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Report on Strike Up, Smartgirl! The Musical Instrument Survey
Smart girls decide for themselves™.
We've asked you what kinds of music you love. We've asked you who your favorite artists are. But until this survey came along, we hadn't asked you what it's like to be a musician! We wanted to recognize that many SmartGirls do much more than simply listen to and enjoy music - they make music, too!
Our survey takers make up an interesting ensemble. We had 172 take this survey (164 girls, 4 boys and 4 unknown), and most are between the ages of 12 and 14. We had more oldest children respond than youngest, middle or only children. Where are they from? Well, let's take a look. More people live in towns (54) or suburbs (42) than anywhere else, but we also had quite a few people (30) who said they live in a city. And they are spread out all over the world. We had survey takers from American Samoa, Vietnam, Panama, Singapore, Germany, Ghana, Scotland and Canada, just to name a few. And they all come from different racial/ethnic backgrounds as well. Check out the graph below:
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| Survey Takers' Racial/Ethnic Backgrounds |
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| Most were of European descent, but many were also of multiracial descent. |
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Now that we know who our musicians are, we want to know what they play. This section will look at a few questions relating to the instruments themselves.
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| What type of instrument do you play? |
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| More SmartGirls said they play woodwinds and string instruments than any other type. |
Getting a bit more specific, we asked, "What instrument do you play?" Here are the results:
32 sing rather than play.
21 play the piano.
17 play the clarinet.
14 play the guitar.
11 play the violin.
10 play the flute.
5 play the saxophone.
4 play the cello.
4 play the trumpet.
3 play the drums.
27 play an instrument not mentioned here.
20 told us they don't play an instrument at all.
From those 27 who said they play an instrument that we didn't have on our list, we wanted to know if their instrument is considered a very uncommon instrument. The pie graph below shows what we found out:
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| If "other," do you think your instrument is uncommon or especially unique? |
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| As this graph shows, most SmartGirls who said they play an instrument not listed above do not feel that their instrument is that unique. |
Are SmartGirls new musicians or have they been playing for years? We asked how long they have been playing their primary instrument, and we found out that 16 have been playing for less than one year, 36 have been playing for one to two years, 37 have been playing for three to four years, 25 have been playing for five to six years, and 32 have been playing for more than six years. From that, we can say that the majority of SmartGirls have some serious playing time under their belts. A large number have been playing for more than one year!
So now we know a lot about SmartGirls' primary instruments, but have they just stuck with one? Or are our SmartGirls trying and playing other instruments too? The pie graph below leads us to believe that many of you are not just sticking to one instrument.
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| How many different instruments have you played throughout your life? |
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| We have many musically gifted SmartGirls! The majority of you have played more than one instrument in your lives. |
Playing an instrument can be a very rich, rewarding hobby, but it can also be an expensive one! Instruments aren't cheap and they can cost a lot of money. How have SmartGirls handled the expenses that come with wanting to play? First, we asked "Who funded your instrument?" We learned that about 52% of survey takers' parents funded their instruments, about 13% of survey takers' schools funded their instruments, about 12.5% of survey takers received their instruments as a gift, and about 7% funded their instruments themselves! That's pretty incredible and shows a lot of dedication, considering how expensive instruments can be. Additionally, about 15% said their instrument was funded some way other than those ways listed above.
Now, when we're talking about instruments, the word "fund" can mean a lot of things because there are many options available for obtaining an instrument. You can buy one, rent one or even maybe borrow one from your school. We asked our survey takers how they obtained their instrument. Here's what we found out.
54 said that they or someone else bought their instrument at a music store.
30 said that they were given/sold their instrument by someone they knew.
22 said that they are renting their instrument.
3 said that they received their instrument from their school.
And 60 received their instrument in some way that isn't mentioned above.
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Does practice make perfect? We don't really know, but we do know how much time SmartGirls generally spend practicing each week. Check out this bar graph to find out:
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| How much time do you spend a week practicing? |
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| That's an interesting range. It looks like most SmartGirls spend from less than an hour to 2-3 hours per week practicing. |
When you're playing and practicing, how do you do it? Are you more concerned with learning the musical ropes and learning how to read music better? Or do you just play by ear? We found out that 47 survey takers primarily read music, 16 primarily play by ear, and 78 do a little bit of both.
And since practicing is all about learning how to play, we thought we'd find out who is helping you to do this. Are you going it alone and teaching yourself or are you learning with the help of a teacher or a book? This is what we discovered:
68 learn from a teacher at school.
50 learn from a hired teacher.
27 are learning on their own, some with the help of a book.
No one is learning from their parents.
18 are learning in a different way than those mentioned above.
