Yes, daddy, play that thing! And the clarinet section.....YES! Col. was jammin'! :-)

Bands more often tune to Bb because of the lack of strings and large numbers of clarinets. The A that orchestras use might be great for strings, but is not good for clarinets. The Bb is much more clarinet friendly.

Absolutely. But all the brass, including the F horn tune to Bb because no valves are pressed to play that note. Trumpets, cornets, tubas, euphoniums and trombones are all basically Bb instruments.

The band belongs to the people, regardless of what they are wearing. In some of the best concerts I have ever played there were less than 20 people. In fact, one of my top ten favorites was when we drove an hour from base to a private residence to give a concert to 1 man and his family as he was a retired Marine going through hospice at his house. He passed 2 days later. I will never forget that day and I felt honored playing in the unit that was able to grant that wish.

Omfg who cares about the damn shorts 🙄

The musicians in The President's Own start as E-6 staff sergeants. An audition is required, but they recruit from the universities. The Marine field bands recruit from high schools, but they are regular enlisted Marines with B billets (jobs). And when they deploy to war they are perimeter security for the commanding general and are well versed in all the crew served small arms (machine guns). But the musicians here only play in the band and do not have any other assignments

Investing in these economic crisis will be one of the best thing to do

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Marine barracks at 8th & I in Washington D.C. in the Sousa band hall.