Hi everyone,

I was wondering if people view their instruments as male or female? I see all of mine as male.....I have this theory that as musicians we develop a "relationship" with our instruments, who are our partners in creating music, and so we may tend to see them as male or female according to our usual preference of partner.

Does that sound plausible, or is it a load of tosh?

Toni xx

To be honest I hadn't thought about this before I saw your post but after some thought I came to the conclusion that I see my instruments as an extension of myself and therefore class them as female.

I see the piano and violin as femail.I see it as...
Brass is mail, and viola, cello, bouble bass is mail.Harp is deffinatly femail. All woodwind exept from soprano recorder, flute and clarinet is mail.

I give all of mine names and talk to them on a regular basis! My piano is called Dobbin, being a big solid workhorse of a thing, my basset recorder id Fred of course, and my favourite soprano recorder is called Little Beast but that is a term of the greatest affection. I tend to name everything; cars, my bike and even the sewing machine! I think of them all as males.

What an interesting topic!
In the nineteenth century many people thought that music was gendered. Richard Strauss's orchestra for Don Juan makes use of the fact that certain instruments had specific associations, in order to tell the story. The violin, flute and oboe were considered feminine sounding, whilst brass instruments, with their traditional hunting associations were considered masculine.

Now my instrument is DEFINITELY female - it's my voice!

Interesting topic!

My piano is female, my violin and cello are both male (and rather sadly, both have names... thibault and sébastien) and my viola is definitely female...

I wonder where we get our associations from?

My instruments are all of indeterminate gender. As am I, according to an old English teacher at sixth form...

I've named and gender-ed all my cellos except this one, actually. My first was called Little Wonder Of The Stars (well, I was little...)
I experimented with calling this one Rebekah (spelling v intentional) when I first got it, but the name never really summed up its personality.
Language and human associations only go so far, and then come music

I definitely don't see my instruments as having a gender, and I never name them. I'm very fond of them, nevertheless (despite what I've just said about my poor old flute on another thread ).

I've never seen any of my instruments as having a gender either, but I think they're all wonderful!

I see piano as female.
Pianistical pianists are just so.. lady-like?

Never thought of naming my piano.

My now "reserve" violin is female, and is named Caprice. Not after a blonde model but because whatever I tried to play, her capricious nature made it come out all wrong, (but maybe it was me rather than her ), Paganini was fond of Caprices I understand, and I am, despite my official birthday, after all a capricorn. Just seemed to fit.

My current violin is male and called Giuseppe after his maker. (Joe Large in English, Giuseppe Grossi in his native Italian).

My original plywood and chewing gum VSO never got named.

my trombone is a rather grumpy old man, called Herbert.
My cello is a willowy woman - anna
My guitar is kind of androgynous, and the instrument I see as most part of myself.
Viola - I don't know well enough to tell!

My piano is male, does not have a name
My saxophone is male
My Trombone is deffinietley male
My clarinet is Female

i've never thought about it! I guess a trumpet should be male seeing as thats the brass sterotype...but then again...as the stereotype is for brass players to be male, how would they feel about having another male pressed to their lips? hmm. im female...i dont mind in the slightest! xxx

I see my flute and violin as being female. I normally see bigger insturments such as the double bass and bassoon etc as being male. Also the whole brass section in my opinion are male.

I'm so sad though, althoug my instruments don't have names i always make sure they are safely tucked away in their cases at night.

Violin - Male - Kaiser (he's German and king of violins , makes such a delicious sound)
Viola - Male - Vlad (he's the deep, sensitive type)
Piano - Male - Norris (he's english and a bit old fashioned)
Flute - Female - Julia (she's a light and delicate creature)

I am glad that I am not the only one to name them! I have always hed names for certain breeds of instrument. Does anyone care to hazard a guess as to what these might refer? Arthur, Harold, Albert, Boris and William. They are all to be found in the modern symphony orchestra. If this is too silly please blame the hot weather and the fact that I was up at five. thirty this morning practising for a concert tomorrow evening.

Clarinet - Arthur (R13 haha)
Saxophone - no name, but it's male
Flute - is female, but I haven't named it as it doesn't actually belong to me
Recorders - hmm need to think about that some more (maybe!)
Piano - male
Violin - female
Viola - female

I don't really...it's just...a piano

Ditto here.


Fantastic!

My piano is male, and is called George (though he's not actually mine - he's my parents')
My violin is male, but quite a feminine male, and is called Marcus
My viola is male, and called Jay
My horn is also male, and is called Dean because he's gold coloured and chavs wear lots of gold and Dean is quite a chavvy name (no offence meant to anyone who isn't a chav and is called Dean!)

Boris must be a Bassoon??
I'm afraid none of the others conjusr anything up for me.

Harold the Hautbois?

Not really thought about it but I'm pretty sure the majority of flutes are female...

If I had a trombone, I would call it Boris.

Mine's a hermaphrodite...

Well. this is how I have named instruments since I was very young indeed! Harold is a first violin, Arthur a clarinet, Albert a french horn, William a viola of course and Boris a timp. It is more fun than seeing chords or notes in colour which I do sometimes, and a lot more fun than seeing numbers in colour which I never do, having a certain hatred of things mathematical.

Piano - Hard to tell. Some pianos I just know are male or female, but my piano looks more like furniture than anything else (sounds great though) so I'd have to say it is a castrated male.

Violin - I've had several over the years and some have been males and others females. The one I've got at the moment is definitely female, but quite manly at that. Lesbian female I'd say.

Clarinet - I think it's male, but a bit of a scrawny male. Would be the geek in the class who wears glasses.

Bass guitar - Definitely male and obese. Also a goth.

Guitar - Male but a bit queer. A bit too pink for his own good.

my piano is male. most definitely. It has *nothing* feminine about it

well, I like to think of my trumpet as female - like lucietake2 says - trying to think of my trumpet as male seems a bit weird! - although prehaps in this modern world it may appeal to some people

Gosh, I never thought of my guitar as either male or female. I see it as an 'it'.

I think my husband would be quite horrified if he thought I saw my guitar as male given how the guitar sits on my lap, the fact that I spend an awful lot of time with 'him', the way 'he' gives me so much, er, pleasure and I spend a silly amount of money on all the bits and bobs that goes with guitar playing.