09-16 12:23
Actually it seems to me that there has been a signficant fall off of males in general for school music groups. Back when I was in school, band and chorus seemed to be about 50/50 male/female across the board. There were some instruments that tended to have mostly guys or mostly girls but I'm speaking of the band as a whole. Now I go to a school concert and these groups are noticeably predominately female.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Christoffer
Date: 2001-09-16 13:02
All the friends I have who play clarinet are male. I know only two sax players personally. They are both female.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Laura
Date: 2001-09-16 16:11
hmmmm i am female clarinet player, but i think clarinet is neutral gender...consider Stanley Drucker - he is really good. Artie Shaw played jazz. the first chair of my band is a guy, and i know of at least three other clarinet guys at my school (i never really thought about it before)
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Jose Carli
Date: 2001-09-17 05:19
I don't know about things elsewhere, but here in Brazil an interesting phenomenon is occurring: college places in medicine, engineering, law, biochemistry, and music is slowly being overtaken by females. It looks like the formerly 'macho' (translate it as 'the difficult' ) tasks are being taken over by females just because they are more enduring and perseverant. I'd say playing flute, clarinet, violin and piano is more challenging than playing a tuba, a drum, or a trombone. So, to all boys and young men : Be proud to play a 'girls' instrument, if you can match their expertise!
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Peter
Date: 2001-09-17 05:30
I play a clarinet and a saxophone, often a flute and I know some pretty macho guys who play both flute and clarinet, even some who prefer the flute (Oh my!)
My son Daniel, for one, plays the clarinet and he is perpetually surrounded by girls at his high school. This year he is also studying the saxophone, but next year he plans to take up the flute as well.
Be your own person and don't worry about what others may think, you'll be much happier in the long run. The difficult part is seeing that in the begining. Like learning to say "no," once you have done it a couple of times, you'll see how good it feels to be your own person!
As a combat engineer, I spent a solid nine years of my life in combat zones, with special units, on the front lines and beyond. Would you think I am a sissi because I play a clarinet? I don't think so.
I'll tell you something else. Many different people have noticed and commented on the fact that during times when I seem to be going "off the deep end" due to stress or difficulties which assail me, and I go off for 10 or 15 minutes with my clarinet, I come back a totally different person, ready to cope with anything that comes along.
Don't be fooled. We live in the 21st Century. The clarinet is as manly an instrument as engineering is a feminine occupation. And trust me when I tell you that there are some very femenine lady engineers out there!
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: IHL
Date: 2001-09-17 06:46
I agree with what Laura said about clarinets being neutral in gender. But really, how can you assign a gender to an inanimate object? You could certainly line up a musical instrument with a personality, but not a gender, in my opinion.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Mark Charette
Date: 2001-09-17 07:17
IHL wrote:
>. But really, how can you assign a gender to
> an inanimate object?
Speak a language other than English!
(an awful lot of languages have genders for <b>all</b> the nouns!)
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: IHL
Date: 2001-09-17 08:16
hehe. good point. But in english, we don't.
Let's see...(consult french dictionary).... in French its feminine. But what does that prove??
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Don Poulsen
Date: 2001-09-17 14:01
Tell your friend that it's a good way to meet girls. Then ask him why he chose to sit in a section full of guys.
I remember one halftime show we did in college way back when. In one section, we did the "bump," a dance where you bumped hips with your partner. Since I was in the clarinet section, I was bumping hips with a cute female clarinetist. I think the guys in the mostly male trumpet section dreaded that part of the show.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: JC
Date: 2001-09-17 17:35
IHL,
clarinet is feminine in German as well, but masculine in Polish. (An odd choice of languages, I know, but those are the two I know fairly well). But those genders don't really mean that something is "manly" or not.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Rob
Date: 2001-09-17 19:40
come on
benny goodman is dah @!#$, i wanted to be just like him, thats a role model kids should be looking up to, screw the Rock, what guy wants to prance around in tights, when they can play stompin at the savoy
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: willie
Date: 2001-09-18 04:21
Don Poulson has a good point! If most of your section is female, the scenery is probably far better in your section than that sax player's section.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Hiroshi
Date: 2001-09-18 06:09
I wondered if I(a mankind) ask, a woman tuba player, why she plays a guy's instrument. Gender does not have anything to do.
>If most of your section is female, the scenery is probably far better in your section than that sax player's section.
You may not be able to concentrate enough on playing. IMHO.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: IHL
Date: 2001-09-18 20:58
JC, that's exactly my point.
This is becoming a very popular topic. 33 replies!
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Feminist J
Date: 2001-09-18 22:18
Excuse Me, but I DID NOT choose to play the clarinet because I'm too 'lazy" or "weak" to carry around a tuba or bari sax. I chose to play the clarinet, because I was already in love with the tone at a very early age. AND, I almost always have to take atleast 2 instruments (sometimes 3) to school, because I have 2 clarinets, and I play Alto sax in jazz band. I believe that clarinet and flute are "girl insruments" as much as tampons and lip stick are considered "guy necessidies"
-A female feminist
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Bb
Date: 2001-09-23 20:03
it's weird guys, in portuguese, the clarinet is both female AND male(clarinete OR clarineta).
My school is weird
100% of the trumpet are boys
100% of the flutes are girls
100% of the saxs are boys
50% of the precusion are girls
100% of the oboe is a girl(there's only one oboe!!)
25% of the clarinets are boys(thanks to me and 2 more boys)
I've been a little teased about playing a "girl's instrument", if so, how come that almost all the clarinet players in the orchestra are men??? that's what I told them(i'm in 8th grade, that's why).I play the flute, the oboe, the sax, the piccolo and the clarinet, I'm proud of the instruments I play and i think nobody should be ashamed if they play a "girl's instumets" or a "guy's instruments.how come when you go to a CD store and find a CD with an instrument, how come it's always a man playing the instruments, it's really hard to see a woman's name, it's weird!!!
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: IHL
Date: 2001-09-24 06:44
And I can name one girl who plays the sax:
Lisa Simpson.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Swing Band Queen Katai Katai
Date: 2002-04-08 04:11
All the boys in our clarinet section either dropped out or switched to sax. The flutes are all girls, I know 2 girl drummers, and the trumpet section is half and half. The french horn players are all girls, and so are three tuba players! Even the trombone section has more girls than boys! But in saxes, boys outnumber girls, which is what I currently play. In school, all the best musicians (except for Steve and Jim on sax) are girls. Yet, only men seem to become professionals, or get any recognition for it. Women in music don't play instruments, they run around in skimpy outfits, and that ticks me off! Lets hear it for girls AND boys who play instruments!
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
The Clarinet Pages
|
 |
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
