Music and Gender are something I saw, but didn't really put the two together. Now that I think and look back. I do realize that boys/men played certain instruments and the girls/women played others. There was not much of a cross over. It always seemed in church that the guys would play the drums. However, this was only on special events. My church is extremely traditional and very rarely do we get to whip out the drums and get "crazy". :) The women are the ones who always played the handbells. I am not sure that I have ever seen a man play the handbells. While I notice these differences, I am do not feel like it would be bad if a man decided to play the handbells. It certainly does not feel pressured. To me, it seems like our church is always looking for volunteers so I don't think anyone would be turned down to play any instrument. I do think we are so fortunate as Americans to not have to experience things like other cultures do that are controlling of what we want to do. We pretty much have the freedom to do whatever we want. The only think I can think of (I'm sure there is something else, I just can't think of it) that I can think of where a woman actually cannot do the same thing as a man is play golf at Augusta National. Other than that I think women and also for men can share talents, sports, and instruments.
Back on topic, I do remember growing up, that I took piano lessons. Everyone I knew that took piano lessons were girls. We seemed to pretty much dominate the lessons. However, there was this one family in town who were Mennonites. They were always so nice and welcoming. They were an extremely large family with a lot of boys and a few daughters. Looking back I realized that all of the boys took piano, but only one of the girls did. They were extremely talented. Growing up, I always saw them and interacted with them since we took from the same piano teacher, but I really do not know anything about their religion. I think this would be something cool for me to look into and maybe understand how they view and think of music in their culture.
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Let me assure you that men do indeed play handbells, my husband being one of them. When we start talking low bass bells, they get very large and very heavy and it takes a lot of strength to play them cleanly and precisely!
ReplyDeleteYou are very fortunate not to have experienced gender differences in your life. The world's changed a lot since I was younger and I'm glad for it. A lot of the differences we see are cultural and some are more easily modified than others.
Part of the reason that there are still male-dominated and female-dominated instruments, ensembles, and genres may be that beginning musicians tend to self-select, just as people tend to self-select and surround themselves with those who think in the same way rather than surround themselves with diversity. I’ve heard of a “flute” personality, and I’m personally glad I picked the piano because I like chords. Probably girls tend to pick the higher-range instruments and boys, the lower-range ones because in singing, women sing high and men sing low, such that we associate high with female and low with male.
ReplyDeleteActually, there can be occasional physical advantages of men in music. In piano, large hands can be an advantage. I have small hands and am happy that I can span a ninth and the rare minor 10th on the piano, but Horowitz, Rubinstein, and Franck could all span a twelfth, and Rachmaninoff could span a 13th! Fortunately, most of the piano literature of Western Art music requires a span of no more than a ninth or tenth.
And I don’t think you are dorky, as you say in your Cool Stuff post, for enjoying the application of what we are learning, because I’m that way too, although for me the thought (sometimes vocalized) is more of a “Oooh! That’s a German augmented sixth chord!” (for example). I guess I just really like making connections. Or maybe just learning in general.
Dear Jill,
ReplyDeleteMany of our interactions with music seem to come from our first and early encounters through religion and church services. Along with you, I have noticed that the church utilizes whatever resources are available. Perhaps the divide between gender and music is only subtly encouraged. Most of my Moms' older piano students were girls. Although, with the younger childeren there was a more even mix; I think this was because the parents were the driving force.
Play what you want to play!
Amy