"You want to learn the BASSOON? But Hafwen, isn't that a MAN'S instrument?" Ever heard anything like this?

Good question!

I've not thought about the bassoon ever being thought to be a 'male instrument' but I know of one instrument that here in the United States is still rather shoddy. Guys just don't play the flute in high school. I don't know why, but I think most of them think that it is feminine. Even at my school for the arts where all art is accepted in any form, we have no guys who play the flute.

Really, I think it's rather absurd... I don't know how it is in other parts of the world, but in the US gays are attacked in school constantly. Guys live under constant fear that if they do anything 'feminine' that somebody will accuse them of being gay. Quite sadly, there last year at my school of the arts, there was one male flutist, a darn good one too! And it was known that he was gay. So what happens if another guy wants to play the flute?

Unfortunately even in the world of arts the stereotype still is present.

Quite ironically, out of 4 bassoonists at my school, only 1 of them is male.

I agree that the harp is certainly a more 'feminine instrument.' Actually, the other day I realized that on finale there is a "plucked strings" category which has the harp guitar and banjo which I have never used before and didn't realize they were there. I was playing around with the harp and I was thinking "You know, it would be awesome if I could play the harp!" Of course I probably never will as I am already taking 3 (soon to be 4 with my oboe lessons this summer! wish me luck!) different music lessons, so adding a fifth (plus buying a harp! yikes!) makes it impossible...

It was only a fun little hope of mine... But, I do not know any males that play the harp, but I do know (lets think here... ... ...) six different people that play harp and they are all girls...

When I think of a harpist, I think of a beautiful woman with long golden hair in a magnificent dress strumming away at a heavily ornamented harp. Don't you?

Lets do an experiment... Lets think of a person of a particular instrument, so a pianist or whatever the instrument is, and lets see what gender they are... This is my listing...

Flutist: Quite clearly, a female...

Clarinetist: Hmmm... I guess a male...

Oboist: I thought of a female first...

Bassoonist: You're going to hate me Hafwen, but I did think of a male

playing this.

Saxophone... ist?: Female

Violinist: A male

Violist: Quite strangely, I thought of a female first.

Cellist: A male

Bassist: Male

Trumpeter: I thought of a female actually...

'Hornist?': Male

Trombonist: Male

Tuba'ist': Male

Pianist: Male

Harpist: Female

Guitarist: Male

Organist: hmmm... Interesting... I thought of a female playing first...

Percussion: Actually... I thought of a female playing... Probably because the tympanist in the TSO is a female...

Wow... I don't know all of the "ists"

Anyway... I wonder how yours matches up...

Now, course, this is what I think predominantly has more musicians of their playing each of these instruments than the other...

I don't think there are any instruments that can't be played by the other sex and I hate the stereotypes that stop teenage musicians from playing a certain instrument...

My confused response... hahaha...

--Schumiszt

I'm a guy and I've always wanted to play the flute. A common phrase from the middle schoolers was that it was a "girl's instrument." I say, "Hogwash."

Yes, this happened to a girl I met but not with an instrument.

I was in Japan with a couple friends, and we decided to go to the beach. I've always wanted to try surfing. So, when we asked a Japanese friend if she had a surfboard that I could borrow, she said she only had a boogie board. Apparently when she went to a shop to purchase a surfboard (which is what she originally wanted) the salesperson told her to buy a boogie board, because she was a girl: girls use boogie boards, not surfboards.

Isn't the crazy? I visited Japan in ... 2003, and I'm not positive when exactly the girl purchased her boogie board. So, hopefully things have changed. Or, perhaps this wasn't a common case... maybe the salesperson was sexist.

Yes, I've heard of these stereotypes, but most of them don't really exist in my high school band or youth symphony. In band, our bassoonist is a girl, and our tubist, who also plays the trombone, is a girl. So is our french hornist. A few of our trumpeters are also girls. There is only one guy flutist, but he is not seen as gay at all.

But I just realized that I do not know a single male clarinetist, and I probably know 10 or 15 female clarinetists. For some reason I still don't think of it as a "female" instrument.

Great question!

I'm not going to lie, I'm extremely girly. Being dainty is a huge part of who I am. I'm a seventeen year old female bassoonist & double bassist, and it makes my day every time someone underestimates me on my chosen instruments. I know that my hands aren't the ideal size to play either of these instruments, especially when compared to some of the boxier ones that men possess, but I've gotten over it. Every year I beat them out for principle in our youth orchestras, district & all-state festivals. You wonder what it's like to be a female leader of an otherwise all-male section? Pretty damn sweet I'd say.

In certain limited circumstances I can understand a type of sexism as valid when it comes to which instruments are played by which sex. But such circumstances are limited to musicians in marching bands. Generally a young woman is less physically able to comfortably carry a tuba or a base drum around a football field or while marching in a parade than a young man.

Excluding marching bands I can't see any physical reasons why musical instruments should not be fully considered uni-sexed.

My daughter at an early age fell in love with brass instruments and I completely supported her. She started out on trombone, switched to trumpet and ended up mastering the French Horn when she got to high school. For several years she played the horn with the Dallas Symphony.

This was back in the 1980s and I do remember hearing from various people (family, neighbors, etc.) that she could have chosen a more feminine instrument to play. However, my daughter has a mind of her own and wouldn't have paid any attention to such remarks anyway.

