Switching from performance to education?

[massmanute]

As it happens, there is currently an opening for a euphonium player in the US Coast Guard Band. (https://www.uscg.mil/Community/Coast...sic%20training.)

Here is a description of the position. "Starting salary between $60K and $66K; full military benefits, paid medical, 30 days paid vacation, pension plan, and no basic training. Maximum age at time of enlistment is 34. The audition winner will have to meet all military medical standards to enlist in the Coast Guard. Candidates will be asked to provide a preliminary audio recording and a resume. Email recording and resume on or before September 3, 2022."

Also at the link above, under the heading of "Enlistment and Training" it says "The Coast Guard Band is one of only two U.S. military bands that do not require basic training.".

[UglyGrayDuck]

Let me preface by saying I'm not telling you not to go to college or be a music major, but you don't have to be a music major to still perform and learn to master your instrument. I would say it certainly helps, and you have a lot of resources at your disposal for learning and a lot of opportunities to perform. I am of the opinion that to learn to perform, you gotta perform. It's not necessarily the same thing, but I've played guitar in several bands in the last 15 years, and the one I felt the most comfortable in and had the most mastery of the songs was the one that threw me onstage after about 5-6 weeks of practices and learning the set and continued to play tons of shows. I was certainly a better guitar player and performer in general after being in that band.
If you want to perform, there are definitely few great openings that will make you money, but there's always a way to perform!

[Pat]

As it happens, there is currently an opening for a euphonium player in the US Coast Guard Band. (https://www.uscg.mil/Community/Coast...sic%20training.)

Here is a description of the position. "Starting salary between $60K and $66K; full military benefits, paid medical, 30 days paid vacation, pension plan, and no basic training. Maximum age at time of enlistment is 34. The audition winner will have to meet all military medical standards to enlist in the Coast Guard. Candidates will be asked to provide a preliminary audio recording and a resume. Email recording and resume on or before September 3, 2022."

Also at the link above, under the heading of "Enlistment and Training" it says "The Coast Guard Band is one of only two U.S. military bands that do not require basic training.".

I took at look at the package for giggles and the sheet music for the audition pieces is included (!). Nice for sightreading practice and to expand my collection of sheetmusic!

[Pat]

Back in my days as an Air Force gastroenterologist I had the pleasure of treating a bandsman. I was initially confused because he was a 43 year old three stripe airman... I'd never seen someone that old with that few stripes. I asked for his story and he shared that he was a French Horn player in one of the AF bands and that a military band slot was the best deal going for a performance musician. In the subsequent years I got to interact with a number of military bandsmen and women and I was uniformly stunned by the remarkable caliber of their talent and musicianship!

[D.M]

Sorry about the extremely late reply, but thank you everyone for the replies, really means a lot and has helped me. I decided to major in education, and have decided to pursue bass trombone. I still have my euphonium chops, but I have been practicing nonstop on bass (its a lot of fun) and have gotten increasingly better, so I plan to audition on bass for college.

[Arnbone Euph]

About the Marines, I've also heard that they don't have to attend basic music school out of basic training like with the other services; rather they are assigned directly to a field band for on-the-job training right away. (This is probably for the band members who enlist without having a music degree already).

[tokuno]

About the Marines, I've also heard that they don't have to attend basic music school out of basic training like with the other services; rather they are assigned directly to a field band for on-the-job training right away. (This is probably for the band members who enlist without having a music degree already).

Two of my kids are Active Duty Marine musicians (a third qualified, but backed out to pursue the US Naval Academy).
They have both encountered (only a very few) musicians who tested out of the Naval School of Music - typically very high-performing conservatory grads with professional cred - but both my kids say that while those Marines play to spec, they suffer from a glaring lack of institutional knowledge. School House curriculum is a lot more than merely sharpening music theory & instrumental skills. Excepting those very few, everyone attends mandatory School House after boot (they both qualified expert rifle & pistol) and MCT (Marine Combat Training - heh-heh: my daughter's favorite is the Mk19 automatic grenade launcher). Again, one must be an exceptionally good instrumentalist to test out of music school. My daughter's section mate did, but she is a Grammy Award winner on her instrument.
Afaik (other than the President's Own Marine Band in DC), no one skips boot camp, and no one in boot camp necessarily knows each other's MOS. That is to say, musicians aren't coddled; the drill instructors are equal-opportunity abusers. My son was very secretive about his MOS; my daughter didn't care.
In addition to the "GI Bill" (Montgomery or post-911), there is also tuition assistance, which will have paid for my daughter's 4-yr undergraduate degree (finance, not music, btw) by the time her first enlistment is up this coming July (within the same 4 years as her high school classmates, she's mustering out with a debt-free degree, tremendous life experience, & money in the bank). She will still have the GI Bill available for her Masters or to pass on to her future kids.
Another factoid: All Marine musicians have a secondary capability/duty, so my kids' work schedules are always fully-booked - it's not just practice, play, and recreate. In fact, if anything, they beef that weekend non-comp'd gigs mean they're typically working longer than a 40-hour week.
Looping back to the original topic - performance/education degree: my son loves music deep in his soul, but felt uncertain about whether to dedicate the time and considerable money of a 4-year education toward music. His enlistment allowed him the opportunity to travel & explore professional performance while earning a degree and supplementing his bank account, and facilitated his decision to pursue a non-music career.
Both my kids are proud of their service and thankful for having had the military option out of high school, and their positive experience has led me encourage good high-school musicians to investigate the opportunity.

