House of Drumming.com

rpc wrote:You stand a greater chance of dying from driving your car than the American soldier does from dying in Iraq or Afghanistan.

And the chances of a bandsperson ever actually going outside the wire are extremely slim.

So join up, and be sure to ask for infantry! Remember, it's safer then driving a car....

jean krupa, the Army Blues? What a great gig that must have been! Did you know Tony Cuci who played percussion with Steve Gadd at Ft. Mead? Tony also taught at the school when I was there.

jean krupa wrote:--Gaddabout--- correction.
When one joins the U.S. Marine Band, one is NOT a Marine. They are a bandsman. Yes, they have to complete basic training (8 weeks), but after that they are a memeber of the President's Own, not a Marine.

If I had known that, I would have signed up right after the audition. I hope they've improved with the information since I was recruited, but perhaps they don't need to recruit for the military bands. I imagine the competition for them being fierce.

Gaddabout wrote: If I had known that, I would have signed up right after the audition. I hope they've improved with the information since I was recruited, but perhaps they don't need to recruit for the military bands. I imagine the competition for them being fierce.

Recruiters are salesmen for sure, however you can always straight up ask them what jobs are currently available.

Actually, recruiters would have no idea concerning
and MOS such as Military Band needs.

For that, one would have to write or call to learn of
openings and auditions.

I've seen some audition announcements in
Down Beat and Modern Drummer Magazines.

jean krupa, I've personally seen a recruiters computer where he had a huge spreadsheet of what jobs are currently open and what are filled.

That and I've looked into the idea myself, briefly.

One of my buddies did some time in the army.

He was a guitar player and while he was stationed in the states he played around the southwest with an Army rock recruiting band. When he wasn't doing that he was crashing cymbals in the concert band.

He then was deployed in Wiesbaden Germany. He did some of the rock thing here, but mostly did local festivals around germany with the concert band.

His take on it is that in Germany he had a great experience life wise; however music wise, it sapped him. Higher ranking people that can't play for shit will be making decisions, you have to do army stuff a lot and he did more concert band cymbal work than guitar work. He said if you're good enough to get into one of the salaried bands than go for it, but if they just want you in a regular base band, then don't do it.