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Some people play their instruments for the sheer enjoyment. Others play their instruments so that they can perform for others' enjoyment. What about our survey takers? Do they often play in public for other people? We asked, "Have you ever performed in public before?" and we learned that 75 have played in public in a group, 55 have played a solo in public, 21 have not yet played in public, and 14 haven't and hope they never will. It seems like playing in public is something that appeals to some people and doesn't appeal at all to others. As for SmartGirls, the bar graph below shows how they feel:
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| "I really love playing my instrument for an audience." |
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| This seems pretty evenly split, though slightly more SmartGirls said they enjoy playing for an audience than those who don't. |
Why do SmartGirls play the instruments they play? What motivates them? Is it a group they play with? The music they listen to? A dream to continue playing music after they are done with high school/secondary school? Hopefully this section will shed some light on the answer.
We started out by asking "Why do you play?" This seems like a fairly straightforward question and we received some fairly straightforward answers. Here's what we determined:
77 said they play because they love or have always wanted to play the particular instrument that they play.
61 play because they are part of a band or orchestra.
54 play because they have always wanted to play some sort of instrument.
42 play because their parents wanted them to.
36 play for some other reason than those listed above.
Now, let's get a little more specific and look at other influences, starting with the type of music SmartGirls listen to.
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| Do you listen to the same kind of music that you play? |
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| It's hard to detect a trend here. The number of respondents for each answer were very close together. |
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Perhaps looking at how many respondents have long term goals and plans for playing their instruments will reveal some more motivation. Take a look at this table to see what SmartGirls' future musical plans are:
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| Do you plan to pursue music after high school or secondary school? |
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count | percent |
afterschool2
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| For fun |
95 | 56.89 |
| For career |
31 | 18.56 |
| No |
41 | 24.55 |
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| Many of you plan to play for fun after high school/secondary school. |
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And why do SmartGirls play their primary instruments specifically? We asked, "What is it about this instrument that makes you want to play it?" We learned that 87 play because of the beautiful music that it lets them play, 59 play this particular instrument because they love being part of a group/band/orchestra and playing along with others, 57 play because they are inspired by the music that other musicians have recorded, 50 play because playing allows them to learn so much about music itself, 23 play because they take lessons with an awesome teacher, 19 play but don't have a particular motive for playing their instrument, and 10 wish they didn't play the instrument that they do! Furthermore, 10 people said they have a motivation for playing their instrument that isn't listed here.
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Some people maintain that music can be very healthy for your emotional life. We thought we'd test out this belief by asking SmartGirls how they think playing their instrument plays a part in how they feel. Based on the answers we received, it looks like there may be some truth to this belief. Let's take a look:
9 people believe that playing their instrument provides an outlet to express their feelings.
5 people see it as a way to let loose their creative impulses.
20 think playing their instrument cheers them up when they're in a bad mood.
20 people see it as a calming influence on their emotional lives.
25 people think it has an effect but not one listed above.
On the flip side, 3 people see it just as a hobby and 23 don't think it has an effect on their emotional lives at all.
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Finally, we gave SmartGirls the following statement: "My instrument is an important part of my life or who I am" and asked if they agree or disagree and why? And we asked if they don't play an instrument, why not? Here are some of their responses:
"It's part of who I am. In fact, it's my right arm."
"I agree. My friends all know that whenever they talk to me I am probably going to be playing. :-) It has made a HUGE difference in who I am. I am really glad I decided to learn to play. I hope to go to college and become a middle school band director. :-) This is for Mrs. L. Thanks for all you have done. You have really made a difference in my life. KEEP PLAYING!!"
"I agree. Whenever I'm not playing, I'm tapping out beats! :P It's my thing that I can do, and I enjoy it so much. I wouldn't be me without playing drums. And music is everything to me, so yeah."
"Definitely agree! If I didn't have the clarinet, I don't know what I'd do. I love the feeling I get when I am playing in my band, when we are all playing extra fast, and we've played the music so much we could all do it with our eyes closed. I love my clarinet!"
"I agree. Without music I would lose a huge piece of who I am. I sing to myself all the time, I've always got music in my head, and music to me is one of the most beautiful things in the world. If I couldn't make music myself, I'd feel lost. And since I've always wanted to imitate the style of the great musicians that I listen to, my instrument helps me to fulfill my ambition. I'll never become a famous musician, but my instrument enables me to have my own little musical world, and that's very important to me."
"No, I don't think it is because I only played it for one school year. And I hated practicing at home and having any attention on just me because I got nervous & messed up. I just took it up for an elective."
"It's not an important part of my life. Yes, it's fun but I'm not as into it as most other people I know who play (e.g. my sister plays the flute and the viola and she practices daily, I very rarely practice at all.)"
"My instrument is an important part of me because I feel alive when I play him. Yes, my cello is a boy, and he is named Johnny Depp. My cello is my muse, he has this passionate voice that resonates in my bones in the way only cello can. The sound is ironic and cheeky, and gentle and severe all at once. He can express how I feel and who I am to an audience without any of us having to know."
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Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts
with us!
Please remember that all web-based polls
are not scientific because the pollsters cannot randomly select the
respondents to participate in the surveys.
All our surveys are anonymous; check out our privacy
policy. All data copyright 1996-2007.
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