My violin is male and I cannot explain why. Maybe something to do with the sound of it, it's a sweet but strong sound. I've noticed since I've been coming to these forums that some musicians give names to their instruments like they are a person....I wonder if professionals do the same thing or if it's the habit of keen amateurs!

I've voted male - for my voice!

Otherwise I'd say they're all inanimate. Similarly I don't like the nonsense of ships being female.
Looking at the actual words I suppose you could argue that my viola is feminine (because it ends in an a), my piano is masculine (because it ends in an o), and as for my organ . . .

Gender-less, all my instruments. I'm terribly unromantic when it comes to things like that!

I spend a fair amount of time blowing down various well crafted lumps of wood. I suspect I'd be accused of being ever so weird if I were to assign gender to any of them....

Gender-less, definitely! Whilst I love my saxes and piano , it's taking things much too far to ascribe gender to them....

Gender-less - I don't give cars or anything like that a gender, or even a name.

Male. My violin is the only 'object' I own which has a name, but it suits him down to a t!

Male violin.
I've always been in love with my violin and all of my violins have been male.
I'm straight so my other great non-violin loves have also all been male. But I've
never fallen out of love with my violin even though the others have come and gone

My violin doesn't have a gender or a name yet. Maybe its because we both know its only a stop gap cheapy till I can afford to buy a better instrument, or maybe its because I'm only a beginner and we haven't worked each other out yet.

Yes I'm one of those very sad people that names pretty much everything, my car, my ipod, my computer, the spider that lives on my ceiling (Fred)...

My bassoon is obviously female, and is known as "Big Bertha" As a woman of a certain age, I think I identify with her temperament and mood swings, and in light of her age, I'd say she's probably menopausal

Take part in the poll bassoonista, so far we've got no female instruments!!!

Never really thought about it but if I had to assign a gender (on pain of death) I'd say:

flute - female
cello - male
piano - hermaphrodite

purely because of their range.

My viola is female and her name is Hannah. (yes I voted)


From being a very small child I have assigned gender, names and personalities to the things I keep around me. That does include my car. It's just a feeling I get when I get to know something.

My relationship with my musical instruments is a very intense one but overall a very loving one and they mean the world to me. It's an unspoken thing - I don't talk to them or cuddle them but I know when our relationship is having a good day... or not

Gender-less - I've only ever named one object and that was a car which was known as "Emma" and that was purely becasue the reg included EMA.

Prosaic huh?

Pedantically, two: I have a moose/elk that sits on the settee and it's always been known as Elkie-moose (strange things you buy in Ikea.....)

I haven't voted because it's sort of half-and-half for me.

My current piano is an "it". It's definitely a "thing".

However a grand piano which I have fond memories of is "Gustav".

My horn was "Barney", but isn't any more. It's now an "it".

But I may just not be good at naming things. I used to have a cat named "Cat" and my current cat thinks her name is "Cat" because "name" is "that sound you make at her just before she gets food".

I do not understand why men almost always seem to think their car is female. My car has to be male, it is too "stocky" to be female!

Female, for the very reason it's my voice, and I consider it being part of me

Some very entertaining posts here! thanks!

Vote done as requested!!

I voted gender-less, but wouldn't go so far as to say my instruments are inanimate. To me, they all have a soul, but not a gender.

Aw that's lovely. I may be a soppy sentimental middle aged woman but that's how I feel about my scruffy 130 year old violin. Named Tom, after my grandfather who had it second hand; never heard him play it but he was a fine musician on a long woodwork saw with a violin bow!

A friend of mine has a cat called "Mouse"...

After presenting me with 2 baby pigeons (both in mouth at once) my cat is now called 'horrid cat'.

Back on topic, some of my instruments have nicknames such as 'squeak' and'little squeaky' I dont consider them as having gender.

What you need is to get a dog, and then give it the name 'Stay'.

Oh the hilarity

My piano - male.
Why? Because sometimes it makes me so cross ....

