Why Aren't there More Female Guitar Players, Especially Electric?

[LLL]

Re: Why Aren't there More Female Guitar Players, Especially Electric?

Ah, so you take the intellectual approach then.

I take the natural approach; social engineering does not fall into that realm.

If I took the intellectual approach when it comes to women, I wouldn't be married. I would be living in mom's basement, coding or picking boogers or something solitary like that on a Saturday night at the ripe age of 45.

 

[Little Pigbacon]

Re: Why Aren't there More Female Guitar Players, Especially Electric?

I think playing the electric guitar goes hand-in-hand with a certain amount of aggression. Not necessarily violence, and not even an interpersonal kind of aggression. What do we electric guitarists do? We distort things. We bang out power chords. We stomp on pedals. We use the wang bar. We stand up, strap on, and let this big piece of wood hang in front of our crotch. Electric guitar is powerful. It's sexy. It's transgressive. It's getting away with something.

I wonder how women who play experience all this. How much do they have in common with men who play? What about me? Do I play for "guy" reasons or for "girl" reasons? Does that distinction even exist?

 

[blueman335]

Re: Why Aren't there More Female Guitar Players, Especially Electric?

- What do we electric guitarists do? We distort things. We bang out power chords. We stomp on pedals. We use the wang bar. We stand up, strap on, and let this big piece of wood hang in front of our crotch.

- What about me? Do I play for "guy" reasons or for "girl" reasons?

- Women can put on a 6 lb guitar too. It doesn't require testosterone and biceps to hold something that weight.

- Definitely 'girl' reasons.

 

[Mincer]

Re: Why Aren't there More Female Guitar Players, Especially Electric?

Guitar magazines are written for either 17 year old boys or 45-55 year old men. Everywhere, female players are lauded for being female, not being great players. No wonder electric guitar doesn't attract more females. Is Orianthi a good player? Can't get past the clown makeup. The Iron Maidens wear lingerie. Female YouTube sensations are shredding the same licks guys do, and neither have an original voice. Until we demand more of our female players and companies that market solely to guys, we won't see women taking up the guitar in any real numbers.

 

[Little Pigbacon]

Re: Why Aren't there More Female Guitar Players, Especially Electric?

We need more Juliettes. She's a very good player with an original voice. I'd walk around with "Lost Paradise" running through my head no matter who played it. In that regard, she's a role model for me -- she's doing the kind of playing that I'd like to be doing now, if I weren't always getting in the way of my own development.

 

[Little Pigbacon]

Re: Why Aren't there More Female Guitar Players, Especially Electric?

- Women can put on a 6 lb guitar too. It doesn't require testosterone and biceps to hold something that weight.

- Definitely 'girl' reasons.

It's not the weight or the strength so much as the gendered idiomatic trappings. We celebrate guitarists who play with a lot of "balls". We talk about the juvenile delinquent swagger of a young Keith Richards. We tell each other, "Rock out with your **** out." We make playing guitar about being young, male, and virile. There's nothing wrong with being any or all of those things, but sometimes I think it can alienate people who are missing on one or more points. If testosterone can drive a pick to slam out the riffs in "Master of Puppets", why can't estrogen and progesterone do the same? Also, don't forget that women produce small amounts of testosterone, too. That they get angry. That they have hair on their arms. That they are body spirits, like we are.

 

[Snake Aces]

Re: Why Aren't there More Female Guitar Players, Especially Electric?

It's not the weight or the strength so much as the gendered idiomatic trappings. We celebrate guitarists who play with a lot of "balls". We talk about the juvenile delinquent swagger of a young Keith Richards. We tell each other, "Rock out with your **** out." We make playing guitar about being young, male, and virile. There's nothing wrong with being any or all of those things, but sometimes I think it can alienate people who are missing on one or more points. If testosterone can drive a pick to slam out the riffs in "Master of Puppets", why can't estrogen and progesterone do the same? Also, don't forget that women produce small amounts of testosterone, too. That they get angry. That they have hair on their arms. That they are body spirits, like we are.

Let's face it, women can jam. Nancy Wilson and Joan Jett come to mind. Both have different playing styles and their music comes from different mental and emotional states but they play their hearts out.

 

[kramersteen]

Re: Why Aren't there More Female Guitar Players, Especially Electric?

Easy!!! because once a month they are too angry to play,.

 

[Snake Aces]

Re: Why Aren't there More Female Guitar Players, Especially Electric?

Easy!!! because once a month they are too angry to play,.

 

[LLL]

Re: Why Aren't there More Female Guitar Players, Especially Electric?

I don't think I'd be the first to state that the music world today probably needs more male sopranos/castratos.

There just aren't enough of them.

 

[DreX]

Re: Why Aren't there More Female Guitar Players, Especially Electric?

- Women can put on a 6 lb guitar too. It doesn't require testosterone and biceps to hold something that weight.

- Definitely 'girl' reasons.

