Mimi Fox - yes, guys, she plays guitar (and plays it much better than most of us!)
There’s something wrong with us. I mean, seriously wrong. We have some kind of defect in our collective system that makes us believe women are inherently incapable of doing the same things that men can. We’re amazed when we see a woman working on a construction site; we’re shocked to learn that a woman wants to race Formula 1 cars; we can all hear a collective gasp when we find out that women want to serve in military combat roles.
Music – especially guitar – is the same way. It seems unfathomable to many people (not just men) that a woman can pick up a guitar, learn to play it and, dare I say, play it well.
Sorry, but I have news for you all… yes, women play guitar. Why are you surprised?
Don’t get me wrong here, folks; I’m not going to run out and burn my wife’s bras in protest, I’m just not sure why this is such a big deal. I have never been able to understand what’s so surprising about a woman being a great guitarist. They have fingers, they like music, and they certainly have just as much desire and capability to learn something as men do; so what’s the problem?
In reality this shouldn’t be an issue, but unfortunately it is, and in my mind a two-fold problem exists as it relates to how we (those of us who are not female guitar players) perceive a woman’s role as a guitarist:
- We tend to greatly ignore their contributions to guitar music because they are female.
- We tend to greatly over-exaggerate the talents of some just because they are female.
Stop Ignoring Them!
Sheryl Bailey
Perhaps it should be an indictment of our society in general more so than the guitar community specifically. We’ve never been able to accept the fact that women can do everything men can. But we’re talking about music! There simply is no argument that can be rationally made for why a woman can’t pick up a guitar, learn to play it, and be good at it. In one study, a doctor suggested that women had physiological disadvantages because their hand and forearm strength wasn’t as good as men. So let me get this straight; a woman in her 20s or 30s isn’t as strong as Les Paul or Bucky Pizzarelli in their 80s? Really? How about having the same strength as a ten-year-old boy just learning to play guitar? Is she at a strength disadvantage to him, too? Sounds like a bunch of bullshit to me.
I’m not a sociologist, so I can’t present case study data as to why women guitarists are stigmatized. I can simply tell you that as a player, I couldn’t care less if you were a guy or a girl. If you can groove and you can make me bob my head, I’m down with what you’re doing!
I will say that I’ve noticed the situation getting better, which is awesome, but it’s still not great; there still is no equal footing in the guitar community. Perhaps a part of that is the disproportionate number of men players to women players. I’m okay with that. But I don’t think that’s all of it. I do not accept that as a be-all end-all answer for why we don’t hear about more female players. I think most of it has to do with our egos, that we for some reason cannot accept that a woman can be better than a man at something. Ugh!
But Just Because You’re a Woman Doesn’t Give You a Free Pass!
Orianthi
I have to put myself into “typical man mode” for a second for this upcoming rant. One thing I simply cannot tolerate is when we go completely overboard to praise and promote a woman (anyone, really, but we’re talking female players now) as a great player when they really aren’t. I’m probably going to get a bunch of flack for this, and I apologize for the call-out, but I’m thinking about Orianthi right now. It’s not her fault, certainly, it’s ours. She’s not the only one, either, just the most prominent at the moment.
She’s a pretty good guitar player. She can play some fast pentatonic scales, and her phrasing is certainly better than most for her age (male or female), but there is no way in hell she should be gracing the cover of Guitar Player. Sorry, but she’s not that good. I applaud her – truly – for doing everything she can to use the hype and promotion to her benefit; I do not begrudge her one bit for her success, nor will I trivialize the hard work she put in to get where she is today. I just don’t think she’s good enough AS A PLAYER to warrant a cover on a guitar magazine, and I think, unfortunately, a lot of her success has to do with her looks and age more so than her actual guitar-playing ability.
