Q: A couple of people I've spoken to at sessions recently have made interesting observations about the instrument you play being related somehow to gender. One female flute player/flutist/fluter [not flautist] commented that she thought that "flute playing is more of a blokey thing to do in Irish music". Do you agree? A bouzouki player who does master classes recently told me that most of the zouk players in his classes are male, and that there are only ever one or two females, if any. What are your experiences of gender roles in traditional music? Write your answer in the space below. For draft work use a separate answer sheet. Do not use correction fluid or you will be penalised.
It could be a physical thing Dow like harp playing sits well with the female form
as does whistle. Some females may have trouble seeing a bouzouki and have to play by brail
The squeeze box (stomache pump) could be androgenous as is percussion and fiddle. I may stop here
before i bury myself. Are there female bones players? Who plays the paper and comb?
Harp is gender-free, I think. O'Carolan, Derek Bell, etc. So is the whistle. Almost all the kids in Ireland pick it up at school, I heard. But, female low whistle players are a bit rare as far as I know. And I've never heard of any female piper. I personally think it's really cool if a woman plays the loud pipes.
Flashbaxz, bouzouki is a Greek instrument, which looks like a mandolin but is one octave lower. One famous musician introduced it in the traditional music scene for the accompaniment around thirty years ago or so.
I just remember female banjo players are also rare.
i am female, i play mandolin and bouzouki as well as fiddle, guitar,bass and bodhran and i have been known to play various whistles.funny enough im also looking to buy a banjo after trying out a banjo in my old band. my mother plays drums and percussion: bones, bodhran, drum kit, bongos etc, she is better than the male bodhran players that come to our sessions as they seem to think you have to beat the life out of the poor thing nestled under your arm. mind you. this also leads to them squeezing any sort of tone out of the poor thing.
my mother and i dont think anything of it, and she has always encouraged me to play various instruments since i was young, because thats what i wanted to do. but once we started playing in pubs and venues, we realised that we were getting loads of 'stick' for playing certain instruments from the audience and fellow male players because of sitting positions, gloves for drums etc, which really did my head in!!
at the end of the day, it doesnt matter what sex you are playing an instrument as long as you are committed and devoted to the music. shapes of instruments have never bothered me, or any other women i know who play generally male dominated instruments.
We could do with more female players at our session, to improve the scenery at least, but more for the finer touch. I don't think I've ever seen a female piper - Kathryn Tickell excluded.
I'm not sure if the flute is a blokey thing. Maybe there are proportionately more male Irish Traditional players than classical players, as I'm led to believe classical flute is more female dominated. From my empirical observation, playing in sessions in general seems more blokey, but maybe I just keep ending up at the wrong sessions!
It's nice when people say,"The harp suits you, since you are pretty and have such long hair, blah , blah..." But that is getting tired--I like to think I rock out on the harp, not just play pretty arpeggios, and such. Most of the harpers I know are female, but not all, and of course as we know, back in O'Carolan's day, harping was not considered especially feminine. I think that idea came along in Victorian times with parlor music. And in medieval times, women were forbidden to play wind instruments--I beleive it had something to do with the suggestiveness of putting one's mouth on something and blowing. (In those days, women were barely allowed to do much at all outside of the "normal" womanly role of childbearing, back-- breaking houehold labor, etc.
Anyway, partly because I wanted to rock out even more is why I am learning fiddle. And bunyip--I just discovered that a female aquaintance of mine has been playing the banjo for years!
There are two female pipers living in my general area-Southwest Ontario. Maybe more, of course, but two that I know of. But most of the women musicians are fiddlers or flute and whistle players. I attended the very first Zoukfest and there were two women zouk/citternests out of about 13 or 14 attendees. Another woman was there in a more professional capacity. I have only seen one woman tenor banjo player. She plays in the band Calasaig. In American old time music there are lots female five string banjo players.
I think the subject should have been "Music and Gender" as my mind went into overdrive even though it is Lent.
I am also surprised no one else to the subject literally.
We have had a punter asking why our string bass player always had a smile on his face and did his bass have a knot-hole in the back?
