Gender in Band

As a percussionist, I've personally seen the differences in genders and how they relate to music and choice in instrument. Back in the sixth grade, everybody that joined the band class had to try out for a couple instruments, and then the teacher would assign them to what instrument they could potentially do the best at. Even then, it was very rare to see any boys try out for flute or clarinet because they are small and delicate sounding, so they were thought to be girly. It was also rare to see any girls try out for percussion because they thought of drums as loud, masculine instruments. Because of this, almost all of the flutes and clarinets were girls, and almost all of the percussionists were boys. The thing is, no one really told us what instruments to try out for, we just went for whatever we thought was cool or interesting and it just happened. 

Even before I was in band, I still had music in my life. My sisters all took piano lessons when we were kids, and when my parents asked me if I wanted to join them, I told them I wanted to play drum set instead. When you look at stage bands, you mostly see only men playing drums, bass guitar, or electric guitar. When you look at keys, vocals, and acoustic guitar, you will see both men and women on these, but I always thought it was weird that there were not many women on the other instruments. Also, on the production and behind the scenes side of music, you never see women. I have only ever seen men do the sound wiring for stages, and I have only seen men operate the mixer in the back. I'm not really sure why, but no matter what area of music you look at, men tend lean towards the technical side of music, like drums and sound design, while women tend to lean towards the more artistic side of music, like singing. 

Another interesting difference in gender in music that I have noticed is the opposing strengths and weaknesses that men and women have in percussion. Since marching percussion usually takes a bit more physical strength and endurance, girls might have to try a bit harder to build up the physical strength that most boys have naturally. Therefore, marching percussion seems to come easier to most boys in high school and college. When it comes to the concert and soloist side of percussion, you often see girls doing a bit better than boys. Boys don't want to play with touch or pay attention to more delicate styles of playing, but instead want to compete to find out who can play the most notes the fastest. As you get older, the disparity evens out a bit. People mature, boys realize that you can play challenging music in concert settings, and girls grow enough to carry a drum comfortably and keep up with the pace of taller guys. This is not to say that girls can't march a drum, or that boys can't play concert music, they just might have to work a little bit harder to keep up with what comes naturally to others. 

For example: 

The best indoor percussion group in the world is about 70-80% male. The group is called Music City Mystique (btw I played there last year), and they had never had a woman on the drum line until last year. The physical expectations are extremely high, so it is often a little bit harder for women to keep up with the large step sizes of men, or the physicality of playing (marching percussion takes a lot of arm strength and men naturally have larger arms). I'm not saying that women can't play there, but in 2017, when they won world championships, there were only two women in the whole group.

Two examples of women in concert settings that I really like are Eriko Daimo playing the solo she arranged called "Kussi", and a percussion ensemble of the piece "Cold Light" with a women playing the solo marimba part. These are women that are just as good, if no better, than most men in their field. 

My Musical Culture

 Hey, my name is Sean Giovannetti and I am a Music Composition major. I just transferred here this semester and I was a Mechatronics Engineering major at Middle Tennessee State University. I am a percussionist that has been playing for almost 10 years now. I mostly play marimba because it is the instrument that I enjoy the most. I did marching band in high school and indoor drum line every year since 8th grade. I have lived in Boiling Springs, SC for most of my life and I lived in Murfreesboro, TN when I was going to MTSU. Outside of band and school, I spend most of my time at church or binge watching movies and tv shows. My future career goal is to compose scores for movies, tv shows, and video games. Also, I have long hair now, but I don't have any pictures with long hair. 

1. Something I like right now:

I have always liked Anderson .Paak and soon after he and Bruno Mars dropped Silk Sonic, I found out that the Free Nationals, Anderson .Paak's live band, had an album they had released on their own. The Free Nationals' NPR Tiny Desk Concert is one of my favorite tiny desk concerts, so I had to check out their album. All of the songs on the album are great, but one song stood out the most to me. The song Gidget featuring Anderson .Paak and T.Nava is my favorite song on the album and it stays on repeat. It masterfully combines organic and electronic instrumentation to create a groovy Neo-funk feel. Also, when they come in with the talk box (the electronic voice thing), you can just turn the volume up and vibe.

The next song on the same album is equally good and it is called RENE featuring Callum Conner.

2. Music that is deeply important to me:

Ever since I was a little kid, I have been watching lots and lots of movies and tv shows, but I still remember the first live action movie I ever watched. That movie was Tim Burton's Beetlejuice. I had always loved Tim Burton's movies even before I watched this and Danny Elfman's compositions for his movies were always great. The Main Titles song has a super spooky feel and would always get stuck in my head whenever I watched the movie. I once even played this song in indoor drum line as a warmup of sorts. It is super fun to play because it has a lot of fast runs and offbeat rhythms. The first tattoo I ever got was also a tattoo from this movie of Adam and Barbara, the two dead main characters. 

I also really enjoy the Beetlejuice Musical soundtrack and listen it every once in a while. The story is a little different than the movie and explores the more emotional side of the story. I really like the song Dead Mom sung by Sophia Anne Caruso. She has a good voice and the song has a completely different emotion than the rest, which are all spooky or comedic. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEct4Nod2iU

3. Music I don't really connect with:

I am pretty open to all types of music and genres and as long as the music is good, I can appreciate it or understand why people like it. There are only two types of music I actually dislike, and those are modern country music and The Beatles. I might get hate for disliking these two things, but I think modern country music is so lazy and The Beatles are super uninvolved and repetitive. Most of the country songs that I have heard from the last decade are always about trucks, booze, or some unnamed girl that sounds made up. Not to mention, most modern country songs have either the same or very similar chord progressions, so once you've heard one, you've heard all of them. The reason I don't like The Beatles is because they are hyped up for releasing a slightly different version of the same song many times. Their music is just way to slow and repetitive for me to ever consider listening to casually. 

Here is a video of a guy on YouTube mashing up several different country songs just to show how similar and repetitive they are. Unless you know the songs, you really can't tell the difference. 

This is one of The Beatles' most popular songs and I can't even force myself to listen to the entire video because the song is so formulaic and derivative of older music. 

Also, I want to say no offense to anyone who likes these two things; you can listen to or like whatever music you want, I won't think any less of you because of it. This is just an opinion of mine and I won't be listening to either of these anytime soon.