Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Entertainment/2016 April 18

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April 18

Are men more likely to play the piano than women?

I've read that men have bigger handspans than women do, on average. Are there more male pianists than female pianists? 140.254.77.156 (talk) 16:52, 18 April 2016 (UTC)

Men are certainly currently more likely to be famous and professional piano players. That's in part because classical music has been historically very sexist. Here's [1] an interesting write-up about gender differences in piano, with some references linked.

But this is almost all due to cultural influence, not any actual sex differences. See our article Social_history_of_the_piano, which discusses how, for a while, piano was seen a very feminine thing, and it was far more likely to be learned by girls than boys. However, woman still generally face a lot of discrimination in music, here [2] is a whole dissertation on "Gender Discrimination in America's top Orchestras", see also the many good refs therein.

Regarding the biophysics: it might be true that worldwide, male mean handspan is greater than female mean handspan. But having a large handspan doesn't make one a better piano player, practice and understanding do. Here's [3] a scientific study comparing performance by sex on a variety of finger tasks [4]. Turns out males can tap their fingers a little more strongly on average, and that's about it.

Finally, here's [5] a nice overview of women in music through history, starting around 1850. It outlines some of the changes in culture and the shifts of prominence of women over time. SemanticMantis (talk) 17:23, 18 April 2016 (UTC)

There is also the possibility that people with bigger hands enjoy piano playing more, because they can more easily reach the keys. 140.254.77.156 (talk) 17:34, 18 April 2016 (UTC)

For every generalisation, there are exceptions. Alicia de Larrocha had particularly small hands but that didn't stop her from becoming a superb pianist. Many other examples. -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 22:53, 18 April 2016 (UTC)

FWIW, we have a category:Women pianists (191 total pages, including sub-categories). 2600:1004:B01B:42DB:C4DA:1612:EF07:B7C0 (talk) 04:16, 19 April 2016 (UTC)