[iMav]

Having served in the military (disabled vet)…I’m not sure how I feel about service members not going through basic training. I suppose you do what you have to do to attract the talent.

I was in basic with a couple of folks that were headed to military bands. (A trombone player and a French horn player….if I remember correctly.)

[tokuno]

Having served in the military (disabled vet)…I’m not sure how I feel about service members not going through basic training. I suppose you do what you have to do to attract the talent.

I was in basic with a couple of folks that were headed to military bands. (A trombone player and a French horn player….if I remember correctly.)

Pardon my knee-jerk, hyperbolic response, but my kids are continually rebuffing the false image that military musicians are not "real" soldiers.
Of the Marine Musicians, only the (few) President's Own elite band members skip boot and MCT, and they enter minimum E5 - sergeant. But they are not combat deployable and do not wear standard unis (albeit a small number of them started in the fleet bands - i.e. combat-capable Marine riflemen - and later auditioned into the President's Own).
All the other (fleet band) Marine musicians begin as soldiers "first a rifleman" then deploy as musicians, and they're combat ready. They have the same physical readiness & training requirements (my daughter broke her finger when she was hip thrown by a big dude during 2nd-level Marine Martial Arts training and last year she spent a week in competitive exercises against reservists up at the Marine Corps Mountain Warfare Training Center (where her small corps of regulars consistently wiped out the reservists despite heavy fingers trying to even the scale) where they had no facilities - sewage, shelter, running water, or even sleeping bags (they subsisted on MREs & stored water). She huddled on the engine compartment of the Humvee for warmth).
The Marine musicians are tough, trained soldiers.
Here's a Marine musician serving her primary role (shortest one on stage left): https://youtu.be/CwI_7YAUBA4
The same US Marine musician barrel-swapping a 7.62 M240b: https://youtu.be/VPwrtEisI0w
The sash hides her rifle & pistol "expert" badges

Important note to high-schoolers: military service has many benefits and is worth looking into. It is not merely the bastion of last resort. She graduated with a 4+ gpa from the country's #19th rated (per USNews) STEM public high school.

[iMav]

You are describing what I believe to be proper and optimal. I, specifically, don't feel great about those that are NOT true, deployable service members.

We are in agreement...unless you are trying to make the point that the "non-deployables" are, indeed "real" soldiers as well...


The musicians I was in boot camp with did everything everyone else did. Most didn't even know they were any "different" (they WEREN'T...which is the point, I guess). I only had the opp to play in basic training and tech school Drum and Bugle corps...which WAS ton of fun.

[iMav]

With the group these guys went to...they left basic training as E-3. Sewed on E-5 when they got to their duty station. And then in six months got promoted to E-6. (they DEFINITELY didn't share that with the general population in boot camp. LOL)

Do you know if they get all the requisite NCO training? (I have no idea...just curious.)

[tokuno]

With the group these guys went to...they left basic training as E-3. Sewed on E-5 when they got to their duty station. And then in six months got promoted to E-6. (they DEFINITELY didn't share that with the general population in boot camp. LOL)

Do you know if they get all the requisite NCO training? (I have no idea...just curious.)

Yep, once they're deployed, they're "just" Marines, and subject to all the same rules and abuse as anyone else, including promotion requirements. E.g. they must attend Corporal (or Sergeant) school prior to advancing.
I believe all prospective Marines can enter boot with contract promotion agreements (e.g. within a certain time, you'll be eligible for x), and it's common for musicians to be contract E2s (private first class) at completion of boot. Boy Scouts Eagles are the same, and I've heard of Marines who had completed their 4-year degree prior to boot who signed enlistment contracts assuring eligibility for E5 in their first enlistment (barring NJP, or other f-up).
Afaik, E6 ain't happening in the first enlistment of today's Marines (likely not the 2nd, either), neither E5 during the 1st for all but the rare case or contracted.

