Job Opportunity - US Army Active Duty Bands

[harrisonreed]

Hi everyone! With all the job vacancies being posted here, it made me think about the number of slots that are unfilled in the active duty Army Bands right now. We are short on new Specialists (E4) across the board, from brass players to percussionists to sound engineers. I saw some job postings here for the Special Bands at West Point and in DC, but the positions that need to be filled also include a pretty large number of regular Army slots. I can speak about those positions and how to get started, if anyone is interested.

Full disclosure, I am a Sergeant First Class in the US Army, and I play trombone full time. I have been serving for 13 years, and ten of those have been with the Army Bands. I am not a recruiter. I do see an issue, though, in our field and I would love to help solve that. Basically, we need new recruits to step up, take an audition, and come and work with us. I am hoping this thread can open up a conversation or Q&A about my career field, 42R Army Bandsman, and what the job is like and how you can join our field. Please ask me any question you might have.

Some basic info about the career:

1. The 42R career field is a full time musical performance position. The musical missions that you perform on will vary from ceremonial performances on the parade field, to brass quintet performances at smaller venues on post, to musical outreach to the community and local schools with a big band or rock band. You will typically have 2-3 musical missions per week, plus rehearsals and individual practice. Similar to teaching positions, there is administrative work that needs to be done, but this work is what allows your unit to operate. For example, you might manage the sheet music library, or you might help coordinate the various performances with local contacts. All told, my horn is on my face for 3-4 hours per day.

2. There are bands located throughout CONUS, in Hawaii and Alaska, and also in Korea, Japan, and Germany. If you like to travel, this is a great career. I am just finishing up my fourth year in Japan, and I have toured from one end of this country to the other, with the big band and brass band, and also in my personal time with my family.

3. The benefits of an Army career are substantial. When you join the Army Bands, the Army recognizes that you have special skills acquired as a civilian that they don't need to teach you. So you join with the rank of E4, SPC, right away. Right now the monthly base pay is $2,503.41 for a new E4. Other benefits include housing -- you either reside in on-post housing if you are married or have children, or you can opt for a housing allowance if you are married and want to live off post, or you reside in a barracks if you are unmarried and have no dependents. You and you dependents also receive health care benefits.

4. The current retirement program for new recruits is great. The Army saw that not everyone plans to make a 20 year career, and under the old High-3 program they were leaving with nothing in their retirement. With the new system, the Army will match up to 5% of your contributions to your TSP (401K), and if you do stay in until 20 years and retire, you get 40% of your base pay as a pension. This percentage increases if you start in past 20 years. The important thing here, though, is that even if you only do one term, you still leave with a retirement account that has been matched up to 5%.

5. The Army cares about education. I could go in depth on the GI Bill if anyone wants, but basically that boils down to receiving money for college tuition, plus a housing allowance (single E5 rate) for the school months, and additional money for books and fees. Enough to cover most if not all of a bachelor's degree. You can use it for a higher degree of you already have a bachelor's. You can even transfer this benefit to a dependent if you don't want to go back to school. In addition to the GI bill, you are entitled to tuition assistance to cover individual classes while you are serving active duty.

All those things are info anyone can look up. If anyone has specific questions about what the career is like day to day, please ask! If you want help getting started, please ask. You can always PM me.

[MBurner]

To echo SFC above, the Army Bands (and all other branches as well) are incredible opportunities to have a career in music, and possibly the most stable position for a musician in the world. Apart from personal growth as an individual and a musician, the benefits are outstanding at minimum. While I’m not in the 42R bands, I know dozens of fine musicians that have made a career out of the Army Bands in the field, and none have regretted their decision.

[norbie2018]

Until you get deployed and augment the MPs for a year. Has that changed? Good gig but people need to go into it with eyes wide open.

[ajeasley]

Until you get deployed and augment the MPs for a year. Has that changed? Good gig but people need to go into it with eyes wide open.

From a doctrine standpoint, yes. Bands have a mission overseas and in hostile zones that should mostly consist of ceremonial and MWR support, soft power sorts of things. In reality (I'm assuming that you're a fellow band veteran) you do spend some time as a janitor/groundskeeper/random other things that don't make much sense. I'm at year 15 between active component and National Guard, and can anecdotally say that those things haven't taken up much of my time.

