The School of Music

I stumbled across this link about the Navy School of Music; it covers not only the Navy's music history but also the Marines and Army. The Air Force and Coast Guard aren't included because they don't send their members to any of the joint schools. When I enlisted, the SOM was at Little Creek, VA and so was the amphibious warfare school. Talk about a contrast in military purpose! The course also lasted six months, although I was able to advance out.

The structure then included an incoming audition, an audition halfway through and a final audition, and they were scored on a four point scale. We also took ear training, theory and of course a lot of performance. I did OK on the incoming audition (took me years to get over audition nerves) but I blew the mid-term one out of the water. That qualified me to shave two months off my time there since I achieved higher than the required final score on that mid-term score. But I had to cram three months' worth of theory and ear training into four weeks plus prep and play that final audition.

Unlike a lot of my friends at the SOM, I had learned no theory before joining the Army. Ear training was not hard at all but the theory was all new to me. So it was a very busy last four weeks.

Reading over that article made me appreciate my time in service even more. It's kind of cool to think my military service connects me to Percy Grainger (Lincolnshire Posey, ah how fun you were to play) and Arthur Fiedler.