It is a common gender stereotype that has quite a good base in reality that men care more about why a thing like a car or a computer or whatever works, while women are happy that it works and leave it at that. Of course there are exceptions, but overall I find this to be common behavior.
My theory is that the same idea applies to pipes. Every male piper I know, which is in fact every piper I know besides myself, is to a degree obsessed with how the instrument functions. Whereas I’m not overly concerned with it, so long as it is functioning. Am I just one of the few pipers in the world who is not obsessed with reeds, or am I just being a stereotypical female?
Female pipemakers are probably a rarer species than female car mechanics. Are there any female pipemakers?
I wonder if this and related male-female attributes are genetic predispositions derived from millions of years as hunter-gatherers. The older I get, the more I see how our basic behaviors are sometimes explained by this.
Of 7 million years of homo sapiens, for only 10,000 of that have some of us been farmers: the rest of the time our ancestors led a hunter-gatherer existence. Our physiology is more adapted to such a lifestyle still. Some psycholohgists/anthopologists hold that “ADD” (“Attention Deficit Disorder”) as actually a brain-wiring advantageous for hunting-gathering, not a “disorder”.
I might suggest that the common male interest in the workings of things is associated with tool making, an advantage for hunting that maybe evolved out of natural selection (good tool makers are stimulated in their brains by the workings of things, were better hunters, survived to pass on their genes, yada…yada). Some females have this interest, of course, but that doesn’t disprove the notion: it just occurs at a higher frequency in males owing to males having carried on these activities more often.
“The uilleann world is a small population. How many instrument-making women are out there in any musical realm?”
The violin making schools of France and Italy, and to a lesser extent Germany and Britain, are well populated with female students. Recently, at the St Chartier festival in France there were over 100 makers stands, and quite a few were women, making everything from bows to Hurdy-Gurdies, and Harps.
As you say, the uilleann world is small, but it is growing, and I suppose it can only be a matter of time before we see a full time female pipemaker.
I understand Becky Taylor made a chanter or two in Peter Hunter’s workshop some years ago. I think she gave one to Steafan Hannigan.
I’m female, and I’m fascinated by how the pipes and the reeds work. I’m also quite interested in making reeds(though most of them aren’t in tune so far), and eventually I’d love to make whole sets. I’m really even more eager to start turning wooden flutes, but I expect that once I’ve done a few flutes I’ll start trying chanters and so it will progess. I’m already rather experienced at making bamboo and PVC flutes and whistles, but they just don’t satisfy my instrument making urges. I am of course a weirdo as far as females go.
They do work consistently. When I had reed crises, I did the totally passive female thing and went to a guy for help (the best part of that is feeling guilty about it, since I attended a women’s college and thought this to be a blow to feminist principles, whilst asking guys to do things like fix the car and kill spiders is, of course, not).
I am with you, I could care less about the technical stuff, or even the appearance if you want to know the truth. I just want to play the thing, not mess with it.
But I am fortunate enough to live in an area where there are lots of pipers to help me if I have trouble with the reeds, etc. so I don’t have to learn much about the actual workings of the instrument.
I guess I see it as something that I’ll have to learn about someday, but I’ll put it off as long as I can.
Actually, I think women would on the whole make better reed makers than men. I think women are much more detail oriented than men so would probably make better reeds…maybe take them longer, but better end result.
So Joseph, when does my excommunication from the reed making brotherhood begin?
One of Andreas Rogge’s co-workers is female, (I forget her name). One of the blokes at the London pipers club has a flat set made by her, and very nice it is too.
Heike Horstman She served her apprenticeship with Andreas and is a fine maker in her own right and continues to work with Andreas.I have a set in C made in Boxwood.Brass and Cowhorn mounts made by her.
Click on the image to enlarge it.
A lovely sounding set and I have not had to retune the Regulators once which is quite something Heike Rocks and the lovely thing about her is she does not seek out the acclaim that some pipemakers seem to want… :roll: although she richly deserves it unlike some I have seen come through this forum!!
Slán Go Foill
Uilliam
As an aside, my wife Nara decided, having heard so much agonizing about reedmaking, to give it a try. As it happens she made a very fine reed on her first try (I played it in my bass reg for years); but then she said something to the effect of “geez, that was tedious, I’m never going to do that again.” Then again, she’s not a piper, so the motive is lacking…
At a tionol over here a female piper said: “I picked a typical men´s instrument: Unlike any other instrument pipes give lots of occasions for (futile) discussions”.
I think there is a deep truth in what she said: Men tend to solve everything by thinking (we all see where that has led: wars, starvation, pollution…) and women tend to feel.
When playing remember Obi Van Kenobi: “Don´t think - feel!”
That’s not a “passive female thing”. That just means you’re not a knuckehead. Once upon a time, there was a dirth of professional reedmakers and you had to fend for yourself, unless you were content to send your pipes off.
Truth is, if your reeds don’t work, you can’t learn to play. The sensible course for any student of the pipes is to get their set reeded, not do it themselves. Reedmaking is a completely separate skill.
Personally, I think that there’s an incredible amount of phallic symbolism in piping. I mean, the long bass drone. What’s all that about? And I’m not even going to start talking about flat sets, double chanters, double bass drones, etc.
and the lovely thing about her is she does not seek out the acclaim that some pipemakers seem to want… :roll: although she richly deserves it unlike some I have seen come through this forum!!