You do have a good point that folks thinking about joining the army as a musician do need to acknowledge that they are still an enlisted soldier. For me the good has far outweighed the bad, though, and the bad wasn't actually that bad...

Fun Fact: OP and I were stationed together for about 2 years in North Carolina! He kept going on active duty and I joined a band in the National Guard to keep playing and serving part time while I leveraged my GI Bill for a career pivot. I've enjoyed both the full time and part time career paths in the army, and the reserves/National Guard is another opportunity to play. After training you come home, keep living your life, and collect a check for a once a month weekend of rehearsals and training with some great benefits for a part time gig (very good health insurance and tuition assistance are the big ones). There's a National Guard band in every state - mine in suburban Kansas City could use some trombone players!

But yeah, I would echo Reed's points - great gig, and even better if you end up in a section with him!

[norbie2018]

I met some great people and played some solid gigs - then my unit got deployed to Iraq six months after I got out. They spent 11 month there, the first half pulling guard duty/truck escorts and then played after that. I do believe that they were locked and loaded when on those escort missions. They returned to Iraq at a later date for another deployment. The gig has many positive aspects but you need to know that you are a soldier and will be treated as canon fodder if the situation arises.

[hyperbolica]

I was in the Navy fleet band at Norfolk Naval Air Station for ~3.5 years. Still had to do boot camp, but it was comparatively easy. I'm sure things have changed in the last 40 years since I was in. We did a lot of ceremonies for NATO and ships in the fleet around the base and in the general Tidewater area. Change of commands, retirements, ship arrivals, NATO pass in review parades, stuff like that. We also did some local concerts, and some not so local concerts. We played in Iceland, Trinidad, Key West, Hammondsport NY, yard sale in NC, etc. We'd play sometimes for government dignitaries. A unit of the band would go on Unitas tours - embarked on a ship for 6 months to western South America and eastern Africa for a PR tour. The guys on the ship hated the band because on board they never did anything but play cards, but in port the ship guys were all out partying while the band was hauling equipment.

In addition to the ceremonial stuff we'd play big band, concert band, marching band, brass quintet, jazz combo, rock band, polka band, etc. Some guys slammed their horns in the case at the end of the gig and didn't pull it out until they had to, and some took advantage of the time to practice and do outside gigs. You could really get a lot out of it if you put something into it. Compared to civilian musical opportunities, it's way more stable to be a military musician, unless you're a professor or something. There is a definite military BS component, but that's true in all walks of life.

Promotions were based on performance and actual sit-down written tests on music. There was a lot to learn. I meet people all the time who knew people I knew in the band. It's a bit of a club. Several I was in with retired after 20 years, which you don't get in civilian life.

I got out after one enlistment. 100 choruses of Eye Of The Tiger drove me over the edge. I decided music was more fun as a hobby, and took the GI bill to go to engineering school. It worked out well for me, now I just play what, where, when and with whom I want to play. That's the biggest difference between amateur and pro.

[harrisonreed]

Until you get deployed and augment the MPs for a year. Has that changed? Good gig but people need to go into it with eyes wide open.

Current deployments seem to be to NATO countries in east Europe, to support ceremonies and play joint stuff with other NATO Bands.

The Afghanistan deployments stopped being about augmentation years ago, and mostly stopped altogether, years before we withdrew from there.

If you go to an infantry division band, sometimes you will help run a rifle range or maybe help run or participate in training events like the Expert Soldier Badge. But those things are really fun, and also sometimes stressful and difficult. It's all part of being in the Army.

[norbie2018]

. But those things are really fun, and also sometimes stressful and difficult. It's all part of being in the Army.

Right, you are part of the Army and the Army can decide to do with you what they might. Look, I was stationed in Germany for 4.5 years and had a wonderful experience, I am not denying those experiences are possible. But the truth is that other more negative experiences are possible when you don't have an exclusive contract assigning you to a D.C band.

[harrisonreed]

On the positive side, I have spent over 5 years overseas with the bands, and all of that time has been in Japan, Korea, Palau, and Mongolia. I've averaged 150 performances per year, though I had 250 in one year in Korea, which was crazy. The first year of COVID in Japan I think I did less than 50, and that really was tough.

Norbie has a good point though. The ideal Army Band candidate is someone who is adventurous and wants to be swept off to see what they can see, and perform everywhere the current takes them.

