 The Oboe BBoard
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Author: Jeremy Polmear
Date: 2005-01-23 18:30
Well they do, of course, but (at least in the UK) not nearly as many as girls.
I noticed this when I was making a CD for Oboe beginners - Ready, Steady, Blow! - and I wanted the four best oboists from Trinity College of Music in London. They were all girls. They said there were very few boys studying there at the moment.
So when I released the CD I put up a page on my web site about it. This link should take you to that page - http://www.oboeclassics.com/RSBboys.htm - but briefly what the girls said was:
- that boys have a short attention span, and can't stick at it
- that boys feel the need to fit in - image counts, and the oboe doesn't do it for them
- that the oboe is an expressive instruments, and it's not cool to be expressive
- that girls are better at getting what they want, so parents are more likely to buy them an oboe, rather than reject the request as 'just a fad'.
What do people think? Is it true where you are that most young oboists are girls? Why do you think that is? I'd like some more comments, so apart from posting them here, I will copy them on to www.oboeclassics.com.
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Author: tweety
Date: 2005-02-05 17:50
the reason i picked the oboe is because it was different and unique and i dont hav to worry about compition because im the only one in the entire school who plays oboe.(im a girl)
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Author: johnsonfromwisconsin
Date: 2005-02-08 15:44
- that boys have a short attention span, and can't stick at it
Not true. Priorities can be far different at this age. Sports are a looming possiblity that for some is almost an expectation and can take up a vast amount of attention, hence, more females than males typically enroll in musical programs to begin with.
- that boys feel the need to fit in - image counts, and the oboe doesn't do it for them
This is probably the biggest issue. Young men are more inclined towards the louder, more powerfull instruments like saxophone, trumpet, and low brass either because of natural affinity or social conditioning.
- that the oboe is an expressive instruments, and it's not cool to be expressive
probably
- that girls are better at getting what they want, so parents are more likely to buy them an oboe, rather than reject the request as 'just a fad'.
probably not.
-JfW
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Author: d-oboe
Date: 2005-02-27 23:37
This is really strange!
For the longest time it was *women's* involvement in music that was frowned upon.
Here's my opinion: to be an oboe player you have to have guts. The job demands sitting in one of the hottest seats in the house, and if one gets strayed by other people's opinions, then maybe one isn't cut out for the job.
If you love the oboe, and want to be really good at it, don't let anything stand in your way....but you're an oboe player! Nothing stands in your way! Bwa ha ha!
D-oboe
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Author: arianatheodd
Date: 2005-03-17 22:23
We had a guy that played the oboe visit from his current college. I dont recall how long ago he graduated but I nearly "died" when my band director said that the graduate had played oboe. I think it just has to do with what captures your ear. I read in some instrument guide book once that students seem to have a I guess you could a calling for certain instruments. Maybe most guys just arent attracted to the oboes sound.
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Author: oboeboy
Date: 2005-05-22 10:09
HI, i go to a music school in sydney. And just in my class of 34 their are 3 male oboists. I strongly disagree with these brittish girls.We can stick at things just as well as they can. Their statement was too much of a generalization. you can't just say as a whole that boys arn't any good at stuff like that. So BOOOOO! TO YOU!
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Author: GMac
Date: 2005-05-22 23:07
Really interesting...I think it personally just depends. At Laurier, out of a class of 9, 3 of us are guys and there's another one coming next year (however, I think 2 girls are coming as well...).
From what I've seen, the biggest thing that makes people take up other instruments is the nature of the oboe. It's high-pitched, has to be expressive, and the guys definitely like the lower more powerful instruments. It's a sad truth that often guys will get ridiculed for doing things outside the norm for our gender. I never faced this problem, mostly because I chose to surround myself with people that aren't so ridiculously shallow. However, for the average guy being in that socially 'right' group of friends is really important and oboe certainly doesn't help with that.
One thing to point out in relation to that last thing is that the time to pick an instrument to play in the band comes around grades 7-9, depending on the school system and person. Unfortunately, this is the time period where adolescence rears it's head and being 'a man' and fitting in becomes much more important. I think if the selection period was earlier (grades 3-6) or later (grade 10 and after) it would be much different.
Graham
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Author: GMac
Date: 2005-05-22 23:09
WOOT TO THAT!! Darn right we can stick at things! I think out of almost anyone in the studio here the people that spend the most time in the oboe studio making reeds and just practicing in general are the guys...
