Hi all

In my home town of Gisborne i'm the only male flute player so i get all this **** from other people. I was just wondering if anyone else here has been in a situation like this one and how they dealt with it

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or knows of people this has happened to and how they dealt with it

There are plenty of fine examples that break the mold of the stereotype that you are mentioning but because of ignorance, many people seem to hold onto their misconceptions like they are a religion. In my opinion, it actually has seemed to increase in recent years because people seem to be more concerned with appearance rather than substance.
However, you can't hold yourself responsible for other people's ignorance. If you enjoy playing your musical instrument of choice, then learn it well and perform your art as best that you are able.

In every music scene that I play in outside of legit, there is no stigma. The women in the big band I play in play trombone and trumpet...I play sax and double on flute and clarinet. In my rock band, the only woman plays bass...I play keyboards, sax and flute.

In the professional jazz scene, I can't think of a time that I've seen a woman playing flute...all men: James Moody, John Callaway, Eric Dolphy, etc...

You might ask the question why woman flute players only play legit (i.e. non-improvisational) music...are the just 'stuck' there??

IME, it's a lot like playing bass. You also get to respect. So it's often to your advantage to learn a bit of jazz or funk if you've got one to keep the naysayers at bay. With a flute, this would be jazz or techniques like beatboxing. Fun and a nice diversion as well from the usually tedious fodder found in classical music.

Actually, I think that's half of it - much of the European classical music of the last 200 years or so tends to use the flute as essentially high-end filler and effects as opposed to a major part of the sound. That reinforces a negative stereotype in many people's minds. But if you get into more modern music and especially music written outside of the typical European school of thought, it's amazing how well rounded an instrument it is.

Oh - interesting tidbit - Aside from the drum, the flute is the second oldest man-made instrument. Examples from the Stone Age have been found. That's a lot of musical history to explore.

It's kind of funny seeing so many musical professionals these days that are male! I'm surprised. But there does tend to be more females on the higher instruments and more males on the lower ones. I don't quite understand it though. Seems to be an equal amount of female and male oboists though. Strange...

Thanks for all the advice

"It's kind of funny seeing so many musical professionals these days that are male! I'm surprised. But there does tend to be more females on the higher instruments and more males on the lower ones."

Actually, there is more of a tendency for women to make it as professionals in modern times. If you looked at the rosters of symphony orchestras in the past, you'd see that men were far more prevalent on all instruments so it isn't funny at all to me to see males playing any instruments.

On the higher levels of ability, it takes intense dedication to purpose and mastery of the instrument. There is no reason why women (or vice versa) would be more (or less) suited to play flute since the physical and artistic requirements are not gender related.

Bilbo: Yeah. I noticed theres more older men especially in symphony orchestras (Lol, you call them "roasters"). A lot of younger females playing instruments though. You are completely right!

I don't quite understand why females tend to head towards the higher instruments. I mean, there's no real difference between a male vs. a female player. People at my school find higher instruments "girly" for reasons I don't understand. I don't really care being the only guy out of 30 flutes and clarinets. I guess I'm the only oboe though. (Hehehe!)

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Oh! You call them rosters, not roasters. Same difference.

Roster: a list of people.

Roaster:
1.One that roasts.
2.A special pan or apparatus for roasting.
3.Something, especially a young chicken, that is fit for roasting.

I suppose that they could be considered the same IF the stage were very warm.

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I think that younger people have become more image-conscious than before relative to being "macho". They may have more of a tendency to think that how a person dresses, wears their hair, or any display of preferences at all for that matter must define their sexual tendencies. So, "stereotype stamping" may be more blatantly prevalent than my generation. On the other hand, I have more male students than ever before and I don't see where their instrument of choice is defining anything in this regard.

In my band, I'm the only male clarinetist. I think total in my band we have like, maybe 5 guys and 25 girls. But I'm first chair and also play E flat clarinet. To me it doesn't matter that I'm the only guy, I play at my best (which just happens to be a lot better than theirs) and that I'm having fun. It really doesn't bug me, since the other clarinetists really suck.

(And I've played flute and piccolo before, and I really enjoyed it =] I don't think its girly in any way, it takes a lot of skill to play piccolo well!)

Thanks for all your support guys (and Girls)

Oddly....only male replies. Would be good to hear from the fairer sex of all ages.

Guess I'm guilty of making assumptions...based on your message content. thanx

I've never been in the situation (seeing as I'm a girl) but I've known boy flute players, and they're all so good that no one dares make fun of them, I guess you have to just let it roll off you, and know that most of the best flutists are guys.

I know a !*****! flute player but it isn't a man, it's a woman. And she's fantastic on piccolo, too. She doesn't like the whole 'girly' image of the flute. She's very talented, also very good on piano and vocals. Her parents 'chose' the flute for her because they already HAD one, her older sister had played in grade school and given it up, their school program had a 'mandatory' band year and her parents weren't going to rent or buy something different.

I don't know why other girls want to learn the flute, as opposed to sax, trumpet, bassoon, etc, but I think I liked the flute best of all the instruments on display because it was shiny.
That was more than 25 years ago, when 5th graders who wanted to be in band chose what instrument they wanted from flute, clarinet, sax, trumpet, percussion- and I honestly don't remember if there were other choices at that point. We were simply getting our rental instruments. I thought the clarinets looked ugly.