[norbie2018]

You are really trying to spin this, aren't you. Adventurous? How about 11 months being put in harms way with bullets flying over your head? I didn't experience that, but my friends did. I'm trying to bring reality into it and you are in la-la land.

[bwilliams]

You are really trying to spin this, aren't you. Adventurous? How about 11 months being put in harms way with bullets flying over your head? I didn't experience that, but my friends did. I'm trying to bring reality into it and you are in la-la land.

I think you're trying to rattle the cage a bit.
Harrison is well versed in the tactical side of the Army.
He is presenting a balanced view of the experience.

[norbie2018]

You are really trying to spin this, aren't you. Adventurous? How about 11 months being put in harms way with bullets flying over your head? I didn't experience that, but my friends did. I'm trying to bring reality into it and you are in la-la land.

I think you're trying to rattle the cage a bit.
Harrison is well versed in the tactical side of the Army.
He is presenting a balanced view of the experience.

Rattling nothing. Just want truth. And he stated nothing about the reality of deployments or being placed in harms way. With respect, I brought the balance.

[TromboneSam]

Army bands program is a good gig for people who want to play music full time and don’t mind moving every 2-4 years, living just inconveniently far away from metropolitan areas, and the order and discipline that the Army tries to bring.

While of course it’s a possibility that you deploy if you take the oath at all, a large majority of soldiers (let alone bandspeople) never deploy. There is an annoying, dated term “slick-sleeve” used to describe people who never deployed and received their “combat patch” or “deployment patch,” and most people in the army qualify as a slick-sleeve. It’s rare these days to see someone with a patch on their right shoulder. Additionally, if you’re ever selected for such an assignment, the odds of seeing combat (or experiencing combat-related incidents) since 2020 are incredibly low.

Go ahead and ask more questions here if you’re still curious. I did 10 years in the military, 8.5 with an Army Band, 18 mo with a Signal unit that took a little year long trip to Kuwait and Afghanistan among other Middle East countries. Would be happy to help shed some light (or darkness lol)

[tbdana]

Former 02E MOS here, which is what the designation used to be for Army trombonist.

Here's my counterpoint: No. Just no. If you want to play trombone for a living, the Army is about the worst option there is for a talented player (unless you get into a very few "specialty" bands, like the old mixed service NORAD band, which was awesome for a military gig). Here are some random thoughts from someone who has done it, and who did not find it the golden opportunity it is painted as:

1. You're a soldier first, and a trombonist about 5th. In fact, in the eyes of the Army you're not a trombonist at all, you're a soldier whose (temporary) assignment is playing the trombone. You may play every day, but your job can be changed at any time upon governmental whim in ways that can threaten or end your life. And you can't quit the gig when it does change, and you can't refuse without going to prison.

2. By and large, the Army bands are not good. It's a step up from high school and some colleges, but the level of musicianship in army bands leaves a lot to be desired. If you want to play for a living but don't have the talent to do it in civilian life, the army is a great opportunity. If you do have the talent to play in the real world, you may be incredibly frustrated being stuck for years with a bunch of terrible players, in a military environment, where you do not control your own life or work.

3. Are you in the Army and you have a nice cushy gig in a great place with a bunch of people you like? Too bad! We're shipping your butt off to Korea. Pack your bag! What's that, your spouse and children don't want to move to Bumbledoboop Army Base in some poop hole place in the world? Sorry, not sorry. Too bad. You're a soldier and you must do what you're told to do.

4. If you want to be a professional musician, go where the best players in the world are, and learn from them. You'll be a much better player in short order than you will ever be in the army.

5. If you're more a free artist person than an authoritarian, you won't like being in the military. The army is not the place for free artistic expression. You must conform. This is where some douchebag who can't find his butt with both hands gets to be in charge of your whole life and music career. But if you find being told what to do all the time comforting and you like the structure of a clear hierarchy, and if you don't mind a musical life that includes being told to pick up cigarette butts from a parking lot, the army might be just the musical experience you're looking for.

6. When you get out, whether after three years or twenty, your music career will not have advanced one step. You'll be starting out with people younger than you, in a field where being young is an advantage.

7. If your dream is to play in a symphony orchestra, or to play rock, or chamber music, or zydeco, or jazz full-time and as your specialty, you're basically screwed in the Army (with an exception for a handful of trombonists who get in a very few highly coveted specialty positions). But hey, if 20 years of playing in a college level marching band excites you, you're in the right place!