The answer was, "No, he is on something!".
i dont know what you think andee or any other females out there, but the people who seem to point out the 'gender' of instrument playing are male. women just seem to get on with it, but of my experiences, its the men who point out the gender differences, mainly because of (to quote domhniaill) 'improved scenery' in a session or on stage.
it has been said that instruments, such as the electric guitar, are an 'extension of the phallus' so to speak, and that is why instrument playing is male dominated. (i just think most of the time electric guitars are an extension of the ego. in my local music club, we get about 4-5 guitarists on stage at once, constantly turning their amps up to be heard over the rest until the 'music' just becomes a noise)
i agree with andee, that women, until now have been limited in society with the amount of traditional instrument playing that has been available, and now we are catching up.
Flashbaxz asked "What is a paper and comb? What is a bouzouki?"
Paper and comb is a budget version of a kazoo. If you don't know what a kazoo is, I can't really help you much, except to say that it's a high-tech version of paper and comb, a means by which the human voice is vibrated over some kind waxed paper in order to give it a buzzy, antiquey, mosquito-like (and therefore vaguely annoying) sound.
A bouzouki is an instrument that resembles a mandolin with a thyroid condition. It's eight stringed, fretted, double-coursed instrument (which means that the strings are in pairs, tuned in unison or in octaves, such that fretting a pair of strings gives the same note). Sometimes it's tuned to GDAE like a fiddle (but an octave lower), and sometimes it's tuned DADG. (And sometimes it's barely tuned at all; nyuk, nyuk, nyuk!)
In respose to Bryan's question - I know of a female bones player, for Reading, Berkshire. On being asked how she learned to play them, she told me that her father had taught her. How did her father learn? One day, as a child, he was playing in his back garden, in Reading, when he found a couple of pieces of slate on a flowerbed. Of all the things a child might be inclined to do with two pieces of slate, he decided to hold them in his hand in such a way that they could knock together and make a clacking sound. and the rest, as they say, is history.........
Sorry, I've gone off the subject. Female pipers do exist, although I can only think of one at the moment - Christine(?) Mulcahy - and a mighty fine one. Incidentally, there is another well known (although not nearly so well known as Kathryn tickell) Northumbrian piper, Pauline Cato.
Fretted instruments, especially the larger ones, tend to be played predominatly by men. One might assume that this has something to do with hand size. But then, I've seen 10 and 11 year olds, male and female, playing full-scale tenor banjos with apparent ease. And one of the finest banjo players I have met happens to be a woman.
I agree with you bunyip--women just get on with it--and we are finally catching up!
As for the hand size thing--I'm not so sure--big or small, we all have ways of compensating. My harp teacher is a stellar player with small hands--even though one would think big hands/long fingers would more easily make the octave or 10th reach. And what about all of those great fiddle guys with meat hooks for fingers?
sorry domhniaill, i wasnt picking on you, i was just trying to stress the point that women hear comments like that all the time, and a lot of the time they are not meant as compliments.
i get them off seedy drunken men in pubs where they have no interest in the music that you want to play, and you spend your time either ignoring them or trying to get them off your back, and not concentrating so much on your music and having a laugh.
I was merely thinking of our session, where the core is 4 big horrible geezers - myself included. But I shouldn't have said something that could easily be interpreted as a patronising sexist remark.
It's going to be difficult to avoid it by the very nature of this thread, so we'll have to be careful.
It would be my ill-educated, inexcusably male-oriented best guess that there aren't many physical (i.e., anatomical) reasons for any person's--male or female--preference for one musical instrument over another. Seems like cultural issues are the more likely culprit. In Irish trad music, women have probably played the music for as long as men have, but cultural biases kept most of them out of the limelight until the last few generations. But if you read bios on most of the "name" players from the last 100 years, many of them learned the music at least in part from their mothers.
Any apparent discrepancies in the numbers of women/men playing a certain instrument probably have more to do with available role models and the opportunity to cross over from other genres directed by other cultural mores (which would be more likely on flute and fiddle, say, than uilleann pipes or tenor banjo).
BTW, here in Helena, Montana, we have a tremendous highland piper, a co-leader of the local pipe and drum corps, who happens to be female. I've never thought anything of it.
I'm very happy to be living in an age where gender (and age, and religious, and racial) differences don't make any musical difference--where everyone is welcome at sessions. But maybe that's just the sessions I've been to.