I really can't say if such allusions still exist now but they probably do, at least in the less cultured. less enlightened areas of the country.

My best friend in college quit piano and learned trombone because of a 4th-grade dare- "Girls can't learn trombone!" The best tuba player at my school is a girl, and people think it's unusual. In general, I think brass and definitely percussion are "guys" instruments and violins and flutes are supposed to be girl's instruments. (Never mind all the great male violinists of the 20th century...) These stereotypes mostly disappear past high school, I think, but by then it's too late!

Cello I think is actually pretty well divided. Double bass, though- I can't think of many people who would say it's for girls. I think bassoon is such an "unusual" instrument (never mind that it's standard, people think of it as unusual) that, as far as I've ever heard, people don't have any real stereotypes of bassoonists!

What about types of music? I feel like in grade school and high school, though not much beyond that, classical music was for "sissies." Once you're in college or an adult (yes, "or") it becomes mixed. But jazz is still very male, I think, in our perceptions, with the sole exception of female jazz singing. Does anyone else see this?

BTW, I think bassoon is amazing. The intro to Tchaikovsky's Sixth is probably my favorite woodwind part ever :)

Hello, Hafwen!

Well, I think each one of us could play any instrument that he/she wants! To encourage you, I've met a lot of female bassoonists, so I don't think this would be a male instrument at all!

So, let's have another example: both, men and women are driving, aren't they? Of course, a lot of us would say that a man would be better as a driver then a woman, but women are still driving too! And they are doing it very well!

So, coming back, I don't think it would be any differences between a woman and a man playing an instrument.

Unfortunately, I don't know to name any famous female bassoonists, but I can name very known female pianists (and, yes, I think they play as great as a man!):

Martha Argerich

Myra Hess

Elly Ney

Clara Haskil

Maria Joao Pires

Clara Schumann (nobody listened to her playing, but we know she was great!)

etc

Hope that helped!

All the best!

I. Jones has this exactly right. I took home ec in junior high for the same reason. Why would I want to hang around a belt sander with a bunch of other boys, when I could be eating cookies with a bunch of cute girls? That was a no-brainer to me.

Regarding masculine/feminine instruments, I'll think back to my college/grad school days. Among music majors at my schools (this was in the 90s), I knew three male flute players (one of whom was heterosexual), no male harpists, no female guitarists, one female tubist (though there were several female euphonium players), one female trombonist, three or four female trumpeters (sorry to say, none of them were particularly good), and a fairly small percentage of female percussionists. I also knew no instrumental conductors (faculty or grad students) who were female. You'll be happy to know that I've known a pretty even distribution of male and female bassoonists, though.

Strings seemed to have a pretty even distribution, although I think there was a larger percentage of male double-bass players than females.

I'm feeling very self-conscious of this answer, because I feel like some of my comments come across sounding like I'm sexist, which isn't the case. I mean no offense...

Flute and clarinet in our band is usually regarded as a "girl" instrument. Not so much with the clarinet though. Freshman year a fellow classmate who was both male and a clarinetist was nicknamed "Sunshine" by the rest of the clarinet section. Apparently the year before another guy was nicknamed Sunshine because he was the only male clarinetist. But this year there are now three male clarinetists, destroying that idea.

As for the flute, some people in my class regard a guy as gay if he plays the flute. I remember overhearing a conversation and they were commenting on how they were glad a male friend of theirs quit the flute because they thought it made him look gay. In our band, all the flutists are female. Other than that, every other instrument is "unisex".

Keeping on with the topic of instrument stereotypes, sometimes personalities are associated with an instrument. Flutes are seen as blonde and ditzy. Drummers are typically seen as big and stupid and trumpets are jerks. Anyone notice any stereotypes like these?

Edit: Reading Schumiszt's answer, I see my school isn't the only one with the flute and gay guy problem. What a shame. But i.jones' answer made me laugh.

Interesting questions! Not so for the string instruments...not in the orchestras I've been in, anyway. Everything is divided up pretty equally.

Which, well, when you think about today's times, is strange in of itself, don't ya think? I mean, isn't music a 'girl' thing? Aren't guys supposed to be out playing football? XD [/sarcasm] But really, I do think some people think that, so I find it interesting and very comforting that most of my orchestras a few more guys than girls.

For the brass instruments, to my knowledge, however, there are TONS more guys than girls. This may indeed have to do with their weight, or maybe they think woodwinds are too 'pretty' or 'girly'? But actually, I think I read somewhere that since the Simpsons premiered the number of girls who play saxophone has soared (one of the girl characters on the show plays the saxophone, if I'm not wrong), which I find interesting.

I've never come across any of this said out loud with a specific instrument...but, I'll be happy to hear the other responses! :)

Edit: Oh, gosh, Schumiszt, the 'gay' part just floors me. *ahem* HOW DOES YOUR MUSIC PREFERENCE OR THE INSTRUMENT YOU PLAY HAVE ANYTHING TO DO WITH YOUR SEXUAL ORIENTATION?! Blegh. So, this one guy who says he's gay plays the flute, so automatically anyone who plays the flute is gay. Does this guy also eat apples at breakfast time? Read sci-fi books? Walk? Breathe? Better not do those things, either, then...unless you're prepared to 'accept yourself for who you are'.

End rant.