There is another girl getting over one million youTube views per video she makes of herself playing guitar. She’s absolutely awful so far as guitarists go, but because she’s young and plays really, really fast, people eat it up like candy. Again, I don’t begrudge the attention, but if you are going to put yourself out there on video playing another guitarist’s solo but you can’t actually play all of the notes, you should not be getting a million views! You absolutely should not have a guitar endorsement, either, but I know how marketing works…
(Hey guys, I see you sitting there chuckling. You probably shouldn’t; this goes for you just as much as it goes for the women. You don’t get a free pass just because you’re a guy. )
Great Players, Not Great “Women” Players
If you have never heard a Mimi Fox, Sheryl Bailey, or Emily Remler CD, you’re doing yourself a great injustice. They will kick your ass, and you’ll never have a doubt as to whether or not a woman can play circles around you.
It’s time to get past this, everyone. Time to let the music speak for itself. We should be talking about great guitar players on the merits of their music, not on the merits of their genitalia. Let’s stop overlooking most women players, and let’s stop deifying the ones that don’t really deserve it. I’m hoping that at some point we can finally get past having the right gender as a prerequisite for musical success as a guitar player.
Some Female Players to Check Out
- Mimi Fox
- Sheryl Bailey
- Emily Remler
- Jennifer Batten
- Liona Boyd
- The Donnas
- Kittie
- Leni Stern
- Bonnie Raitt
- Tal Wilkenfeld (bass)
- Meshell N’degeocello (bass)
- Dixie Chicks (not just guitar, but banjo, violin, and a bunch of other stuff, too)
- Joan Jett/Lita Ford [The Runaways]
- Nancy Wilson
- Kaki King
- Susan Tedeschi
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Something my band Palomar has been going through for a long time. Being in a band with all ladies but me, I find this balance very difficult. It was one of the main reason why Rachel was real certain on a band name that was gender neutral. It did not play the usual girl theme be it like the Waitresses or the Go-Go’s as just a couple examples. Now we come from a situation where song-writing is really the focus, but that said the ladies are not even influenced by other female acts so I find it ironic that the press always wants to unite us in that way. A classic question I always get is, “What is it like being in a band with 3 women?”. No different than being in a band with 3 men really, other than when we are on the road I can’t use the same bathroom and they actually buy me something drink at the gas station without me asking.
Hey Josh — How about naming some more contemporary classical guitarists than Liona Boyd (who was great for her time, but her time was many years ago already)? Among them are Ana Vidovic, Antigoni Goni, Sharon Isbin, Xuefei Yang, Martha Masters, Lily Afshar, Celia Linde, and a host of young Chinese women (e.g., Su Meng) who are tremendous players. In fact, these days, women classical guitarists probably comprise half the decent players out there. (That’s a gut feeling, based entirely on absolutely no empirical evidence, so don’t go quoting me.)
Awesome, Jeff! I admit being a bit lacking in the classical guitar field ever since I got out of college. Your list is a huge help to me and the other readers. I’m definitely going to check some of them out. Many thanks.
Lots of great reminders here, Josh.
There’s an interesting bit in Malcolm Gladwell’s book Blink where he talks about women landing seats in symphonic orchestras. Through the years of the old boy’s club, it became “well known” that women players weren’t as good as men. After all, if there were great women musicians, why weren’t more of them playing for major orchestras?
When orchestras began auditioning players behind a screen, so they could only be heard and not seen, an interesting thing started happening. Suddenly, women had en masse learned how to play music! They were getting hired by orchestras in droves.
Of course women didn’t miraculously just learn how to play. What was going on was that women were being penalized for being women. Even if not intentionally, the conventional “wisdom” that women were inferior musicians literally changed the perceptions of the judges. As soon as the judges were just listening, they could hear the women for the great players they were all along.
I think the press wants to unite you that way because they have the same problem as most others; they just can’t get past them being women. It’s ridiculous!
Go figure. But I think it goes beyond them being looked at as inferior musicians. I think, unfortunately, that it stems from a gender-biased feeling that they are inferior as humans.
And who would have thought it to be a good idea to have judges of musicianship use their ears and not their eyes; think of what the music industry would be like today if that were the case!
“Go figure. But I think it goes beyond them being looked at as inferior musicians. I think, unfortunately, that it stems from a gender-biased feeling that they are inferior as humans.”
