Female Drummers(or any drummer)
 

I love to drum. And being a female I find that most guys do not respect me as a drummer . Most guys tend to assume that they are better than me because I am a female. I recently moved from the city to the suberbs and I found this to be a MAJOR problem. In marching band the drumline consists of all male(with the exception of a feamle bass dmmer) And in symphonic band I am THE only female drummer. I would like to know if ANYBODY has incountered this problem and what they have done to solve it. Or what I should do to solve it. Also most guys are NOT willing to help me with certain peices because they are afraid that I'll be better than them. So I am stuck trying to teach myself(and that is NOT a good idea because 9 times out of ten I screw the part up more.) Does anyone have a suggestion??

i dono what it is about drumming, but it seems to be a male dominated area...much like everything else i guess. i dono, have you tried threatening them with a ball kicking?

thats weird, At my school band of the 30 or so percussionsts, over half of them were female. Somtimes the best was male some times female, it just depended on what graduating year it was. That was with most all sections too, not just the drums.

I would think that for find more of that problem if you tried out for a rock type band than at marching or symphonic band.

Or you could just be sorrounded by stupid people.

They actually thought that? Dickheads. I'd publicly humiliate them, that's what I always do.

As for advice, I'd say something to them like "if you feel the need to validate yourself by knowing that you're better than a girl at something because you refused to help her with it, it'd be a good idea to stop because she can see through it."

Or something like that.

in my school (or at least my grade) ther are no female trombones, no female saxaphones, no femal french horns, and nearly every girl is either a flutist or a clarinet player. Maybe that's why, they just aren't used to seeing girls play that instrument at all. As for advice, (keep in mind im not very good at it) if you have a free period in your day, ask your band teacher if he/she is free. If yes, then work on your pieces ith your teacher.

sorry i cant be of much more help.

holy crap.

the only section I can think of that was all male were the uh.. Baratones. and once out of my four years were there no females in my beloved tuba section. we did hoever have an all female flute, claranet and french horn section. (ther was a guy in the french horns but he was gay.) ... although, out of the avarage 260 peopel in the band I'd ahve to say aleast 180 were female.

(ok i just re-read that guy's post and i missed the "in my grade" part, "holy crap" retracted.)

We have quite a few female drummers in our band. (mostly in marching band) And what I've noticed is that if you just act like you belong in that section, talk to the guys like they would talk to each other, or you would talk to a girl, and it will all work out.

Male and female sections aren't that big of a deal for our band, especially the marching band, since the band's majority is made up of girls. We have at least one girl in every section except for the Tubas. We only have two one-sex sections, the clarinets, and the tubas. (clarinets are girls, tubas are guys) (yes, we have a guy flute) My best friend is a baritone, and even our youngest/smallest member in the band is a baritone too. That's mainly a guy section, but once you are the only girl (or one of few) the guys in the section tend to "take you under their wing" as if you were their little sister.

But I've rambled, all I say is just act natural around them. If you need help, just walk up to them and go, "Hey, gimme a hand with this section for a second, I can't get it right." (or whatever you would say, just act natural) and if they still refuse, ask your band director for help, or a drum major, since both of them would know how to read percussion music fairly well.

I'm pretty sure that women can do what we can. Not everything, but some things better than us.

I don't know how big your band is, but we were only around 56 when I was in it so we all knew eachother well enough not to give somebody else crap. I was in the pit and did drumline but our percussion had only 3 guys and the rest were girls. I dunno what advice i could give then since we obviously out-numbered our poor boys. But anyway, one thing I can tell you is if you're having trouble with a piece and the director is busy and there's nobody else but a drum guy is to just go up to him and in a no-nonsense tone say "hey, could you take a sec and help me with this part?". Just be really forward with them and let them know that just because you're female doesn't mean you're going to be shy and timid. Eventually they'll think of you as one of the guys and you won't have to go through that process again.

I'm in marching band in college and there are quite a few of us femmes in the pit and drumline. And several female percussion majors in the music program (and perc minors like me). In my high school, there were several female drummers as well, tho we were a small small 70 person band. Anyway, you dont need a penis to "hit stuff", if your bandmates think so, they are very narrow minded. I agree, ask your band director for help, or if there is a local college, music studio etc, look into taking some private lessons. My school has a program for private lessons, you might even find yourself a sympathetic girl teacher! :)

Now that I think of it, we pit girls outnumber the boys. Out of about 13-15 pit people, 8 or 9 were girls this past year (including voice majors doing their obligatory band semester). Still, we had a blast and "hit lots of stuff", without the aforementioned anatomical devices. ;)