I was told not to choose Beethoven's songs as my exam pieces. It is because Beethoven's works consist and emphasize much in accents, sforzando, which not many girls can play as loud as it should be. I was told that male musicians can play better.

I personally strong disagree with it!

I don't mean to defend girls but as long as a musician's is well trained, any could just play well. There should be no different between male musicians and female musicians.

QUOTE (debbieyss @ May 7 2004, 03:26 PM)

I was told not to choose Beethoven's songs as my exam pieces. It is because Beethoven's works consist and emphasize much in accents, sforzando, which not many girls can play as loud as it should be. I was told that male musicians can play better. I personally strong disagree with it! I don't mean to defend girls but as long as a musician's is well trained, any could just play well. There should be no different between male musicians and female musicians.

I agree I go to an all girls school and we have brilliant pianists there, especially one girl in y10 who plays a lot of beethoven. She plays soooo well. And the music teacher said if she was to take her GCSE music now, she would pass with full marks

Utter rubbish - there are differences between male and female musicians.

Example - Bass Saxophone (Bass, not Baritone) - I've never seen a woman play it. I've only even seen 1 woman play baritone saxophone.

I agree! It depends on the person, not whether they're male or female!
(I get very worked up when people make sexist remarks like that)

I wouldn't have thought there was a difference either. Choose the pieces you want to play!

QUOTE (debbieyss @ May 7 2004, 03:26 PM)

There should be no different between male musicians and female musicians.

I would agree with you. I can't imagine that there could be a difference between what males/females are capable of technically. Men may be physically stronger than women but I'm not sure this could make that much of a difference to the well trained musician.

female musicians rock!!!go girls!!!

i agree... i love playing beethoven btw..

I've heard some rubbish in my time.......

On my many volumes of Beethoven's music nowhere does it say that it shold only be attempted by the male of the species.
I've heard some rubbish in my life but this takes the biscuit!!

I think that whoever told you girls can't play as loud is talking a load of rubbish!!
As long as you have good technique- both genders can play anything as it should be with loads of practise.

An example I can think of is a Prelude by Debussy 'Ce qu'a vu le vent d'Ouest'- which uses lots of ff and sffz. I have two recordings of this piece- one performed by Paul Crossley and another by Noriko Ogawa. In my opinion, Ogawa handles the louder passages better than Crossley- showing that females can play just as loud as/louder than males.

There will always be a difference between male and female musicians, men generally play wind instruments better as they have larger lungs and are better for heavily accented music on stringed and keyboard instruments. Unfortunately unless us females want to go and tone up to a "mr muscle" extreme we will always come behind. Of course we do find Mozart easier as our hands aren't quite so big and we do play quietly generally better so things tend to even out.

I completely agree!!!!! It doesn't matter what sex you are, if you are a true musician then you can put equally as much expression and emphasis into a piece. Besides to be a good musician you have to able to adapt your technique and style to suit the piece and so both sexes should be competent in softer pieces as well as creating the desired expression in pieces displaying particular emphasis.
Im ot an expert on this but Im sure that when Beethoven wrote his pieces, the pianos were different to now and probably were much harder to play louder (as I said Im only guessing this, Im not very good on authentic performance!) therefore what is regarded the desired effect today is probably completely different to Beethovens intentions, aslong as the accents and emphasis is apparent it doesn't matter whether a mle or female play the piece.

QUOTE (Mrs Beethoven @ May 9 2004, 09:38 AM)

On my many volumes of Beethoven's music nowhere does it say that it shold only be attempted by the  male of the species.

I quite agree with you Mrs B and I'm sure he would have been happy for women to play his music. From what I know of his life I understand that he was a "bit of a ladies man". Although not being blessed in the looks department his romantic feelings were not always returned.

If you look at the dedications at the top of the Beethoven Sonatas, most of them are dedicated to female patrons who were his pupils, so he would have expected them to play these.

It is certanly true that you need bigger hands for some music than others, and I do look with envy at the hands of those who can reach a 9th comfortably!

I find even the idea of this question quite offensive. What difference does it make especially if it's the matter of gender?

As many of the responders to this topic have said, male versus female musicians aren't better because it's a matter of gender - it's the way we interpret the music that distinguishes musicians in our minds.