I sometimes play some songs and jam in some styles that feel more feminine in their expression, and most big name rock back bands have some ballads in their catalog, but even then it's a sort of restrained power, which is what makes that type of song so effective, hence the "power ballad". If you have sons and daughters then you just know that girls are innately delicate while boys are going for the Tonka trucks, that's largely nature over "nurture". You can try to convince women that the electric guitar is delicate, but inherently, it's not. I think women are more drawn to piano or classical guitar, and I'd bet the m/f ratio is much closer to the middle with those instrument, but neither is half as popular as electric guitar, regardless of gender. There are outliers, sure, but that works both ways.

 

[DreX]

Re: Why Aren't there More Female Guitar Players, Especially Electric?

The guitar industry should send Christmas and Thank You cards to all the rock and pop stars. I wonder how many guitars Kurt Cobain sold and never got a morally deserved commission check for (not to say Kurt Cobain didn't owe something to his influences in turn). As to the question of how to win female customers, the solution is to back a different instrument altogether, and then either manufacture, or make a deal with, a pop star who is to prominently feature that instrument in their stage and recorded performances, to act as a role model and defacto pitch person.

 

[Edgecrusher]

Re: Why Aren't there More Female Guitar Players, Especially Electric?

Guitar magazines are written for either 17 year old boys or 45-55 year old men..

There is a flip side to that too... guitar existed before the magazines did... the magazines were targeted at those audiences because that was who was playing.

My question is why do we "need" more female guitarists? So the retailers can sell to a larger market? or are we genuinely interested in hearing what the fairer sex has to say musically?

 

[Little Pigbacon]

Re: Why Aren't there More Female Guitar Players, Especially Electric?

There is a flip side to that too... guitar existed before the magazines did... the magazines were targeted at those audiences because that was who was playing.

My question is why do we "need" more female guitarists? So the retailers can sell to a larger market? or are we genuinely interested in hearing what the fairer sex has to say musically?

Nobody likes a sausage fest. And there is always room for one more good musician.

 

[Edgecrusher]

Re: Why Aren't there More Female Guitar Players, Especially Electric?

Nobody likes a sausage fest.

I think bavarians and gay men would vehemently disagree with you.

But heres the thing... when there is a so called "sausage fest" and women are brought into the mix to break it up a bit... are they brought in as equals or are they brought in as window dressing so guys can oggle a little TnA?

What iam questioning is the motives here... If the motive is only to expand the consumer market... then i must admit that iam a bit disgusted at the idea. If its about dollar signs, not really to make things more "female friendly"

In my opinion... Children BOTH male and female should be encouraged to play more music. Put away the Ipads for a bit and sit down and make some music on any instrument that interests them. With that approach more of both sexes would come to guitar

 

[Little Pigbacon]

Re: Why Aren't there More Female Guitar Players, Especially Electric?

I think bavarians and gay men would vehemently disagree with you.

But heres the thing... when there is a so called "sausage fest" and women are brought into the mix to break it up a bit... are they brought in as equals or are they brought in as window dressing so guys can oggle a little TnA?

What iam questioning is the motives here... If the motive is only to expand the consumer market... then i must admit that iam a bit disgusted at the idea. If its about dollar signs, not really to make things more "female friendly"

In my opinion... Children BOTH male and female should be encouraged to play more music. Put away the Ipads for a bit and sit down and make some music on any instrument that interests them. With that approach more of both sexes would come to guitar

I remember being in phys ed and recess as a kid, and having trouble getting into any of the games because I wasn't in any of the guy cliques. Phys ed was a wash-out for me when it was segregated by gender. Which was weird, because it was my grade for a class, but my participation and my grade both took a dip on team sports, but on the solo sports (archery, weight lifting), I did as well as anyone. Those "solo" sports were also the same activities where the boys and the girls worked side-by-side. Not only that, but the same handful of team sports where boys and girls played on mixed teams were the ones where I actually did well and participated. Just like at recess when we were younger, when if I played physical games with other kids, it was always with the girls.

What does this have to do with girls playing guitar? I think it has something to do with little fishies in a pond, and how they do better when they don't feel like outsiders.

 

[greekdude]

Re: Why Aren't there More Female Guitar Players, Especially Electric?

In my opinion... Children BOTH male and female should be encouraged to play more music. Put away the Ipads for a bit and sit down and make some music on any instrument that interests them. With that approach more of both sexes would come to guitar

I hate to say it, given your past record of unnecessary negative noise in my threads, but I must agree here.

 

[elelpe]

Re: Why Aren't there More Female Guitar Players, Especially Electric?

Well, most often women has to be twice as good as men to be noticed. And when they want to get into showbiz spotlight, they gotta have the look too. What do you expect from discouraging pictorials like these anyway? The message is subtle yet clear: female isn't guitar player.

 

[greekdude]

Re: Why Aren't there More Female Guitar Players, Especially Electric?

^^ Hello, are you Frudua?

 

[Silver]

Re: Why Aren't there More Female Guitar Players, Especially Electric?

What iam questioning is the motives here... If the motive is only to expand the consumer market... then i must admit that iam a bit disgusted at the idea. If its about dollar signs, not really to make things more "female friendly"

I think that from the perspective of Evan and the folks at the conference he mentioned... It's about increasing sales and profit. But that's the business they're in, and that's capitalism (as much as I loath it).

But for the rest if us, there us surely a huge untapped artistic resource of potential guitar players who are currently put off. How many Janie Hendrix or Erica Clapton's might there be?