Thinking about the trouble Danny is trying to dig himself out of ( ), I have to agree that I enjoy the "scenery" more when company is mixed. But maybe I can help Danny out a bit here. Among button box players, Dermot Byrne and Sharon Shannon are both handsome creatures (besides being mighty players), but in my single days it would've been Ms. Shannon to catch my eye. And a woman friend of mine says the same about lovely Dermot....
I have met only two male Irish Harpists in the Dallas area. Both of them seem to be slightly more affeminant than other Irish Male musicians. The rest of the harpists have been women. I didn't meet a single male harpist while I was in Jersey although I saw quite a few women. I am inclined to say that learning the harp does not appeal to guys over in NJ or here in Texas. Anyone agree with this notion?
Will Harmon said: "It would be my ill-educated, inexcusably male-oriented best guess that there aren't many physical (i.e., anatomical) reasons for any person's--male or female--preference for one musical instrument over another."
I disagree. Number of arms or hands, number of fingers in each hand, seem to be a good determinant on choosing between, say, bodhran and fiddle. Number of fingers in the right hand is a determinant on choosing fiddle over flute.
Oy, Glauber, there was this three-legged man in the pub last week who could step dance with two feet while tapping out a steady rhythm with the third....
So what instrument would you recommend for a three-eyed, wooden-fingered creature such as myself?
Ah yes, the redoubtable Moravian nose flute, assuming that I have a nose, in the "traditional" sense....
This comment has been attributed to various 20th Century British conductors, about the female cellist who took "the finest instrument known to man, put it between her legs and scraped it with a stick".
Go ahead and yuck it up Fun Boy I am quite certain that a few of them were Harpy's. I have seen beautiful Harpists and women who look like me playing the harps. I make a fairly ugly man and an even uglier woman.
Along the lines of geoffwright's comment, there is a quote attributed to Sir Thomas Beecham, who was speaking to one of his female cellists when he said, "Madam, you have between your legs an instrument capable of giving pleasure to thousands, and all you can do is scratch it."
There are a few women pipers around, one now living in South London - Marie McClean. She also plays fiddle and whistle - too talented by half. There's another good piper from Aughrim whose name escapes me, but apart from ms Mulcahy, they're the only ones I've encountered. I personally think the lack of women pipers is due to the instrument being traditionally seen as a male instrument, probably because it can sometimes be physically strenuous to play. Thankfully this instrument-gender relationship is changing, especially with banjos - I know loads of girls who play them.
I've seen a couple of good 'uns in Cambridge UK also. I've only seen one female zouk player though. I think women are underrepresented in the rhythm section for sure. To all females: go and buy a rhythm instrument and be backers!
Mark, I know that our Helena Montana session isn't the exemplar of Irish trad sessions--we're far removed from the source, and none of us grew up in the culture. But we've got a woman zouk player and a woman guitarist, and they're both really terrific backers.
Now I'm not bragging, but I've also noticed that whenever someone who *did* grow up in the session culutre visits us, they always compliment our session for being so high caliber and authentic. I don't think the gender of our players, or the ages, or the hammered dulcimer in the corner, or the three bodhrans (on a good night ;o) strikes them as odd or out of bounds at all. And we've hosted some very high echelon players as well as just rock solid session players from Ireland, Boston, and NYC. This suggests that attitudes are indeed changing, as are the demographics of session players, all for the better, and so much so that no one seems to pay any mind to it anymore.
There must be a few female Northumbrian pipers around now, in and after the Kathryn Tickell generation. But on an LP of recordings of pipers from a long time back, there was a lady whose surname was Blackett-Ord, and in the '70's (I think) Anthony and Carole Robb played them on the album "Cut And Dry Dolly", which helped in the revival of the instrument. I believe Becky Taylor plays North. and uilleann pipes. But I can imagine Irish pipers of the past being reluctant to lend them to the missus, for fear she might mess the reeds up..!
One thing I've never seen is a female Highland piper. Evidently women are made of sterner stuff in parts of the USA, to judge from threads above.
And what sex animal are the best bones supposed to come from?
I wrote about guitar fetishism in a copyrighted story by the
same name. As a child I'd learned to use a plastic ukulele
to play with myself!
And of course, it's no surprise why electric guitar music
is so popular...it can be FELT as well as heard. And when
played the original way ("Hawaiian" style with a steel penis,
LOL!,against the strings...) the music takes on a sticky
quality....just like (and suggestive of) an orgasm!