Very unfortunate, but very true.
“And who would have thought it to be a good idea to have judges of musicianship use their ears and not their eyes; think of what the music industry would be like today if that were the case!”
There’s no such thing as an unbiased human being. So, you can either use it as an excuse to not even try to be unbiased, or you can try your best to develop ways to avoid your biases in your decision making. I think, for example, allowing the screens in the first place during the audition process is good step. You’re saying, “I know I may be biased, but I don’t want to be. How can I make sure I’m being as fair as possible?”
That makes all the difference.
I totally agree, Dave. At least being willing to make the effort to be unbiased speaks volumes about their treatment of women as people and as musicians. Now if we can just get rid of reality TV and the Lifetime channel…
I was reading this in my Google Reader and I just had to come over to comment about what you said about Orianthi.
No, I’m not gonna rip you a new one or anything like that; I think you were very respectful towards her and I can tell that you definitely chose your words carefully.
What I will say is that I think she does deserve the cover on GP because she’s a fresh up-and-coming talent that GP simply couldn’t ignore (they even said so in the beginning of their cover story on her). Sure, she’s not the best guitar player in the world (whatever that means), but she is incredibly talented and has worked really hard to get this far.
Thanks for your comment, TAS. I appreciate you taking the time to chime in.
I know where you are coming from, and I totally agree about GP not being able to ignore her (they have to sell magazines, after all). But if that were the case then taking things to their end game we should have Taylor Swift on the cover as well since she plays guitar and writes her own music. Sure, she doesn’t do solos, but she’s certainly much more successful than Orianthi.
I realize my example is a bit of a stretch, but I thought it was kind of funny. Plus, like, Taylor Swift is, like, so much hotter than, like, Orianthi is.
Anyway, sometimes I just get annoyed that so many great players only get quarter-page mentions and someone who is not very good gets the cover.
I think what adds to the problem is some women take advantage of it or have no problem playing into all the female stereotypes in order to be successful. This only pushes the problem even further. Can you imagine one of these mediocre female players actually turning down a cover opportunity? For that matter though, can you imagine us even bringing up the sex of the person if we saw a mediocre man on the cover the magazine?
You’re absolutely right, Dale. This is one of the problems I have with Orianthi. Pushing the young sex marketing B.S. in order to promote herself. Maybe I’m just getting old…
That’s a very good point Josh!
But the reason Taylor Swift won’t be on the cover is because she only plays acoustic.
hah! Very true.
Uh, Muriel Anderson should be on that list…
Not familiar with her work, Al, but thank you for mentioning her. I will be checking her out!
While I do respect your opinion, I don’t think you give Orianthi nearly enough credit she deserves, I can go down your list and rip anyone on that list, Orianthi certainly is a better guitarist than majority of those people. But then again part of judging someone’s ability or music taste is subjective.
What I find most interesting is that she is in a place to break down barriers and pave the way for more women to get recognized and your basically tearing it down. I know you think she’s not that good and i’m not saying she’s the best ever but there are people with credibility who do think has tremendous talent(Vai, Santana, Clapton).
In many ways I respect Orianthi more than alot of those women on your list because she has the ability and the balls to come out and prove women can play as good as guys, her stuff gets plastered all over youtube for people to throw stones at or judge her by her looks ect… it’s not easy to breakthrough as a guitarist in mainstream let alone maintain it certainly harder than remaining obscure.
Lastly even though some may think she’s perpetuating the wrong ideals about women think about this. She’s doesn’t take off her clothes, She’s not controversial, doesn’t have a gimmick. She’s making it in the industry with ability and muscianship regardless of how you feel about her work. Of course being attractive is a factor but it is for anybody in mainstream.
Great post, Alan. Thanks so much for offering your opinion. My issue is not with Orianthi herself, it’s with the media. As I said in my article, I don’t begrudge her at all for her success. She’s worked very hard, so kudos to her for getting rewarded. What I’m saying is that I think the media gives her more attention just because she is a woman. “Oh my, a pretty girl can play guitar! I can’t believe this is possible!” This is the kind of thing that annoys me. I’m not trying to tear her down at all. I think she’s good, but as a player I don’t think she’s worthy of a guitar magazine cover. I understand why she’s on there, but I don’t agree with it.
