Posted by Sean Chisham on May 10, 2003 at 23:00:15:
In Reply to: hey Sean Chisholm! posted by tuba player on May 10, 2003 at 22:35:20:
No schooling besides Basic Training is required for the US Army's special bands. I hear rumor that the Air Force Band has some very basic classroom attending for promotions and such and I know my wife had to take a Naval Leadership course which was a few weeks of classroom study and a really easy "test" at the end. This was when she first got to the Navy Band.
As of right now though, for the US Army special bands you just go to Basic Training, usually as an E-4 cause most of us have at least the 2 college years needed to start as E-4s. After Basic Training you report to the special band and stay an E-4 for about 3 months if I remember correctly, then you get E-6. Rank for my band is internal and decided by the leadership in the band. At present, minimum time in service that has been setup here to make E-7 is 6 years. The Army minimum is 3 years time in grade to go E-7 from E-6, but because we pretty much start out as E-6s we wait til 6 years. More typical though is 10 years to make E-7. Fast would be 7-8 years in my band.
We are less Army than most units in that we are permanent duty station, never combat, and don't have to go to schools after basic. Rank past E-6 is based mostly on extra duties you volunteer for or leadership roles you are placed in. Good examples would be soloing with the band, working the TubaEuph Conference we host, working in the library, playing with extra ensembles like concert band or the brass quintet, preparing a full recital, etc. Anything extra which contributes to the unit besides your usual daily workload is used to help promote you.
We don't need as much schooling and are given higher starting rank in much the same way that doctors or lawyers in the Army are, except we are enlisted instead of officers. We have civilian acquired skills which took many years to develop and because of that the special bandsmen are a commodity. There are very few of us who don't hold at least a Bachelors degree and a large portion hold Masters. There are even a handful who hold Doctorates. The average age of those who come into the band is in the mid to late 20's. That means that the average new musician has about 5-7 years of college with a Bachelors or Masters and has been studying their instrument for 10-20 years.
Because of these qualifications we aren't required to go to AIT. Also because of the unusual rank structure and duty allocations we don't go to BNOC or ANOC. Although there has been a very recent drive to have us study some of the materials from BNOC and ANOC apart from actually attending the schools. This is a very new development and may take some time to sort out.