IMHO, military life does not advance art, and if you consider what you do to be art, then the Army might not advance your goals. Art and military are diametrically opposed. But if you don't have high musical standards, if you're never going to be a great player, if you like a structured life that is controlled by other people, and if concert bands and marching in circles for the rest of your life is your thing, then Army bands are a GREAT opportunity.

[BGuttman]

I'd just like to point out a couple of things based on knowing musicians in the Army Reserve and Air Force Reserve.

In the Army Reserve you are a soldier first and a musician second. When you do your two weeks active duty you may be playing music or you may be painting barracks.

In the Air Force Reserve you are a musician. When you do your two weeks active duty you play (a lot).

I believe these differences also apply to the regular service.

[RustBeltBass]

A very interesting read with lots of great information in it.

I am wondering if I should write something similar as to how the US Air Force Regional Bands work. Maybe that would be of interest as well.
What I can say in regards to the US Army Active Duty Bands is that we had several times manning assists (“substitute musicians” in the civilian world) from the TRADOC band and I always enjoyed playing with these musicians. Great players and very easy to get along with.

[WAZ]

Would be interested to know people’s options and experiences in the Air Force Regional bands. Seems like they’re more music focused?

[Macbone1]

Would be interested to know people’s options and experiences in the Air Force Regional bands. Seems like they’re more music focused?

I did 26 years in AF regional bands and can say that they are more music focused. Quality of music making is very high across the board, and it's all taken very seriously. Almost everyone has a music degree (singers being some notable exceptions). The auditions are tougher than for the Army. Since regional AF bands now number the fewest in history, you may only move 3 or 4 times in a whole career, perhaps less.

The big caveat: Since the Cold War ended (when the AF was King of the defense dept), top leadership has had low regard for funding regional bands and they permanently deactivate a handful every 18 years or so. So you risk starting a great career that you may not be able to finish (as a musician anyway). When I started there were 21 USAF bands in the world, now there are 8. There is no guarantee that band cuts will stop there.

[harrisonreed]

We just finished an 8 day tour of western Japan, both concert band and a big band tour. The Takatsuki Jazz Street was a great venue!

I think a lot of the negative comments about deployments are nearly 20 years out of date. Yes deployments happen, especially to NATO nations, but the mission is very much music focused these days. I can only speak to my own experiences, from 2010-2023. The current state of this job.

[DCIsky]

This is the first regional military band post I’ve seen in awhile (with more vitriol than expected!), so I’ll throw my two cents in the pot:

I currently serve as a trombonist in the Navy Fleet bands, and I have friends across all branches. While every branch’s music program has different procedures, these are the general trends that I’ve gathered from my own experiences and those of my friends:

1. Air Force and Navy musicians’ primary jobs are playing music and performing administrative tasks to keep the bands running. Army and Marines put being a soldier or Marine above those two tasks. With the Army/Marine bands, your ratio of field work to music varies based on where you are stationed. Some of their bands deploy in a military fashion, some do not. In the Navy, select ensembles are deployed on humanitarian missions to perform out in port while aid/medical supplies are distributed to countries in need.

2. Auditions are tougher across all branches these days, but particularly for Air Force and Navy. The average woodwind or brass player that wins one of those regional jobs nowadays has a masters degree or DMA, and several years of professional experience. Those level of musicians do show up in the Army and Marines, but you also get some high school graduates. Air Force and Navy both have higher rates of retention, leading to less available spots and higher competition when it comes to auditions.

3. In a blanket sense, your promotion is not exclusively based on musicianship, but rather on how well you do everything else (whether that’s your side administrative duties, your military knowledge, fitness, etc). Every branch assesses this differently.

4. Most importantly: THIS JOB IS WHAT YOU MAKE OF IT. Are there people that haven’t touched their horns outside of work in years? Yes. Are there people who practice 3-4 hours a day and seek out lessons from the best jazz/orchestral/whatever players in the area? Also yes! I’ve been fortunate to play with some SUPERB musicians in the fleet, ones who would’ve easily won a premier band job if they were taking auditions 15-20 years ago.

At the end of the day, I’m a trombonist with full-time employment, excellent physical fitness, free healthcare, numerous financial perks (home loans, waived credit card fees, etc), and an excellent retirement system. While my schedule is unpredictable, I work around it the best that I can, I take lessons and play gigs in town whenever I get the chance, and I have the necessary capital to buy whatever horns and mouthpieces I want. That is, if I don’t like the horns that work supplies me with!

If you’re considering a regional military bands career, seek out as much honest feedback as you possibly can. Do not go off of recruiters alone!

[timothy42b]

4. Most importantly: THIS JOB IS WHAT YOU MAKE OF IT. Are there people that haven’t touched their horns outside of work in years? Yes. Are there people who practice 3-4 hours a day and seek out lessons from the best jazz/orchestral/whatever players in the area? Also yes!

I have a relative who did his 20 and retired. He used the available time to practice and took lessons from the local symphony pro wherever he was stationed. He said some of his bandmates didn't play their instrument outside of gigs and weren't always fun to play with as their skills faded. That's a choice you make.

Every job has a certain amount of bureaucratic nonsense and "because I said so." The military is not only no exception, it sets the standard. <smiley> Some young people should consider whether they can tolerate that. That's really more of a friction point than deployments and nonmusical duties for most people, I would think.

[MTbassbone]

At the end of the day, I’m a trombonist with full-time employment, excellent physical fitness, free healthcare, numerous financial perks (home loans, waived credit card fees, etc), and an excellent retirement system.

Not to mention the numerous county, state, and federal benefits after service. Availability and eligibility varies, but some are very generous.

[RustBeltBass]

Would be interested to know people’s options and experiences in the Air Force Regional bands. Seems like they’re more music focused?

If you are interested, I can send you an e-mail with more information on what it is like for a trombonist in the Air Force Regional Bands. I don’t want to hijack this topic, as this is exclusively about the army bands. Let me know !

[WAZ]

I would appreciate that! My email is [email protected].

[harrisonreed]

I think the military is having manning issues across the services, so I'm not going to be upset about the Air Force chiming in here. It's a super attractive position. We worked with the Air Force Academy folks in CO, and they were all great. Seems like they barely move around too (moving stations), which is a huge plus. They also have a lot more civilian support staff.

One thing they were worried about (well, every service is) was the longevity of their field. The Army currently has the most slots, and the best chance of making a full career. At the rate the other services are going they will only have premiere bands left.

Have you guys tapered the band draw downs?

I'd also like to reiterate that a lot of the negative comments here are about 20 years out of date, and relate to the "surge" years at the beginning of the Iraq war. The whole military service, across all services, is considerably different now than it was then. So many positive changes have occurred since 2003. That's it's own topic.

2010 me, in the Army, would not recognize the current 2023 Army. That's a good thing. We're always trying to improve.

[norbie2018]

Can you still be put in harms way if the Army chooses to? Do you still augment the MPs in times of war? If not, what do you do as a war time mission? I think these are legitimate questions that should be answered for someone considering a job as an Army Bandmen.

[harrisonreed]

Can you still be put in harms way if the Army chooses to? Do you still augment the MPs in times of war? If not, what do you do as a war time mission? I think these are legitimate questions that should be answered for someone considering a job as an Army Bandmen.

Harm's way? Yes, for any job in any service. Even the special bands have sent groups over seas. Please don't single out the Army for this when every service puts their musicians into compromised or dangerous areas. It's a very serious business, and yes, you have to be ready to go and support the mission wherever it takes you. Playing bugle services in theater is a huge deal and possibly the most important duty of a trumpeter's career. Those enlisting should see this as something to strive for, not avoid.

Augment MPs? No. This hasn't happened for a long time. I don't know anyone who has done this augmentation, and most people I am serving with haven't had the opportunity to even deploy.

War time mission? Mostly they were sending bugle players to play for funeral services, ca 2016-2021, for very short tours. If a full band went, same time frame, the mission was to support chapel music and ceremonies on various large FOBs. Bands were actually fighting to get any of their soldiers to get slots on a deployment, even at the 82nd Airborne Division, because slots were limited. The augmentation would be maybe running food around to base towers on a golf cart, a task shared by all units on the FOB. Not combat patrols, not MP duties. Nowadays they aren't sending any bands people to war zones.

At the end of the day, no who has served or is going to serve suddenly finds themselves in the military without having taken an oath to support and defend the Constitution. I truly believe that those enlisting know exactly what the oath means, and that they take it with integrity and selflessness. That's really all there is to say about it.