Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Your ultimate horn collection


[ Follow Ups ] [ Post Followup ] [ TubeNet BBS ] [ FAQ ]

Posted by Dave on September 10, 2001 at 11:09:31:

In Reply to: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Your ultimate horn collection posted by Klaus on September 10, 2001 at 09:12:52:

Klaus,

I'll try to be as succinct and accurate as possible about the process.

I'm currently a field/fleet musician (converting jobs in a couple months, however!) and have gone through the process of being in a typical run-o-the-mill fleet/field band. Anyone with a high school degree, and a pulse can audition to be in such a group. You go to the same recruiter that the ground-pounders go to and express interest in the applicable music program. The recruiter generally sets you up with an audition at the closest band to your area in the service you are pursuing. If your audition is successful (and there is great debate on what "successful" means from service to service and band to band within each service) you attend the same bootcamp as the ground-pounders. Once bootcamp is completed, all the participants part and go to their various schools (mechanic, cooking, electronic warfare, music). The Navy, Army and Marines send their troops out of basic to a "School of Music" in Little Creek, Virginia for what typically is a 6 month ordeal including theory, ear training, ensemble work and private lessons along with varying degrees of routine military drill. As for financial support, once someone is sworn into military service, they start drawing pay commensurate with their rank. This continues through bootcamp, whatever school you attend and throughout your enlistment. At the end of the 6 month period, if you pass your courses, achieve a level of instrumental proficiency and have not been a discipline liability, you are then transported to your field/fleet ensemble where you officially begin your career. Your stay at the school can be greatly abbreviated if you come into it with already acquired skills. I scored high enough on my first audition there to graduate, passed their theory diagnostic so I wasn't enrolled in theory class and scored above requirements on the ear training portion to test out of that as well. I scrubbed floors for 3 months until my service of choice found me a home in lush Millington, Tennessee where I have proceeded to musically rot in this uncultured pit for 3.5 years. Ironically enough, all the swabbing of the halls at the School Of Music drastically improved my playing for I blew a 3.14 incoming and 3.27 outgoing. Thanks SOM! :(

At the risk of getting too opinionated (for you did not request such), the school is not much of a school. They teach an antiquated approach to music theory based on some long-since-abandoned theory text used at the Berklee School of Music in the 1950s. Musical proficiency is mostly based on how fast you can play all forms of scales and scored with a bogus numerical system where a hundreth of a point can make or break your enlistment. I have observed that the School of Music is often a trap for students who have no business making a living playing music. They are placed in the school just to get them into the military door where their original auditioners know damn well they don't belong. This is more prevalent in the Army and Marines than it is in the Navy. Those students are either switched to another job not of their choosing or they are mercy-graduated after extensive reauditioning with the minimum required score, thrown into their field/fleet band unprepared and either crash and burn there or serve out a miserable 4 years only to not be asked to reenlist.

It is my opinion that all services should mimic the Air Force. They have fewer field bands that have a wider area of jurisdiction. They audition for chairs within a specific ensemble, not to fill a quota. Their promotion rate is miserable but their ensembles are on par with the finest college groups.

My military music experience for me was a 4 year experiment that went horribly wrong. Although the accolades and promotions came, I found some things intrinsically wrong with the whole system. It is a haven for mediocrity. It rewards memorization of a theory text and being a "yes-man" more than it does artistry. If Joe-Blow taxpayer knew that I was getting paid to play a Goat Festival or the opening of a Horshoe Pit, I'm not sure how happy they'd be about that.

The military is about serving your country and protecting its security. We live in a country with a proud and successful military that has saved more lives than it has taken. We avert more wars simply by our existence and presence than most realize. I am not sure the bands outside of DC do a good job at what they are apparently there for: recruiting. They certainly aren't attracting better players from our universities. I'm not sure how playing Third Eye Blind or Shania Twain in a military rock band inspires one to become a mess specialist either. I am staying in the military however, but switching jobs to something that I feel is more needed by my country.

I apologize for ranting and hope I have answered some of your queries.




Follow Ups: