Quite! And if Iain Anderson can play the flute, boys can play the clarinet!!

You know what, what makes clarinets "girly"? People should judge any aspect of music based on ones capability, When i played clarinet i got called a "pansy" because of what i played, and i'm a girl. But you know what? I ended my clarinet carrer on first chair and now im 13 with a bass clarinet getting ready to go into a symphony! BOO YAA!i don't get crap from anyone anymore. So go show them that clarinets can rock out man! \m/ And show them that unless they are better than than you playin wise, they need to shut it! Peace.

AKR

Some time ago, I watched the Bert Kaempfurt Orchestra in concert. The baritone sax player was the tiniest little scrap I've ever seen. The seats away sat the piccolo player - he was a h-u-g-e, giant of man doubling on, think, clarinet and alto sax. I don't anyone was calling him a pansy, and the lass on bari was one hell of a player!!

the clarinet professor at the college i want to go to is a guy and he's awesome!!

-Amanda

Well, i am a girl, i am first chair i dont have a problem with guys playing the clarinet because there is like 5 of them on my school.

I only think that as long as you are good, nobody has a reason to tell you anything.

Flute players were mentioned in an earlier post, and to that, I have to add Nicholas Gunn and Carlos Nakai....amazing and awesome to listen to. They are my inspiration to learn to play the flute and someday play it on the south rim of the Grand Canyon!

i dont know i get the opposite, like people treat me like "one of the guys" bc i play bass clarinet, and i had a friend who said "its funny that you play a masculine instrumen for such a small girl." what? i didnt know that instruments had genders! wow i must be out of the loop. or way more mature than these people. oh, and i dont know if he was mentioned earlier, but kenny g? hes amazing.

Well I can't exactly say that that's happened to me or seen it happen, but that's probably because #1-I'm a girl, and #2-I go to an all-girl's school. But I can say that I think that it's so ridiculous that people are that immature. I think that anyone can play any instrument they want. Just a couple of days ago we had a woodwind quintet come to our school and play for us and the clarinet player was a guy from Spain. And I myself am 5' and am skinnier than my clarinet and yet I also play the contrabass clarinet(yes, it is bigger than me). So I think that stereotypes are stupid and should be ignored. Personally, I wouldn't mind seeing some more male clarinets in this world. And I say, just ignore them and prove them SO wrong because they're probably just jealous of your kick-ass skill.

Wow, I have never heard someone say that the clairinet was girly! In fact, most of the clarinet players in my school band are guys! Most of the guys actually have made 1st chair as well. I am a girl, and I think that you can play whatever instrument that you want to play!

wow i have never heard of that but then again i do nnot play the clarinet and i am a girl. our band is really small though so tha might ave something to do with it . we only have 2 clarinets lol

In fourth grade, I was the only boy to take up the clarinet. Yes, everyone was like "that's a girly instrument!" or some other comments, but now, after going to a summer music conservatory, being one of the two clarinetists in my school to get into Jr. Semsba, joining a very hard community band that has many proffesional players in it, I happen to be on of the top two or three clarinetists in my middle school! No one is calling the clarinet girly anymore! And, in a few days, I might even get the outstanding male musician award for my school... Trust me, the clarinet is not girly, and I just want to blow the highest note possible on a clarinet into a person's ear when they say that!

But theres one thing at my school, theres like about 7 of us im the only boy clarinet player, and there is the "best" player in the band saying clarinet is a girl instroment. Im first chair, and the one who actually has good tone and doesnt blast when it says forte. The "best" player is also a guy who plays the bari sax, and of coarse theres a war of all the clarinets sayinf we are better than sax and when i say sumthing he comes up with says that he cant say anything bad because we are all girls, HECK NO! i got !***!ed cuz everytime i see another clarinet player who is a guy, my "friends" say hes !*****! so he doesnt count and so dont i. 1 thing, im NOT !*****!, and ive gone out with plenty of girls, so WTF (what the freak)!!! and there is one ex-director who is now a history teacher (ew!) and i tell my "friends" that he also played the clarinet, and since the history teachers voice is all squeeky, they say he is !*****!, lol...he's single and 64. W/E but still we need to find out some ways to get everyone back. Being the best clarinet in your band and also being a guy doesnt help. No matter how good you are they still say things. AND why is it that we dont make fun of the guys who play flute? only clarinets??? GOSH! I hope high school will be different, oh yeah, all the players there who play clarinet are also GIRLS! oh, and pranks always do help to get sumone back...

^what makes you think only guys who play clarinet get made fun of, and not flute? ever heard the term "man-flute"? (we use it affectionately at my school... but it isn't always everywhere).

i think my school has someone of each gender who plays every single instrument. except maybe contra clarinet because the guy just graduated, but that hardly counts, since it could just be a "low clarinet" category anyway- and how many contras do you really need?

I can see why people say that (I don't know why but i can) but that's ridiculous! Some of the best clarinet players in history were mail (benny goodman!!!) and my bf plays the clarinet it's good you love playing the clarinet because it's stupid for anyone to say it's a "girly" instrument. There is no "girly" instrument....all instruments seem to be pretty much created by males and played by males until girls somehow stepped in (and I'm glad we did)

I don't know where that attitude comes from. You look at most professionals, and they're men. Not that women can't be good clarinetists. I can name a lot: Pat Kostek (my teacher), Jana Starling, Sabina Meyer, etc. Also, until more recently, ONLY men were professional orchestral players. Instruments like clarinet, flute, harp, etc. were not women's instruments because women only played them as amateurs.