I guess I just wanted to throw in my line. We have an entire bass line (five) and one out of the four snares that is a girl as well as two of the four cymbals. Also are pit is made up of four guys and five girls. I guess our ratio is pretty even. And it has always been that way. I really never noticed that their was a 'battle of sexes'. It has always been great hanging out with everyone. Weve always had a blast!!! I would never complain about a girl in any line.

I, like Indoorperc want to know if there is something inherently "feminine" about the way instruments in the pit are played, or if pit is just considered girly because it's made up of mostly girls. I guess not being a guy it's just not something I get.

But anyway, sometimes I feel like people assume that just because I'm a girl or because I'm in pit that I'm not a "real" percussionist (as in have been playing for most of one's musical career and not switching from flute or bass clarinet or whatever). Not that I'm saying that those people aren't good players or good percussionists, but people assume that they aren't if you get what I'm saying. Now even though I'm a girl I have been a percussionist since the 4th grade and have never played anything else. Sometimes I feel like people just assume that I won't be a good player and think I'm a flute player who's just fooling around in pit for something more interesting to do.

Next point - I agree that the girls who are in battery have to be "one of the guys" to an extent. The same thing was true for me in middle school, where only 2 of us were girls and there were like 25 guys. I learned to get along with the guys in my band and trust me I can dish it out as well as they can (otherwise I would probably have even been scared away from here with mostly guys). Now though since I'm in pit I think I've lost some of that rapport with the guys I used to be pretty good friends with. The battery likes to segregate themselves from us, but at least this year some of the newer guys haven't been such [b]butts[/b] about not wanting to hang out with us anyway.

Now about my feelings towards being in the battery: when I first joined marching band I wanted to be in pit because I had been playing bells and marimba and xylo and stuff for several years, and I had little to no experience on snare since all through middle school the girls were always assigned the mallet parts (which I suppose is just the concert version of what we're discussing). I was really comfortable there my first year, part of which was because the instructor was female, but not really beacuse the other players were. I mean it's nice to be able to ask someone from your own section for a hair tie or midol or something but i'm sure I could have managed anyway. But anyway, I'm still not 100% comfy with our pit and I think if my instructor wanted me to switch to drumline I would seriously consider it. The guys might not be terribly receptive at first since I've already been branded as one of those foreign gendered things in the pit, but I'm sure they would learn to love me eventually.

Keep the responses coming. They've been very enlightening so far <img border="0" title="" alt="[Smile]" src="images/icons/smile.gif" />

trust me, i'm not saying pit is feminine...I guess i wrote my last post wrong. Some of the best mallet players I know are guys. And some of the best mallet players in our pit play other instruments. It's just those darn stereotypes that we're gonna have to break down. <img border="0" title="" alt="[Smile]" src="images/icons/smile.gif" />

I tell you. Excellent, excellent posts everyone. Looks like i've touched a lot of button with this question, probably even more so than the cymbal question. Let see if i can add some insight to the mix.

I can say that this is a touchy topic for a lot of reasons. It makes us look at the instrumentation, some of the stereotypes and hype about guys and girls who play any percussion instrument whether it be in the pit or the battery.

What I can say about all of this is, that some people are just want to be in the pit, whether it be a guy or a gal, they made that choice to be there, therefore making them a better player and person for it because they are playing in a section that they love to play in. Now having been in both, I made a choice to be in the battery. I love it. It makes me play better cause i'm playing where I wanted and love it every second.

Before I was a percussionist, I used to be a clarinet player(well technically I still am a clarinet player); and I too have been criticized for not being able to reach my full potential in the drumming world. But really I didn't care. I wanted it bad and now....I'm hopefully trying out for a DCI line.

As for relationships between the pit and the battery. From what I've seen, the relationship between the pit and percussion can sometimes make or break how a line is gonna turn out. If they hate each other, the audience will suffer because the show won't have that...oh what's the word i'm looking for.....comroderie(did I spell that right?). It just won't feel the same. But if the pit and battery are on the same page, they can do a lot more cause they know what the other people are thinking in the ensemble.

As for answering my own question: We have to remember that gal aren't built to be diesel hogs like guys are. And some guys may think that pit is "[b]sweet[/b]"(even though it was indirectly stated)....but the reason is that the induvidual made a choice to be there whether it be in the pit or battery. But it doesn't matter though...cause they are all shooting to be one thing....the best <img border="0" title="" alt="[Smile]" src="images/icons/smile.gif" /> .

Ok, wow, that's a lot of posts in the time I was gone. And I would first like to APOLOGIZE, like I did a million times in my posts before, because I'm not trying to offend anyone here. I myself don't really feel that way, because like I said, the guys I've seen in pit are just plain guys (actually their potheads, but who can tell the dif, jk). That's just what I heard from some other peeps about some guys they have seen.

