Re: National Guard Bands


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

Posted by Dave on November 29, 2001 at 13:50:21:

In Reply to: National Guard Bands posted by Arnold S. Gottlieb on November 28, 2001 at 18:01:46:

Kinda depends on what you're after, and what you're willing to tolerate. I did two years in an ANG band after four years of active duty with an Air Force field band. The most noticeable difference was in the area of operations - i.e. the folks who make sure that when you tour/perform, there are actually people attending your concerts, you have a place to stay, meals area dealt with, etc. Because the groups are part-time, and thus heavily reliant on sponsors and "points-of-contact" wherever you're touring, sometimes you end up getting the shaft.

One of the worst tours I did looked something like this... We typically outnumbered our audiences 2 to 1, and that was counting anyone and everyone who heard at least one bar of music (neighbors, people passing by in cars, pedestrians, overflying birds). We'd do two complete gigs per day (full concert band set first half of the show, full jazz band set second half). A typical performance site was usually something like the dirt track in a dilapidated high school stadium, with the audience sitting in rickety aluminum bleachers. Or maybe it was a chow hall with a captive audience that had to listen to you whether they wanted to or not. The billeting arrangements at the local Air Force base got jacked up, and we ended up staying at a nearby Army base in 60 year old barracks that get used about once a year - I was afraid to get in the shower without a haz-mat suit on. The cockroaches were about the size of toasters and looked like some radioactive experiment run amok.

Now after coming off of four years of active duty, this was somewhat of a shock. Not to say that we didn't have our share of clinkers in that time, but with a full-time staff advancing gigs, scouting locations, etc., things usually went a lot smoother. I've talked to an ex-active duty buddy of mine, and he says the ANG band he's in plans their tours around golf courses in the area they're performing. Guess that's OK if you like to play golf.

People-wise, the band looked a lot like your local community band - cops, schoolteachers, accountants, engineers, professional musicians, computer programmers, oil company execs, etc. Some had been in active duty bands and were putting in time for a retirement pension. Others were just doing it for the experience, a couple extra buxx a month, or maybe a chance to do some touring. For the most part, everyone was pretty cool to work with. Actually, at times, the people you hung out with were about the only thing the gig had to offer.

Musically speaking, there were moments, sometimes in the middle of a concert, where I'd just have to take my face off the horn and sit back in disbelief - it was that painful. I don't want to sound like Mr. Snotty Philharmonic Solo Society type, but I often found the "artistic experience" to be very unfulfilling. One too many renderings of Stars and Stripes at forte and above for the whole chart, and you start to wonder why publishers even bother printing dynamic markings. Like a room full of monkeys sitting in front of typewriters, eventually one of them's gonna tap out War and Peace. I sometimes felt like the occasional moments of musicality were equally random.

At the time of my separation from the unit, I was two years in on a six year hitch. After working two jobs during the week, the two hour drive on the weekend to the base was starting to get old. I had *way* too far to go to hit retirement, and for me the gig just passed the point of diminishing returns. It wasn't all bad, but it wasn't all good either. I can only speak of my own experience, and as is the case with most of the opinions expressed in this forum, your actual mileage may vary...


Follow Ups: