In my latest book, Miss Ellie Mae, (The Brides of Fiddler’s Gap, Book 4) I decided to have my heroine play the tuba. She’s petite, so handling a tuba is no mean feat. But she does it and my old west town full of musicians determined to build their orchestra (and marry off the bachelors) are very happy to have her!
When we hear the word tuba, many think of a sousaphone, which is the instrument used in marching bands. Though it is also played in regular bands as well. Women playing brass instruments wasn’t the norm back in the day, and to see a ladies brass band was almost unheard of.
Even today, ladies brass bands are a rare phenomenon. However, there was a “golden era” for them in the late 1800s and early 1900s here in the USA.
Of course, it wasn’t uncommon to have a few women in brass bands, but they were still a minority. The male-dominated British brass bands didn’t see any major involvement from women until the 1950s. In contrast, women in USA brass bands were more prevalent and faced less discrimination.
The first female bands appeared in the 1850s and 1860s as part of family musical groups. Non-family female bands emerged in
the 1870s, and were quickly embraced and accepted here in the United States. While some bands consisted solely of women, others had male directors or occasional male players. The skill of these women was as good or even better than the guys in the band, and were chosen for their skills rather than their appearance.
Some of these female bands were professional or semi-professional, performing on stage, touring with vaudeville troupes, or going off on concert tours around the country. Most, however, were local and provided entertainment services similar to those of male bands.
In my Brides of Fiddler’s Gap series, some of the brides come from well to do or wealthy families. This is because in the nineteenth century, part of every wealthy girl’s education included learning to play the piano and sing. As cities and the middle class grew, playing an instrument became a standard of that class. Unfortunately, the musical instrument repertoire for women was small. Women were often discouraged from playing orchestral instruments as they didn’t look lady-like or getting a good sound from the instrument required too much strength. The bassoon is the toughest instrument to play as far as lung power. The flute the second. Though women were allowed to play those. In the early 19th century stringed instruments, like the violin, were associated with the devil; therefore, respectable girls generally didn’t play them. Now that little nugget was a surprise to me!
Have you or a family member ever played an instrument? I’m giving away one free e-copy of Miss Ellie Mae (The Brides of Fiddler’s Gap, Book 4) to one lucky commenter. Here’s a little more about the book:
Ellie Mae Ruggles was horrified at the thought of an arranged marriage to the likes of Elmer Grant. How could her parents even think she’d be interested in the old codger? So, she took matters into her own hands and made a run for it. Maybe it wasn’t the best decision, but it was the only one she could come up with in the heat of the moment. Now here she was, in a nothing of a town called Fiddler’s Gap after seeing an advertisement for a mail-order bride. But now that she was here, she wasn’t so sure she’d done the right thing.
Cassius Herber was elated that someone had answered his advertisement for a virtuous woman who was also a virtuoso. He was the third man in town to get himself a mail-order bride. But his wasn’t too happy when she first arrived, and was also having second thoughts if his guess was right. How was he to win her? He wanted to court her a little first, but was that giving her too much of chance to change her mind and hightail back to where she came from? And wouldn’t you know, just as he’s making some progress, the unthinkable happens. Can Cassius win his bride and convince her to stay?
USA Today bestselling author Kit Morgan is the author of over 140 books of historical and contemporary western romance! Her stories are fun, sweet stories full of love, laughter, and just a little bit of mayhem! Kit creates her stories in her little log cabin in the woods in the Pacific Northwest. An avid reader and knitter, when not writing, she can be found with either a book or a pair of knitting needles in her hands! Oh, and the occasional smidge of chocolate!
I took piano lessons for a few years, but I never kept up with it.
Love the plot of your book.
denise
I’ve always wanted to learn how to play the piano. One of these days….
I can’t wait to read it, it sounds funny!
These are a ton of fun to write!
Sounds great.
Yeah, I’m having a lot of fun with this series.
Hey Kit! Nice history on women in brass bands! I’ve not started this series yet! Sounds great! I played the piano for 8 years. I rarely play now since I don’t own one. I always wanted to play the harmonica. Crazy, I know! LOL But, now I just listen to the music. I started my grandson on the Big Band music when he was a baby. Now he loves just about all kinds music!
Best wishes Kit!
Harmonica! Woo hoo! You should go for it, Tracy!
no
I’ve played the flute since I was twelve. It’s been an adventure!
I played the “instrument of the devil”, AKA the violin, for several years. Though I wasn’t very good & can only shake my head at what my poor parents went through when I’d practice in my room – LOL!
I am looking forward to reading this series – love that Ellie plays the tuba!
My daughter tried her hand at the violin. But switched to flute. I’ve always wanted to learn how to play the violin.
Hubs and all my kids play instruments and so far so do 2 of the grands!
Woo hoo, Teresa! A musical family!
Thank you.
You’re welcome, Bridgette!
Welcome today. Oh but this sounds like it would be a wonderful series. I must look into this. Thanks. I played the piano and the alto clarinet. My husband played the guitar, both acoustic and electric. Our son played the trombone. And our daughter played the flute and the saxophone. quilting dash lady at comcast dot net
Another musical family! Always fun when different family members are practicing at the same time!
I enjoyed the history and never heard of stringed instruments and the devil. There is the song “The Devil Went Down to Georgia.” So there maybe more there. I did play the clarinet and all my kids played instruments as well.
That’s the first time I’ve heard that too! You’ll note there was nothing wrong with men playing the violin! Sheesh. I think they didn’t want women in their orchestras. Some professional marching bands didn’t allow women to join their ranks until the 1970s!