Now, let me tell you why I'm not in pit. When I was in 8th grade before I got into HS, I was all for being in pit. That year, there were about 8 9th graders. So, they had a huge pit because my director puts freshman in pit (we've already had this discussion if you remember drummergrl004 <img border="0" title="" alt="[Smile]" src="images/icons/smile.gif" /> ). But anyway, so I did want to be in pit. So when I got to 9th grade, looking forward to being in pit, there were so many Sophmores and not so many Seniors leaving, that there was a huge pit already. And so the director said "No Freshman in Pit". So I lost my chance. That whole year I practiced and practiced the audtion for Drumline and made Tenors, lucky me seriously. So I never had to be in pit, and love Tenors so I'm not complaining.

Drummergrl: I think it's terrible that someone would think that about you just because you were in pit. Myself, I would see your talent from a mile away and know you were a real Percussionist. That just shows you that THOSE guys are just Drummers (you know, they just bang and have no brains).

Bassgal: It wasn't your post, it was mine.

CoosCoos: For your information, I was trying to get as far away from "[b]sweet[/b]" as possible. I DON'T think pit is [b]sweet[/b]. The reason I'm not in pit now is because the parts that are not mallet parts at my HS at least, do no compare to the Tenor parts I have to learn. And I'm looking for a challenge. But anyway, with that past, Coos, you are cool man, I hope we all stay here for a while.

You too Drummergrl, it seems that whenever Coos starts something and Drummergrl and I get into it, we can really get some peeps talkin about stuff. We did it on the Cymbal one too. This is great.

Anyway, as my last chapter of the book I'm typing, I have a propostition to make. Maybe it's not our fault at all. I was thinking about what Drummergrl said about the concert segregation too. It is true that girls usually play mallets. And I know why. BAND DIRECTORS. All of the male band directors we had were probably trying to keep that sexist steryotype up. I'm not saying they are sexist, but they are just going with what they know. So, they make girls learn mallets, and guys can't even read notes. I know I can't read notes that well, I would have loved to learn how to then instead of now. So what do you think about that?

Gee I really never thought about the Band Directors that much....but that could lead to a better question.....What's the dillio with the male band directors these days? Are they really being cheuvanistic(boy oh boy....i really hope I spelled that right)? And why aren't there many women band directors?

Boy oh boy...I sure do ask a lot of questions. But I guess I'm asking the right ones cause it's stirring up some quality posts here. And it does seem that most of the time I ask a question like this...JHS and drummergrl004 find some way to get into it; which in turn leads to feedback to other people....leading to a red hot topic. I hope we stay here awhile too JHS(heck.....maybe we might even make it to 1000 posts or something). <img border="0" title="" alt="[Smile]" src="images/icons/smile.gif" />

<small>[ July 13, 2002, 12:50 PM: Message edited by: CoosCoos ]</small>

Lol, Coos, they day I got 1000 posts, is the day that I faint because I've spent all my free time on a Drumline Forum. But it would be nice too see. And, Drummergrl and I seem to make for very good conversations. Ah, one day we'll all be officers and moderators and we'll all wonder what happened to everyone before. And Webmaster will pop up and say something like "Alright kiddies, back on topic now." lol.

But where is MonkeyMan in all these topics huh?

That's a good question man. Monkey Man's imput would be greatly appreiciated like whoa. How long has it been since i've seen him? hmmm...maybe if we give him some banana milk....

You know Chris, that's a really good point you made back there. By having mostly just the girls learn mallets early on in band class (like 4th - 7th grade), it's really hurting both genders later on. A lot of the guys then can't read music, and a lot of the girls don't have a powerful of chops in the drum area.

Now that I think about it, I bet a lot of guys choose drumline because they can't read music and don't know how to play mallets, and a lot of the girls pick pit, like I did, because they have better mallet chops. Now I know several guys that can play at least some mallets because they had to learn for all-state band or just learned because they wanted to be well rounded, and granted girls could go out and take snare lessons or whatever, but the foundation of your musical education comes from band classes in elementary and middle school, and even in high school.

I want to know why directors have a tendancy to assign parts like that. I thought at first it was just my school because I came from the only elementary school where we were taught mallets so in middle school I was the only one wo could play them, and a lot of the guys played set drums so they were better at snare then me. But it looks like this is a common thing at lots of schools and I wonder why.

well...i don't know how it is at other schools but here when you first start out (4th grade) you have the choice of either playing bells or snare drum for percussion. which is somewhat odd since when it comes to other instruments you only get the primary instruments to choose from (i think it's: flute, clarinet, alto sax, trumpet, trombone, french horn, and i think recently baritone and oboe, but most of those are flutes first anyways...all the other instruments don't come until middle or high school). sure if you pick bells you get some basic regular snare stuff but not too much, the goal is proficiency in bells not snare.