For women to play electric guitars is of course,sexual
empowerment....it's been a long time coming....
Music And Sex
Music And Sex
Made you look
Q: A couple of people I've spoken to at sessions recently have made interesting observations about the instrument you play being related somehow to gender. One female flute player/flutist/fluter [not flautist] commented that she thought that "flute playing is more of a blokey thing to do in Irish music". Do you agree? A bouzouki player who does master classes recently told me that most of the zouk players in his classes are male, and that there are only ever one or two females, if any. What are your experiences of gender roles in traditional music? Write your answer in the space below. For draft work use a separate answer sheet. Do not use correction fluid or you will be penalised.
# Posted on March 9th 2003 by Dr. Dow
Re: Music And Sex
It could be a physical thing Dow like harp playing sits well with the female form
as does whistle. Some females may have trouble seeing a bouzouki and have to play by brail
The squeeze box (stomache pump) could be androgenous as is percussion and fiddle. I may stop here
before i bury myself. Are there female bones players? Who plays the paper and comb?
# Posted on March 9th 2003 by Bryan
Re: Music And Sex
Q. What do you call a band made up of female box players?
A. Women In Pain
# Posted on March 9th 2003 by Zina Lee
Re: Music And Sex
what is a paper and comb? what is a bouzouki? Please enlighten me.
# Posted on March 9th 2003 by flashbaxz
Re: Music And Sex
Harp is gender-free, I think. O'Carolan, Derek Bell, etc. So is the whistle. Almost all the kids in Ireland pick it up at school, I heard. But, female low whistle players are a bit rare as far as I know. And I've never heard of any female piper. I personally think it's really cool if a woman plays the loud pipes.
# Posted on March 9th 2003 by slainte
Flashbaxz, bouzouki is a Greek instrument, which looks like a mandolin but is one octave lower. One famous musician introduced it in the traditional music scene for the accompaniment around thirty years ago or so.
I just remember female banjo players are also rare.
# Posted on March 9th 2003 by slainte
Re: Music And Sex
i am female, i play mandolin and bouzouki as well as fiddle, guitar,bass and bodhran and i have been known to play various whistles.funny enough im also looking to buy a banjo after trying out a banjo in my old band. my mother plays drums and percussion: bones, bodhran, drum kit, bongos etc, she is better than the male bodhran players that come to our sessions as they seem to think you have to beat the life out of the poor thing nestled under your arm. mind you. this also leads to them squeezing any sort of tone out of the poor thing.
my mother and i dont think anything of it, and she has always encouraged me to play various instruments since i was young, because thats what i wanted to do. but once we started playing in pubs and venues, we realised that we were getting loads of 'stick' for playing certain instruments from the audience and fellow male players because of sitting positions, gloves for drums etc, which really did my head in!!
at the end of the day, it doesnt matter what sex you are playing an instrument as long as you are committed and devoted to the music. shapes of instruments have never bothered me, or any other women i know who play generally male dominated instruments.
interesting subject dow
anyone know where i can get a decent banjo?!!!!
# Posted on March 9th 2003 by bunyip
Re: Music And Sex
We could do with more female players at our session, to improve the scenery at least, but more for the finer touch. I don't think I've ever seen a female piper - Kathryn Tickell excluded.
I'm not sure if the flute is a blokey thing. Maybe there are proportionately more male Irish Traditional players than classical players, as I'm led to believe classical flute is more female dominated. From my empirical observation, playing in sessions in general seems more blokey, but maybe I just keep ending up at the wrong sessions!
# Posted on March 9th 2003 by Rudall the time
Re: Music And Sex
It's nice when people say,"The harp suits you, since you are pretty and have such long hair, blah , blah..." But that is getting tired--I like to think I rock out on the harp, not just play pretty arpeggios, and such. Most of the harpers I know are female, but not all, and of course as we know, back in O'Carolan's day, harping was not considered especially feminine. I think that idea came along in Victorian times with parlor music. And in medieval times, women were forbidden to play wind instruments--I beleive it had something to do with the suggestiveness of putting one's mouth on something and blowing. (In those days, women were barely allowed to do much at all outside of the "normal" womanly role of childbearing, back-- breaking houehold labor, etc.