My violin is female, named Precious. So called because my friend remarked that I was so b....y precious about my violin, and the name stuck. I think I referred to it as "her" even before then, but I can't really say why.

I have another violin I call "the Tony violin" because I bought it from my plumber of that name, but I don't really think of it having a gender, and my viola I just call "my viola" and don't personalise it.

(I just read what I wrote above, and I think it makes me sound very slightly unhinged.)

A friend of mine has the beat named cat in the world. He's a siamese called Miow Tse Tong

I have a friend whose cat is Yo Yo Meow (but she doesn't play the 'cello)

None of my instruments have names or genders I did once have a car called Pixie and she is in my profile picture, funnily enough a Porsche ...

My first clarinet was female - she had mood swings.
My second clarinet is male - he's pretty laid back about everything.

Guitars are all male.
Electric piano is female.
Violin is female but very lazy (she doesn't like coming out).
My recorder is male and slightly more hyper in temperament than my clarinet (I think he's a teenage recorder...). *wonders if clarinet can give recorder some fatherly advice*
My voice is male or female depending on the pollen count/amount of germs floating around .

I think my instruments are the only 'people' I haven't named.......

(Sorry for bumping this thread back up - it's a really good thread )

Haha to the piano being a hermaphrodite. My piano is genderless, but if I had to say, it would be male. It just has a nice mellow sound and can be bashed around a bit.






This thread is too new to be bumped

I'm at a conservatoire and my violin gets treated better than i'd treat many people ?800 luxury case, crystal mutes for her, when i buy something violin orientated its 'for her' rather than 'for me to put on my violin'. She's called Anastasia, and is my best friend

My Clarinet is Female and her name is Betty. Betty Buffet, to be precise. My Previouse Clarinet was also female and she was called Miss Toot

I don't think my clari has a gende. For me it's just a thing. But a thing that's a friend to me. The same for my keyboard and guitar.

I think my flute is definitely female she is otherwise known as Florence and my oboe is male called Francois.

To be honest i'd never thought about it until now.My piano has a mind of it's own and won't do as i'd like it to do, it must be female
Now i'll have to think of a name for her. Katy Kawai

Mine are all definitely male!
Bb clarinet is called Tosca
A clarinet called Henri
Sax called Elmer
Not very imaginative

Surely it's the music you play that has gender, character, life, charm, a message, not the lump of wood/piece of bent pipe/selection of hammers that you use to *make the music* ???

Your instrument is like a bag of tools, it's not the hand-crafted items you make with it.

Do carpenters have male and female screwdrivers? Of course not. They're sensible people :-)

DerekH

Well I need another vote option. My viola is coming out as transgender at the moment, it's a very confusing time. She is a young thing (1975) and has always had a gentle, rather violin-ish quality, helped by her skinny ribs and slender shoulders. But now she's arriving at viola puberty and has decided to string herself in a more masculine way, shedding her high heeled Dominant and Corelli C strings and butching up in the lower register. The whole range is becoming darker, more masculine. I nearly always now call him "mate" and am more likely to describe him as a boy now.

My daughter's violin is a boy. His name is (perversely) Piano. He is a 1/16 size and when he grows up he wants to be a cello.

My violin is a girl. It wasn't this violin as I had to trade my collection of violins and violas all in part exchange to get my current viola when I was preparing for grade 8, but when I was younger I had to book a ticket on a plane for my violin. Her ticket read "Miss Violet Lin" although if I'm doing fiddle music she has a stage name of Vi O'Lin. Oh dear, how crazy am I?

My daughter has no truc with this, people keep asking her the names of all her toys and she has many, many dolls called Dolly, all her teddies are called Teddy, her monkey is called Monkey... do you see the theme here?

None of my recorders have names or genders, nor does my flute or piano. I thought maybe it was to do with the level of bond I have with my instruments whether I'm close to them or not, but I'm way more connected with my Moeck rosewood than my violin.

I think I lost it.