Let me ask you this. Check out my “Embrace the Suck” article with Andreas. Do you think he should be on the cover of Guitar Player? With all respect to Orianthi, Andreas is 1,000 times better as a guitarist than Orianthi, and the 12-year old Slovakian busker angle is surely newsworthy; should he be as famous as her? Should he get as much attention as Orianthi does in the press? Or, put another way… WILL he get as much attention as her? I suspect he won’t, and although I can only speculate as to why I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that the media won’t see him as a “story” they can sell because he doesn’t wear belly shirts and have boobs.
I understand exactly what you are saying. And I happen to agree with you on many points. The gist of the article was to acknowledge that there are some fantastic women guitar players out there, and they should not be overly subjugated nor should they be overly praised just because of their sex. In either case it does them an injustice by judging them on things that have nothing to do with their ability to play guitar.
I LOVE Kaki King, Kittie, Nancy Wilson, Lita Ford and Joan Jett’s playing, but also, you should check out Charo, she’s old now, but she’s an excellent classic guitar player
Charo seemed to be a passable flamenco player back in the day, but I don’t think she’s done anything in 25+ years.
Thanks Josh for that and I understand where you’re coming and I agree about the level of praise but the media is the media and most people are smart enough to read between the lines. However, time is the ultimate equalizer. People will get over the fact that she’s a hot chick that can play within a short while and then we will know for sure if there is something underneath it all. Remember Johnny Lang? White blues guitarist blew up on the scene and then disappeared.
As far as the GP cover, I personally don’t have a problem with it. She’s a very talented player who has already had some influence on a young generation girls and had some commercial success. Slash was on many guitar covers and he’s a mediocre guitarist technically so these things are not based purely on technical talent.
Which brings me to my next point, why is the guitar world so obsessed with the “King of the mountain” attitude? Like in the singing world, different artists bring different things to the table. Bruce Springsteen is a terrible singer yet he’s a big star and nobody puts him down saying that there are better singers out there and therefore should not get the level of recognition he does.
As far as other fantastic players are concerned there are many factors why an they don’t get recognized and usually there’s a good reason for it. Bottom line there are no handouts, said artists need to have the drive, persistence and a little luck to really breakthrough it’s no different in other aspects music. Not all the best technical singers make it into top stars right? Orianthi didn’t get the red carpet treatment or picked by the media to get highlighted.
As far as her getting success because of her looks, if you think about it there have been many attractive women who can play guitar since Lita Ford. Why didn’t they break through? My point is there’s a lot more to Orianthi than meets the eye if anything the media has really painted a bullseye on her back with some of the praise.
To sum up. Are there fantastic female guitar players out there? Yes. Do they deserve to get recognized? No, they need to want it badly enough. Is the media and mainstream going to stop operating in the current manner? No. In a perfect world of course we would recognize the best of the best and that’s technicality still true in the musicians world. Orianthi is playing by different set of rules now and a part of it is looks, it’s no different from someone like Beyonce.
Alan,
All very good points. I don’t know exactly why guitarists are haters, but I did write an article about it not too long ago – Why are Guitarists Such Haters?
Thanks Josh that’s a great article and so true. It’s funny, the few interviews I have seen with Orianthi when someone asks if she’s a better player than so and so. She always says no.
Well I’m glad to hear that she’s saying that. Humility is important.
Good on you for namechecking The Donnas. The songs they write and the fire they put into performing them should have seen them be as big as The Darkness, or Buckcherry. I’m not saying that cos they’re chicks, and you’re meant to have a few favourite chick artists for the sake of balance. They just rock, plain and simple.
As for Orianthi.. meh.. whatever. I don’t have a problem with her, but she doesn’t excite me.
One super shredding rock chick who always gets overlooked is the lead guitarist in the Vinnie Vincent Invasion.. hang on, wait a second..
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