I saw this poll in Viva Piano, and thought it would be interesting to see if the majority of clarinettists are male or female (right now I would presume female, but I may be wrong.)

I'm a male clarinettist, the only one in my school of 1400, and proud of it.

I'm a female clarinettist, but in my school i'd have to say its pretty evenly balanced.

most clarinettists at my school are girls..i can think of maybe 2 boys.

female...i hope!

most of the clarinettists in our school are female too.

I would say in our school that more girls play clarinet than boys, but only just.
I have more friends who are boys who play clarinet better than I do, though.

Another gender thread. (yawn)

I am male, but the pattern is the same everywhere. In schools, mostly girls play it, but the best is usually a 50:50 split or in favour of boys.

Anyway, all clarinet professors at the RSAMD are male, and they probably outnumber females in professional orchestras (might change though).

Interesting all of my instruments are mostly female orientated. I still love them though.

Female, the last time anyone checked

My one pupil is male.

In one of my school orchestra there are 3 male clarinettists and 8 female, whereas up in Lowestoft at NSYCB we don't have any male clarinettists. We do have some male flautists though. 2 in my orchestra at school but only one in NSYCB.

Just thinking about it....I'm the only male clarinettist in my school of about 1100....it's cool! I am also the only flugelhorn player in the school...

Mint!

Male...or female with serious hormonal problems

Think more male clarinetists in my school actually, the poll results surprised me...

QUOTE (Oddball @ Mar 25 2005, 10:44 PM)

Mint!

Didn't realise that was a national thing! Never heard it anywhere but here!

In our school it used to be the case that girls did the music stuff and boys did sport, with a few exceptions in each! And then it all changed, I think when the new head of music turned up, and more boys started doing music. Dunno what happened in the PE dept though, although more girls do sport since a nice female teacher turned up!

i love the word minT!

we use it as well elmo!

Yeah, it sums up what you're thinking! So does shan!

I had a thought about this whole gender thing when we were playing in the band stand today. Girls are more academic than boys, and work for things, whereas boys are more practical minded and think with their fist! Boys can't be bothered to work for music, takes too much time, so they do sport or something instead, where they can use their body more than their mind!

That's a really general, stereotypical thing and obviously can't apply to adult males, but that's my theory!

QUOTE

Anyway, all clarinet professors at the RSAMD are male, and they probably outnumber females in professional orchestras (might change though).

True for most music conservatoires. In fact, I think the music profession is still at least a 60/40 split in favour of males.

Maybe boys are 'closet instrumentalists' until thier peers won't think them sissy for taking up an instrument. Having said that, at Kings College School in Wimbledon music features highly in the curriculum and every single pupil in the school plays a musical instrument - and that's a private all boys school.

It's also interesting to point out that about 70% of male and female professional musicians tend to have had an education at a private or public school. Whether that's due to social factors and peer pressure or simply that the state school education system doesn't genrally have the funding or incentive to teach music seriously, is debatable, but it's probably a combination of both.

I was reading an article in The Times about this. The theory is (and the evidence suggests) that boys see most woodwind instruments (with the exception of the saxaphone) as being 'girly' and those that are interested in playing an instrument are more likely to choose the guitar because of its more macho image and pulling potential

I'd be interested to know what the balance is for brass instruments. I know several male brass players, but not a single female. Though I should say that I'm not actually in an ensemble, I just have musical friends (who encouraged me to start playing - I chose the clarinet of my own free will!).

Incidentally (though more than a little incidental to me!) I'm male.

QUOTE (Komakino @ Mar 28 2005, 11:02 PM)

more likely to choose the guitar because of its more macho image and pulling potential

I started clarinet in Year 4...all girls had cooties back then!

QUOTE (Komakino @ Mar 28 2005, 11:02 PM)

I'd be interested to know what the balance is for brass instruments. I know several male brass players, but not a single female.

That's interesting coz I know more female brass players than male ones, including a girl in the year below who plays tuba!

QUOTE (elmo @ Mar 26 2005, 06:56 PM)

Yeah, it sums up what you're thinking! So does shan!

Shan? Never heard that one...

What part of the country are you in then? Im in wiltshire...yar...

Cumbria

You say it when you don't want to/can't be bothered to do something but someone's making you are you know you have to but.....

You get lots of people at school saying "Miss, that's so shan!" when they're being given lines!

*adds new word to vocabulary* hehe i like that word!

I see. I suppose you have chavs etc too??

Yeah, and scallys!

Scallys did not appreciate our busking in town today! One threw something down the bell of the tuba (was a good shot though!), and some others said they'd pay us to shut up!

we have scallys too!! hate them!

Cool, yeah damn good shot! Wasn't a new york yankees' baseball cap was it?

Scallys, hmmm....not heard of that one either....alll we really have is Townies, chavs and pikies....


This is kind of going really off topic

errr chavs? scallys?

i think iv missed something...

QUOTE

errr chavs?

Can be found countrywide, but generally associated with a certain London Home County where they've replaced shell-suits, stillettos and the Ford Capri with 'Burberry check', lots of gold chains, rings, and modified cars with massive wheelarches, wide-bore exhausts, etc.

Shares in Burberry apparently dropped in price after all the fake gear came onto the market and was being worn by those not considered high society

female

I think townies are the same as scallys??! you shout "awww meeeeee" in a high pitched voice at them, and it really annoys them, coz they're so "solid"!

I agree with whoever said the thing about boys being more matcho., and wanting to show how "solid" they are! There's a rugby player who plays flute at school, but I don't think any of his team know! He used to come to choir as well, until he got skitted about it for about 6 months and then he left!

the younger kids at our scool dont rely care bout that kinda thing - theres at least 5 who go to choir!

good on them, i say

QUOTE (MattD @ Mar 28 2005, 11:55 PM)

I started clarinet in Year 4...all girls had cooties back then!

wot r cooties? or am i being slow?

The Scottish equivalent to chavs and townies is Neds, despise them, they're completely pointless and hard to understand, "Wee man, shut it, or I'll smack yeh!" It's like what, are you trying to speak? All I hear is "Blah, Blah, Blah" lol

After studying Computer Science at university, it's nice to be part of something where I'm outnumbered by girls

After reading a couple of posts, I have realized that many clarinettists have never seen a male/female playing a certain instrument. Being literally nomadic, I have seen males and females on all instruments

Just FYI, our school has more males to females on clarinets, with preference to males (66% for honour band).

I'm still in confusion that our music director here is female and graduated in tuba performance.

In conclusion, I would like to point out that the gender difference on instruments is purely of appearance, and it really depends on whether you play the instrument well or not.

pz from Shanghai

TJY~

in my orchestra we have 10 clarinettists and only 2 are boys.

my school is really bad for music at the moment, nobody si of a good stanbdard or shows any potential other than some flottists(if aht is how you spell it) there are no male clarinetists at my school as all of them quit playing!

Teehee Maki ... what flautists are we talking about here ? .Anyway ... in our East Renfrewshire Orchestra the top 5 or 6 flautists are all 5th and 6th year male players ( with the exeption of me ) . I find that in bands and orchestras i've played in that the majority of clarinetists are female however .

Julie x