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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