Anyway, partly because I wanted to rock out even more is why I am learning fiddle. And bunyip--I just discovered that a female aquaintance of mine has been playing the banjo for years!
# Posted on March 9th 2003 by Andee
Re: Music And Sex
There are two female pipers living in my general area-Southwest Ontario. Maybe more, of course, but two that I know of. But most of the women musicians are fiddlers or flute and whistle players. I attended the very first Zoukfest and there were two women zouk/citternests out of about 13 or 14 attendees. Another woman was there in a more professional capacity. I have only seen one woman tenor banjo player. She plays in the band Calasaig. In American old time music there are lots female five string banjo players.
Steve
# Posted on March 9th 2003 by SteveKendall
Re: Music And Gender
I think the subject should have been "Music and Gender" as my mind went into overdrive even though it is Lent.
I am also surprised no one else to the subject literally.
We have had a punter asking why our string bass player always had a smile on his face and did his bass have a knot-hole in the back?
The answer was, "No, he is on something!".
# Posted on March 9th 2003 by geoffwright
Re: Music And Sex
i dont know what you think andee or any other females out there, but the people who seem to point out the 'gender' of instrument playing are male. women just seem to get on with it, but of my experiences, its the men who point out the gender differences, mainly because of (to quote domhniaill) 'improved scenery' in a session or on stage.
it has been said that instruments, such as the electric guitar, are an 'extension of the phallus' so to speak, and that is why instrument playing is male dominated. (i just think most of the time electric guitars are an extension of the ego. in my local music club, we get about 4-5 guitarists on stage at once, constantly turning their amps up to be heard over the rest until the 'music' just becomes a noise)
i agree with andee, that women, until now have been limited in society with the amount of traditional instrument playing that has been available, and now we are catching up.
# Posted on March 10th 2003 by bunyip
Re: Music And Sex
Flashbaxz asked "What is a paper and comb? What is a bouzouki?"
Paper and comb is a budget version of a kazoo. If you don't know what a kazoo is, I can't really help you much, except to say that it's a high-tech version of paper and comb, a means by which the human voice is vibrated over some kind waxed paper in order to give it a buzzy, antiquey, mosquito-like (and therefore vaguely annoying) sound.
A bouzouki is an instrument that resembles a mandolin with a thyroid condition. It's eight stringed, fretted, double-coursed instrument (which means that the strings are in pairs, tuned in unison or in octaves, such that fretting a pair of strings gives the same note). Sometimes it's tuned to GDAE like a fiddle (but an octave lower), and sometimes it's tuned DADG. (And sometimes it's barely tuned at all; nyuk, nyuk, nyuk!)
More info here: http://www.ceolas.org/instruments/
---Michael B.
# Posted on March 10th 2003 by MichaelBolton
Re: Music And Sex
In respose to Bryan's question - I know of a female bones player, for Reading, Berkshire. On being asked how she learned to play them, she told me that her father had taught her. How did her father learn? One day, as a child, he was playing in his back garden, in Reading, when he found a couple of pieces of slate on a flowerbed. Of all the things a child might be inclined to do with two pieces of slate, he decided to hold them in his hand in such a way that they could knock together and make a clacking sound. and the rest, as they say, is history.........
Sorry, I've gone off the subject. Female pipers do exist, although I can only think of one at the moment - Christine(?) Mulcahy - and a mighty fine one. Incidentally, there is another well known (although not nearly so well known as Kathryn tickell) Northumbrian piper, Pauline Cato.
Fretted instruments, especially the larger ones, tend to be played predominatly by men. One might assume that this has something to do with hand size. But then, I've seen 10 and 11 year olds, male and female, playing full-scale tenor banjos with apparent ease. And one of the finest banjo players I have met happens to be a woman.
# Posted on March 10th 2003 by CreadurMawnOrganig
Re: Music And Sex
I agree with you bunyip--women just get on with it--and we are finally catching up!
As for the hand size thing--I'm not so sure--big or small, we all have ways of compensating. My harp teacher is a stellar player with small hands--even though one would think big hands/long fingers would more easily make the octave or 10th reach. And what about all of those great fiddle guys with meat hooks for fingers?
# Posted on March 10th 2003 by Andee
Re: Music And Sex
Bunyip - It was intended as a compliment.