There is the serious point of young people in particular having been pushed, in the past, into playing or not playing certain instruments or composers because of their gender and teacher's/ parent's / peer-group pressure or prejudice - quite unacceptable! Thankfully, as evidenced by the responses here, most people seem to have a more enlightened view. To debbieyss - you go right on playing Beethoven!

Lucia!! Mind what you say about my old man!!!
Please excuse me while I go and have lie down in the drawing room with my smelling salts - I have completely exhausted myself playing 3 bars of music. I need to conserve my energy for my needlework and sketching.
AAAARRRRGGGGHHHH!!!!

Presumably no-one ever told Martha Argerich...

Also I somehow don't think Elise was a fella

Thank you everyone who respond to this topic!

I am hereby would like to encourage each other to not to give up whenever others discourage you, or whoever show preference on your music.

Let continue to practise as music HAS NEVER CATOGORIZED for both male and female!

Choose a piece you like or you find challenging. Practice makes Perfect!

Agree?

This is the most common thing......
Guys support guys.
Girls support girls.

I don't know really....all I know is that I CAN'T SING. My aural is really bad!
Anyway, for the past 7 years, I have had 6 man examiners and 1 woman examiner.

Am I alone in never having heard a good performance by a man of the Queen Of the Night aria?

QUOTE (cbpiano @ May 11 2004, 10:51 AM)

To debbieyss - you go right on playing Beethoven!

Dear cbpiano, thanks for your encouragement!

I would always keep your words in mind!

I believe you can do it as well, as long as you'd put efforts on it!

All the best!

From
Debbieyss

QUOTE (Mrs Beethoven @ May 9 2004, 09:38 AM)

On my many volumes of Beethoven's music nowhere does it say that it shold only be attempted by the male of the species. I've heard some rubbish in my life but this takes the biscuit!!

So dear Mrs. Beethoven, you play Beethoven's works wonderfully?

QUOTE (chelsea @ May 9 2004, 02:04 PM)

"mr muscle"

Dear chelsea,

You have a sense of humour---> Mr muscle

ha...

thanks for your respond to my topic...

(Im not very good on authentic performance!)

Dear Nix, as far as I've concerned, there are few types of musicians: type A as those who are good in sight-reading and could easily play a new piece by fully included dynamics; type B as those who needs time to practise up to a satisfied level.

Since you said you're not good in performance, I guess you are the type B personl. No worry Nix, all you have to do is just take time to practise. It doesn't matter if you don't show much improvement in a short period of time, as if you work hard on it, you will learn and get improved! Trust me!

From
Debbieyss

QUOTE (Farley_Teacher @ May 10 2004, 05:21 PM)

It is certanly true that you need bigger hands for some music than others, and I do look with envy at the hands of those who can reach a 9th comfortably!

Dear Farley_teacher,

Need not to envy those long-finger people...

One of my coursemate has very long fingers. When he puts his fingers on keyboard, it seems like an octopus lying on...haha...

He couldn't play fast songs anyway.

So just cherish what you have and who you are, short fingers can still play good music...

From
Debbieyss

QUOTE (tzl_tzl @ May 12 2004, 11:07 AM)

I don't know really....all I know is that I CAN'T SING. My aural is really bad!

Dear tzl_tzl,

From the way you reply, I guess you're a guy...

Oh...you can't sing... Well, play a song you are familiar with and sing it while you play. It would gradually get your vocal tuned! It does work! Get a try...



From
Debbieyss

QUOTE (DavidMusic @ May 7 2004, 04:11 PM)

Utter rubbish - there are differences between male and female musicians. Example - Bass Saxophone (Bass, not Baritone) - I've never seen a woman play it. I've only even seen 1 woman play baritone saxophone.

I'm in a youth concert band are there are at least two girls that play baritone sax as well as other woodwind instruments, its only a local band so i'm sure there are many female baritone saxophonists about...ooo i just thought of another person I know as well...that makes it three!!
although i have only ever seen a bass sax in a museum...not ever properly played.

In my view the trends in music - ie "one female ever playing bass saxophone" comes through age/tradition. However I really don't feel there is any difference - there's also going to be different charactera, although not split because of gender.

I don't think it makes any difference wherther or not you are male or female when it comes to playing an instrument, everyone is different when it comes to playing. For instance, when playing the piano, I've got male and female friends who have got a very soft touch on the piano, where as I've got quite a hard touch, and I've been told I play in a 'positive' way. So you keep on playing Beethoven, prove whoever told you not to play Beethoven wrong!!