Graham
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Author: Ashley91489
Date: 2005-07-05 14:15
From what I've seen, no, not many *boys* take up the oboe (in school/band ect). In orchestras, it seems to be a different matter, even in college. I've seem many wonderful expressive male oboists in the higher level groups. =)
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Author: mschmidt
Date: 2005-07-15 23:38
Aha. That makes sense. I didn't start playing the oboe until grade 7, but I decided I wanted to play it back in grade 2 or 3. I started clarinet in grade 4 with private lessons, even though the school system didn't have any instrumental music until grade 7--in part because my parents didn't have the money or room for a piano, and I was told I needed to start on another woodwind before I could graduate to oboe.
Mike
Still an Amateur, but not really middle-aged anymore
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Author: saxmaniac
Date: 2005-07-16 02:58
The only oboeist at my school is a boy.
Check out my forum: forumofthesaxes.myfreeforum.org It has a clarinet sub-forum! Join it, I guarantee, you won't regret it!
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Author: thelawgoddess
Date: 2005-08-11 15:24
I have been attending Wagner's Ring in Seattle and all three oboists are male. I actually thought this was strange because all of the oboists I've ever played with were female.
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Author: fjozn
Date: 2005-08-14 03:16
Most oboists I know are male! These are people in my peer group.
Similarly, most soloists I know are also male. Eg, Gordon Hunt, Heinz Holliger, Albrecht Mayer and more.
However, something to note here: At my local orchestra, 3 out of 4 oboists are female, including my teacher.
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Author: vboboe
Date: 2005-08-14 23:37
... soulful oboe is such an equal opportunity instrument
... those boys who do take up oboe are more likely to love the instrument itself, and that's what oboe really needs to bring out its most beautiful characteristics ... also, let's not forget ego is still in there too, showmanship, one-upmanship, no other bridge available to cross in macho strut, etc.
on the distaff side of this discussion ... main trouble for young females who might otherwise get a foothold in good playing positions is that they seem to get distracted by romance, and nesting instincts, and end up with the 25-365-24-7 time-consuming child-care consequences for the majority of adult life, the same time o' life males are solidly building their careers, while somebody else looks after his kids so he can practice six hours or more every day.
Not many women are career-determined enough to over-ride their biological desire to nurture children of their own, or can juggle the scheduling and stressful time-pressured (nerve-wracking, playing detrimental) consequences of oboe career and quality family-time successfully. When children are involved, six hours a day practising is hopelessly unrealistic, and so otherwise excellent playing skills gradually deteriorate instead of steadily improve over the years.
Those who do both successfully, congrats! Exceptional goddess, not the rule among mortal females!
Bottom line, the few guy oboists who are out there get, and hold, the coveted positions, gals less often do either very well.
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Author: oboemelli
Date: 2005-08-17 14:55
Hi Jeremy,
I met you two years ago at a BDRS convention...Northampton, was it? I don't know if you remember me...but anyway....
I recall that someone said that the oboe was a very expressive instrument and boys don't seem to like that expressive quality. I think that this in a slight way may be true because expression and the showing of feelings strongly is a very feminine thing, and I don't think that young boys really like that quality in the oboe...so that's why they choose the more harsh sounding instruments such as trumpet etc. The same goes for flute in a sense.
Melanie
"People imagine they can reach one another. In reality they only pass each other by"- Schubert.
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Author: kroboe
Date: 2005-08-18 12:53
I think what we are observing is a trend that goes for all instruments exept perhaps for those related to pop-music. Not so many years ago girls were expected to play the piano, and little else. The rest of the musical scene was restricted to men only, all the way from scool-bands to the great symphony orchestras of the world. Today is an entirely different story. There has been a revolution that you have to be somewhat of age to fully comprehend. The last couple of decades girls have been sworming the place so to speak. The sad consequense of this seems to be that the boys are pulling out. A parallel to this is f.e. horse-riding, which today is an all-girl thing. There is maybe a spycological explanation to this which I shall not go into. But the result is that playing an instrument seems to be more and more a girl-thing. In my orchestra the proportion of girls have changed over the past 15 years or so from 20% to 80%. If this continues symphony orchestras of the future will be all female. Now, as for the oboe, the instrument may very well appeal more to girls than boys despite the physical effort it demands, but this is only an additional effect to the general trend in my opinion.
kroboe
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