# Posted on March 10th 2003 by Rudall the time
Re: Music And Sex
sorry domhniaill, i wasnt picking on you, i was just trying to stress the point that women hear comments like that all the time, and a lot of the time they are not meant as compliments.
i get them off seedy drunken men in pubs where they have no interest in the music that you want to play, and you spend your time either ignoring them or trying to get them off your back, and not concentrating so much on your music and having a laugh.
it just gets a bit mundane sometimes
sorry domhniaill
# Posted on March 10th 2003 by bunyip
Re: Music And Sex
I was merely thinking of our session, where the core is 4 big horrible geezers - myself included. But I shouldn't have said something that could easily be interpreted as a patronising sexist remark.
It's going to be difficult to avoid it by the very nature of this thread, so we'll have to be careful.
# Posted on March 10th 2003 by Rudall the time
Re: Music And Sex
May I put a word in here on behalf of us seedy drunken men in pubs ...
maybe not.
# Posted on March 10th 2003 by Ottery
Re: Music And Sex
It would be my ill-educated, inexcusably male-oriented best guess that there aren't many physical (i.e., anatomical) reasons for any person's--male or female--preference for one musical instrument over another. Seems like cultural issues are the more likely culprit. In Irish trad music, women have probably played the music for as long as men have, but cultural biases kept most of them out of the limelight until the last few generations. But if you read bios on most of the "name" players from the last 100 years, many of them learned the music at least in part from their mothers.
), I have to agree that I enjoy the "scenery" more when company is mixed. But maybe I can help Danny out a bit here. Among button box players, Dermot Byrne and Sharon Shannon are both handsome creatures (besides being mighty players), but in my single days it would've been Ms. Shannon to catch my eye. And a woman friend of mine says the same about lovely Dermot....
Any apparent discrepancies in the numbers of women/men playing a certain instrument probably have more to do with available role models and the opportunity to cross over from other genres directed by other cultural mores (which would be more likely on flute and fiddle, say, than uilleann pipes or tenor banjo).
BTW, here in Helena, Montana, we have a tremendous highland piper, a co-leader of the local pipe and drum corps, who happens to be female. I've never thought anything of it.
I'm very happy to be living in an age where gender (and age, and religious, and racial) differences don't make any musical difference--where everyone is welcome at sessions. But maybe that's just the sessions I've been to.
Thinking about the trouble Danny is trying to dig himself out of (
# Posted on March 10th 2003 by Will Harmon
Re: Music And Sex
I have met only two male Irish Harpists in the Dallas area. Both of them seem to be slightly more affeminant than other Irish Male musicians. The rest of the harpists have been women. I didn't meet a single male harpist while I was in Jersey although I saw quite a few women. I am inclined to say that learning the harp does not appeal to guys over in NJ or here in Texas. Anyone agree with this notion?
# Posted on March 10th 2003 by Mark Cordova
Re: Music And Sex
Will Harmon said: "It would be my ill-educated, inexcusably male-oriented best guess that there aren't many physical (i.e., anatomical) reasons for any person's--male or female--preference for one musical instrument over another."
I disagree. Number of arms or hands, number of fingers in each hand, seem to be a good determinant on choosing between, say, bodhran and fiddle. Number of fingers in the right hand is a determinant on choosing fiddle over flute.
# Posted on March 10th 2003 by glauber
Re: Music And Sex
That's near enough right, Will, particularly, as I say for the third time, ours is quite a "blokey" set of players.
Can I go now?
# Posted on March 10th 2003 by Rudall the time
Re: Music And Sex
Oy, Glauber, there was this three-legged man in the pub last week who could step dance with two feet while tapping out a steady rhythm with the third....
So what instrument would you recommend for a three-eyed, wooden-fingered creature such as myself?
Ah yes, the redoubtable Moravian nose flute, assuming that I have a nose, in the "traditional" sense....
# Posted on March 10th 2003 by Will Harmon
Mark, of the women you "saw" (*snicker*) in New Jersey, were any of them harpies, er, harpists?
*snort*
(sorry!
# Posted on March 10th 2003 by Will Harmon
Re: Scrape it with a stick
This comment has been attributed to various 20th Century British conductors, about the female cellist who took "the finest instrument known to man, put it between her legs and scraped it with a stick".
