Sidnee McLeod

Dr. Veblen
Music 1800A
December 6th, 2015
Reading: Abeles
Abeles, H. (2009). Are musical instrument gender associations changing? Journal of Research in Music
Education, 57(2), 127-139. doi:10.1177/0022429409335878
This article talks about stereotypes within music, especially with the battle of the sexes and the
influences when choosing a musical instrument. This article takes a look at the types of instruments that
males and females to choose, and sees whether there is a sort of peer pressure to choose a certain
instrument. Do girls and boys have to play certain instruments because there is a gender association
with each one? This article talks about the appearance of this stereotype, and how it could be posing as
a problem to students throughout the years, because it makes them feel obligated to choose an
instrument within their gender, or else they may be isolated, bullied, or made to feel like they are not
fitting into their gender. Therefore, each gender may feel like that there is a limit to what instrument
they can choice, and this therefore limits their freedom and creativity. A couple of studies were
performed throughout the years, and from the research, they are actually able to construct a spectrum
of female to male, and where the instruments fall on the spectrum.
I found this spectrum quite interesting, because I wanted to see if I was in the normal area of
the spectrum, what with my primary instrument being the trombone. When I looked at the spectrum
that Abeles was describing, it said that trombones are apparently more of a masculine instrument,
which would have been surprising to me in my grade nine year, over the years, however, I can see how

that stereotype may have become true with my own personal experiences. When I first started playing
the trombone, the majority of the trombonist in my class were females, and in my concert band, they
were all female. In grade ten, more males began to choose the trombone, and then in grade eleven, I
was the only female out of many more males playing the trombone for two years. Now, here at
University, I am the only female out of the eight trombones in the studio. This whole spectrum is
interesting, because it came true in my experience, and it makes me wonder if my first year playing the
trombone was out of the ordinary, and now I wonder if the whole reason why I see less and less female
trombones is because of that gender association. I hope not.
I was surprised when I was continuing to read the spectrum on how much of it was technically
true. When analyzing my bands that I have been in throughout the years, I can honestly say that this
spectrum is an accurate representation of most instrumental sections in band. The flutes and clarinets
are made up of mostly females, and the trombones and percussion are mostly male, and the saxophone
has an equal combination of both females and males. The only ones that I would have to argue with that
do not fit within the spectrum are the trumpets and French horns. French horns are apparently
supposed to be more female, but I found that there is more of an equal balance between males and
females within the sections that I see in ensembles. As for the trumpets, I see more and more females
appearing in the sections for the ensembles- in my ensemble, actually, there is almost an even split, five
girls, and four boys. Hopefully since the information in the article is a little bit older, this could mean that
there is progress in the right direction for freedom of choice in a students instrument?
I am just frustrated and unhappy with the potential idea that females and males feel like they
have to choose an instrument that suits their gender. Abeles talks around the end how gender
association may not be the main reason that students choose the instrument that they have. I really

hope that this stereotype is disappearing; I know that gender association with instruments did not
influence me to have preference for the flute or clarinet. Originally, I wanted to play the flute or clarinet
in band because my older sister used to play both of those instruments, and she played them really well.
I really liked the sound and feel of the instruments, and I wanted to be exactly like my older sister, so I
was determined to play one of them when I made it to grade nine music. That did not go according to
plan; my teacher had a different instrument in mind for me: the trombone- there was an overload of
flutes and clarinets already. I do not regret playing the trombone, of course. It actually opened my mind
to a lot of things that the flute and clarinet may not have been able to do.
If there is an influence for choosing an instrument with gender stereotypes, I want to know how
to get rid of that way of thinking and provide liberty for a students musical decision. The article says
that the music educators need more systematic interventions if gender associations are to be
reduced (Abeles, 2007. p. 137). The question I want to ask the author is what kind of interventions are
being specified? What do we do to reduce those gender associations? The article has effectively shown
and proved that they are potentially present, but the next steps for improvement are to find out what
we as music educators can do to stop it.