My middle daughter took violin lessons for several years, my oldest played the clarinet as well as one of my granddaughters and another granddaughter played the flute.
I had so much fun playing the flute growing up and participating in marching band. I hope your granddaughters have fun as they continue to play.
I play mandolin and my mom plays guitar. We were in a bluegrass band together for quite awhile with some friends of hers. We played nursing homes, churches, and even a couple of 4th of July celebrations. I really miss it. I don’t play much anymore but I would love to get back into it.
It’s so much fun. I would play for high school musicals for a number of years and community theater. My little home town now has a community band and orchestra, but I’ve yet to join.
Fun post today, Kit. I’m a band nerd, so this struck a chord with me. 😉 I love that you have a tuba-playing heroine. My best friend and I both played flute in high school, but our freshmen year, our band was short on tubas and long on woodwinds, so my friend decided to switch to tuba. Quite a transition! She did great, though. Marched with the sousaphone and played the concert tuba using a stand to help her support its weight. I always thought it was pretty amazing that she was able make that switch so successfully. My dad was a tuba player back in the day, so I’m rather partial to that instrument. 🙂
Cool! I played flute and tenor sax, but had to give up the sax as my flute teacher said it was ruining my embouchure. I still play and so do some other friends from high school. We get together now and then and jam.
My brother was going to play the tuba in the band at school but he never stuck with it. Your books sounds really good and I can’t wait to read it.
I have a friend who played tuba and baritone and became a concert player, then a music teacher. You just never know where an instrument will take you. Like my new series! LOL
I played the recorder for a couple years in elementary school many many years ago, only because my parents bought the recorder, our school didn’t have any instruments. My daughters learned violin starting in 3rd grade. Once in 6th grade, they can decide if they want to continue or not. In 4th or 5th, they can explore viola or cello or band instead. My oldest daughter ended up stopping in 7th or 8th grade because of migraines. My youngest is in 10th grade and is still in orchestra and plays with the school fiddlers too. She has no plans on stopping.
Good for her! There’s a lot she can do with it. Who knows where her playing will take her!
I wanted to learn to play a piano, but my parents said our house was too small for a piano. My son took piano lessons, and my daughter played the clarinet.
One of these days I’ll get around to learning the piano, Janice!
I can play the piano and organ.
I had an old organ once I got at a garage sale, but then never played it.
I learned to play and got a little piano a few years ago. I noodle on it sometimes when my fingers are working better.
I’d still like to learn how to play the piano. I was telling someone else I bought an old organ at a garage sale. I never played it, and just remember there was something wrong with it and it didn’t work. It sure looked cool though!
I’ve never played an instrument, but my Dad played the guitar. He liked to play and sing some gospel tunes.
I bet he was fun to listen to, Connie!
My mom plays the piano. The book sounds great.
One of these days I’ll bet around to learning how to play one of those, Linda.
I play the piano and my dad was almost a concert level pianist. I was not. 🙂 I played the piano at church and also for various choirs in junior and senior high school. It was a great way to get out of class haha…
Still, how fun! And of course there’s the whole getting out of class thing! LOL!
I took piano lessons for about 12+yeeears but never kept up, I might still be able to play some piano today.
I think it would be so much fun to learn how to play the piano.
I can play a record or tape or CD player, but musical instruments, not so much. I did take a semester of piano in college and did OK, but my tempo never got much above largo, or too slow for the pieces I was playing. Our oldest daughter took piano and did rather well. She also took violin for several years. Our other daughter also took piano, but has dyslexia. Her piano teacher was frustrated because she was playing by ear (and well thank you) but not reading the music. She was tracking right to left instead of the proper way when she did try to read music. She later took flute and likely did that by ear also. Our grandson plays guitar and mandolin. Our 12 year old granddaughter started with trombone because that is what her dad played in high school, but switched to tuba last year.
Lots of musicians in the family, Patricia! I knew someone with dyslexia who played by ear. The band director let them play as the student was brilliant and could play just about anything!
That’s really interesting! I took piano lessons for a few years when I was younger. I really enjoyed it.
I keep telling everyone I’m going to take piano lessons one day, Megan. Still haven’t got around to it but I will!
No, Kit, I don’t know how to play any instrument. When my brothers who are fraternal twins were in 4th grade, they begged our parents to let them take band. This involved renting instruments for them (a trombone for Jim and a saxophone for John). They continued to play through high school and John eventually owned his saxophone, which his daughter Stephanie inherited (she not only plays it, she’s quite the singer who’s cantored at weddings and funerals). I sing with our church choir.
Your new book sounds like it’ll be fun to read!
I always wanted to play the piano, took lessons for a little while a couple times as a child/teen, but just really didn’t have the ability to make my hands do different things at the same time. Annnnddd… I wanted to just sit down & play Maple Leaf Rag or Last Date without going through all the work of practicing non-stop! 😉 haha! But, I did marry into a very musical family who all played one instrument or another… or multiple! My husband played violin in orchestra, he’s pretty good at the piano, & can play any instrument he puts his hands on better than your average Joe. Our daughter played the viola & violin in orchestra & is very good at the piano. Our son played trombone in band for a couple years & was very good at it, then took several years of piano lessons. His interests were elsewhere mostly though, so he didn’t follow through with lessons as long. We all love to sing & their background in music has helped give them a good foundation to be good singers in church, etc. We all enjoy music very much & it’s a big part of our life!
I forgot to mention that our son married a sweet girl who can play the piano very well by ear, plays a little guitar (by ear also, I assume), & sings beautifully. She comes from a family of wonderful singers.