# Posted on March 11th 2003 by geoffwright
Female Piper
I just thought I would add, my Music teacher is a very talented piper.. and is female! A rare occurence if this forum is anything to go by!
# Posted on March 11th 2003 by ally_harlow
Re: Music And Sex
Not here in Toronto; two of the best pipers in town (Deb Quigley, Kelly Hood) are women.
---Michael B.
# Posted on March 11th 2003 by MichaelBolton
Re: Music And Sex
Will,
I am quite certain that a few of them were Harpy's. I have seen beautiful Harpists and women who look like me playing the harps. I make a fairly ugly man and an even uglier woman.
Go ahead and yuck it up Fun Boy
# Posted on March 11th 2003 by Mark Cordova
Re: Music And Sex
Along the lines of geoffwright's comment, there is a quote attributed to Sir Thomas Beecham, who was speaking to one of his female cellists when he said, "Madam, you have between your legs an instrument capable of giving pleasure to thousands, and all you can do is scratch it."
# Posted on March 11th 2003 by RG
Re: Music And Sex
There are a few women pipers around, one now living in South London - Marie McClean. She also plays fiddle and whistle - too talented by half. There's another good piper from Aughrim whose name escapes me, but apart from ms Mulcahy, they're the only ones I've encountered. I personally think the lack of women pipers is due to the instrument being traditionally seen as a male instrument, probably because it can sometimes be physically strenuous to play. Thankfully this instrument-gender relationship is changing, especially with banjos - I know loads of girls who play them.
Con
# Posted on March 12th 2003 by Conán McDonnell
Re: Music And Sex
I've seen a couple of good 'uns in Cambridge UK also. I've only seen one female zouk player though. I think women are underrepresented in the rhythm section for sure. To all females: go and buy a rhythm instrument and be backers!
# Posted on March 12th 2003 by Dr. Dow
Re: Music And Sex
Mark, I know that our Helena Montana session isn't the exemplar of Irish trad sessions--we're far removed from the source, and none of us grew up in the culture. But we've got a woman zouk player and a woman guitarist, and they're both really terrific backers.
Now I'm not bragging, but I've also noticed that whenever someone who *did* grow up in the session culutre visits us, they always compliment our session for being so high caliber and authentic. I don't think the gender of our players, or the ages, or the hammered dulcimer in the corner, or the three bodhrans (on a good night ;o) strikes them as odd or out of bounds at all. And we've hosted some very high echelon players as well as just rock solid session players from Ireland, Boston, and NYC. This suggests that attitudes are indeed changing, as are the demographics of session players, all for the better, and so much so that no one seems to pay any mind to it anymore.
# Posted on March 12th 2003 by Will Harmon
Re: Music And Sex
Oh I don't think that's odd at all - I think that's absolutely fantastic. Good on them. More of the same elsewhere please!
# Posted on March 12th 2003 by Dr. Dow
Re: Music And Sex
We have a 17 member pipe band called the "Heather Belles" all girls and all really good pipers.
# Posted on March 13th 2003 by ANNY
Re: Music And Sex
There must be a few female Northumbrian pipers around now, in and after the Kathryn Tickell generation. But on an LP of recordings of pipers from a long time back, there was a lady whose surname was Blackett-Ord, and in the '70's (I think) Anthony and Carole Robb played them on the album "Cut And Dry Dolly", which helped in the revival of the instrument. I believe Becky Taylor plays North. and uilleann pipes. But I can imagine Irish pipers of the past being reluctant to lend them to the missus, for fear she might mess the reeds up..!
One thing I've never seen is a female Highland piper. Evidently women are made of sterner stuff in parts of the USA, to judge from threads above.
And what sex animal are the best bones supposed to come from?
# Posted on September 4th 2006 by nicholas
Re: Music And Sex
Oh,wow! One of my favorite topics.
I wrote about guitar fetishism in a copyrighted story by the
same name. As a child I'd learned to use a plastic ukulele
to play with myself!
And of course, it's no surprise why electric guitar music
is so popular...it can be FELT as well as heard. And when
played the original way ("Hawaiian" style with a steel penis,
LOL!,against the strings...) the music takes on a sticky
quality....just like (and suggestive of) an orgasm!
For women to play electric guitars is of course,sexual
empowerment....it's been a long time coming....
# Posted on November 14th 2006 by ronald33