Does a Male-Dominated Band Make for a Better Band?


Earle

Well-Known Member
Do you think a band whose musicians are pre-dominantly male make for a better band? Since I am most familiar with Southern, I will use it as my point of reference. Of Southern;s approximately 225 members, I would estimate that roughly 35 to 40 of its musicians are female or about 19 to 20 per cent. This would leave the band (musicians) approximately 80 per cent male. Is Southern's quality a reflection of its male-dominated make-up? If its composition were more female and less male, would its quality change? What do you think? What is the male to female ratio of your favorite band? How would the quality of your favorite band change, if the female to male ratio were altered?
 
Do you think women should be allowed to vote? Should we all use southern university as a reference for that, too?
 
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I don't think it has much to do with male versus female, but more to do with brass instruments versus woodwind instruments. In most bands, the brass sections are majority males, whereas the woodwind sections are majority females, particularly clarinets and flutes. The saxophone section is probably even. Starting from the time Doc Greggs became the band director, Southern has always been a band of mostly brass instruments. When I marched in the band back in the early to mid 80's, Southern's band was an all male band and probably 80% to 85% brass instruments. Dr. Spikes pushed to change that, which led to one female to march in the band in 1988. Since then, the number of females in the band slightly increased under Doc, but once Mr. Jackson became the band director, the numbers of females drastically increased..
 
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the biggest difference is what can be said in the band room, lol. It was easy when you had 1 to 3 and you could send them out but not now. Hearing what Knighten would say when he would have them to leave was worth it all.
 
So why bring this up under the premise of leaving black women out of scholarships who are musicians and would be marching but for...people trying to entertain that they cannot?
 
Black women outnumber black men in college 3 to 1 and it's only getting worse. You should expect to see more women playing traditionally male instruments. Back in the 80s, the black male-female ratio on college campuses were more even.
 
the biggest difference is what can be said in the band room, lol. It was easy when you had 1 to 3 and you could send them out but not now. Hearing what Knighten would say when he would have them to leave was worth it all.

I don't think Knighten had anything on Chester White. Every other word that came out of Chester White's mouth was foul. And those long bus rides with him on the freshmen/crabs bus. That's when the upperclassmen taught the crabs the Chester White song, which was "The Defender of the Under-bites." It was never a dull moment on the crabs bus.
 
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So why bring this up under the premise of leaving black women out of scholarships who are musicians and would be marching but for...people trying to entertain that they cannot?

Leaving black women musicians out of scholarships was not the premise at all! Where did you get that from?
 
Black women outnumber black men in college 3 to 1 and it's only getting worse. You should expect to see more women playing traditionally male instruments. Back in the 80s, the black male-female ratio on college campuses were more even.

That probably would be determined before they get to college and in grade school. Traditionally in the United States, females prefer woodwind instruments and males prefer bass instruments and drums.
 
That probably would be determined before they get to college and in grade school. Traditionally in the United States, females prefer woodwind instruments and males prefer bass instruments and drums.

Right, more girls are chosing brass and drums. And gender roles are blurring more and more with each new generation ... for example just about every HBCU band has had at least one female drum major in the last 5 years (except SU, Grambling, and TxSU that I know of). 20 years ago that wasn't the norm.
 
Nothing in my original post suggests that females are not good musicians or should not be awarded scholarships the same as male musicians. Nothing there indicates that marching bands should not have female membership or that female musicians are not as good as their male counterparts. I fail to see how the words of my initial post could be so construed! Of course, women should march in marching bands! Their make-up of any band should be as high a percentage as the situation dictates. So what if the band is half male to female? Who cares? My post was offered to evoke discussion about how the HBCU band has evolved over the past few decades, Responses from Jag89, the band fan, and tsugraytiger were exactly the kind of content I was hoping to extract. As Jag89 pointed out, some HBCU bands have evolved from being all male to having a heavy female presence! The band fan shared info as to how the bandroom conversation had to change when females were admitted, and so forth! The conversation should be about the evolution of the HBCU band.
 
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Nothing in my original post suggests that females are not good musicians or should not be awarded scholarships the same as male musicians. Nothing there indicates that marching bands should not have female membership or that female musicians are not as good as their male counterparts. I fail to see how the words of my initial post could be so construed! Of course, women should march in marching bands! Their make-up of any band should be as high a percentage as the situation dictates. So what if the band is half male to female? Who cares? My post was offered to invoke discussion about how the HBCU band has evolved over the past few decades, Responses from Jag89, the band fan, and tsugraytiger were exactly the kind of content I was hoping to extract. As Jag89 pointed out, some HBCU bands have evolved from being all male to having a heavy female presence! The band fan shared info as to how the bandroom conversation had to change when females were admitted, and so forth! The conversation should be about the evolution of the HBCU band.

From your original post:
Do you think a band whose musicians are pre-dominantly male make for a better band?
Is Southern's quality a reflection of its male-dominated make-up?

I'm sorry, but to say you were attempting to invoke discussion about the evolution of the HBCU band is a HUGE stretch.
 
To answer the question. It don't matter.

if it's an all brass band it matters. The male diaphragm muscles are larger than females. Males are able to breathe strongly and with control, in and out, using larger diaphragm muscles than females. Males are anatomically better equipped for abdominal breathing than females when playing a brass instrument such as a trumpet. That's why Greggs wanted an all male brass band.
 
if it's an all brass band it matters. The male diaphragm muscles are larger than females. Males are able to breathe strongly and with control, in and out, using larger diaphragm muscles than females. Males are anatomically better equipped for abdominal breathing than females when playing a brass instrument such as a trumpet. That's why Greggs wanted an all male brass band.

That's not why Doc wanted an all male band. Anybody that marched for Doc would tell you that lol.
 
That's not why Doc wanted an all male band. Anybody that marched for Doc would tell you that lol.

I think it had more to do with the additional social problems he didn't want to deal with. Doc didn't want to see SU band members with long hair, facial hair, or anything that wasn't neat and without uniformity. I'm sure when the first female showed up with makeup on in a band uniform that would have driven Doc crazy. LMAO!!! What folks have to understand, Doc was prior military before he became band director at Southern.


 
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I think it had more to do with the additional social problems he didn't want to deal with. Doc didn't want to see SU band members with long hair, facial hair, or anything that wasn't neat and without uniformity. I'm sure when the first female showed up with makeup on in a band uniform that would have drove Doc crazy. LMAO!!! What folks have to understand, Doc was prior military before he became band director at Southern.



Exactly. That's how he broke it down to me. In Doc fashion of course LOL!!
 
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