[Arnbone Euph]

Back in 1964 in the summer after completing my junior year and turning 17 that June, I first approached US Marine Corps recruiters asking about enlisting with a billet for Fleet band. First the recruiter said that Marine musicians are also combatants and that I'd likely be a machine gunner (this was as Vietnam was picking up steam). But then he said the Marines don't take 17 year-olds and to come back the next summer after I graduate. I was disappointed because I wanted to follow in my father's footsteps, who did join the Marine Corps at age 17; Pearl Harbor happened while he was in basic at Camp Pendleton. He and fellow Marines were sent to the coast to dig in and wait for the Japanese invasion of California (which never came). He went on to fight in the Marianna Island campaigns and was awarded a silver star for his bravery in taking out a machine gun nest during the early part of an island campaign that had his unit pinned down (on Saipan, I believe it was). Anyhow, the Marines said no to me but the Navy said yes (even though I had to take the required hearing test 8 times and never passed; they let me in with a waiver). On to boot camp and soon on to the Recruit Drum and Bugle Corps as the baritone bugle section leader. I thought I was bound for Music school and so asked the same fellow who auditioned me for the Recruit Drum and Bugle Corps to audition me for music school. He did; I passed; and he gave me a slip saying so to give to the folks who would be doing my aptitude testing in a few days for classification and assignment of A school. I scored high in language aptitude, although I that point I had never studied a foreign language but was a whiz at grammar; also scored very high on radioman aptitude which was a test of morse code where you learned the code for I, E, and T and then had to hear code for 150 questions I think it was and color in the box for the appropriate letter. I also aced the sonar exam (in spite of my deafness). Because of the high morse code and language scores, they pegged me for what was then called Communications Technician, a high-demand job that required a Top Secret Cryptographic Clearance and 6 months schooling in morse code intercept in Pensacola, FL (we also leaned the five extra characters included in the Cyrillic alphabet so we could intercept Soviet morse-code communications). When they told me how few people are selected for this high demand job, I was flattered, but sheepishly handed over my chit that said I qualified for Musician's school (located right there in San Diego). My placement NCO blew a gasket and yelled at me for turning down a top secret job to go toot a damn horn. Instead, he said, you'll be assigned to a ship with no class A school specialty and will spend the next 4 years chipping paint on a destroyer. (I believed him). He made me stand at parade rest outside the classification hall for the rest of the day so I could reflect on my unforgiveable transgression). Then I went about my life as a Drum and Bugle Corps baritone bugler, playing colors (flag raising/lowering) 2x a day, playing for recruit graduation every Friday, and playing in about 8 off-base community events. When we got our orders at the end of basic, I fully expected to get my non-A-school ship assignment, but instead was assigned to morse-code intercept school in Pensacola. Then after that, my first overseas deployment to the Philippines, which led to two month-long assignments aboard guided-missile destroyers for Search and Rescue operations in the Tonkin Gulf, then 4 months based in Danang flying daily intelligence operations off the coast of Hanoi providing early warning to Naval fighters and bombers attacking military targets. Our intercept helped locate the position of SAM sites (surface-to-air missiles) that were on mobile transports and were relocated each day. After Vietnam, I ended up attending Defense Language Institute West Coast (Monterey, CA) for Portuguese, then a year aboard a spy ship monitoring Angolan and Mozambiquean rebels in their revolution against Portugal), then on to Russian language school, and spending the remainder of my 12 years service monitoring Russian activity in the Black Sea from my base in Karamursel, Turkey. So I don't regret all of those experiences in the least, but what a different place I landed than I had thought I would with Music A School in San Diego. My anticipated 4 years as a Navy fleet musician followed by 4 years of college and a career as a high school band director never materialized. Even so, I never lost my love for the euphonium and the joy music has brought to me. The professional musicians I have met over the years who did pass through the armed forces music schools and subsequently played in bands have noted that being paid to play your instrument 8 to 10 hours a day lays down some very solid performance skills.

[iMav]

Wow. I would have been devastated…

Good on you for charging forward.

[tokuno]

Cool story Arnbone, and thanks for your service. My Uncle attended the Monterey Defense Language Institute, too. Translator in post-ww2 Japan.
Marine policy must've changed, because my son enlisted after high school at 17 - turned 18 during boot camp.