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So I am going to be an upcoming undergraduate hoping and planning to attend college for Tuba Performance. Love Performing soo so much and want to win a big orchestral job when I get older like all the greats have before me. I'm still keeping my options a little open, at least open enough to see if joining the Marine Corps for music for a bit of time is a better long term idea then going to college and taking out loans to buy horns and such. I've heard A LOT of great things benefits-wise about joining the Marine Corps as a musician, and the benefits are just crazy. I heard they will buy you any horn you want when you go in, in addition a practice tuba? Also heard that after you get out and start studying music finally after you have done basic training and naval school of music then you can go to any school you want for free, you'll be set for life basically. These are just rumors of course. I recently reached out and am trying to get hold of a Marine Corps recruiter (musician recruiter) to help answer A LOT of questions I have about this possibility, because I am not sure yet of what to do.

So in addition to getting help and attention from the designated right people (Marine Recruiter). I wanted to open the question to the Tuba-Goers of the internet to help me realize a decision I should or should not make. So what are the benefits for being a musician in the Marine Corps? What can I expect to see after my time is done and I have been through school? Everyone let me know their thoughts, concerns, suggestions. Thanks guys.

Can't say for alot of it (I'm on the Army side of military music), but keep in mind every Marine is Rifleman first. Don't even think about joining if you are against deploying to any area of active conflict (save for the President's Own). Be prepared to play marches. Lots of Marches.

Any School you want, to an extent of course. Your studies can't interfere with the mission.

As far as buying any horn you want, its yes and no. Yes, depending on the unit's commanders discretion, but it is still Government property.

It's not a bad gig by any means. Travel, meet some interesting folks along the way, and some cool opportunities come along that wouldn't ordinarily do so. Similar to most jobs, though, there will be things you don't like.

Will double down on Davy's input, and add:

I can tell you that across ALL services, nearly all active duty musicians these days are joining up with their Bachelor's already in hand. Not that you can't be a fine musician without one, but your competition will likely have a leg up due to sheer study time and experience.

Good luck with the recruiter call. Music recruiters tend to be very direct, and less likely to BS you than "normal" recruiters. When I was interested in joining the USMC bands, the recruiter I spoke to advised me to ask the Army instead, as the Marines weren't looking for tubists at that time. So you could say that a Marine recruiter is responsible for putting me in the Army!

All the branches of service offer the same benefits. The Marine music field is probably the worst to join if being a musician is important to you. The Marines or any other service will not buy you a tuba of your choice. Those in the Presidents Own have the instrument of their choice purchased for them, but the fleet bands are not related in any way to the Presidents Own.

I had a friend who played both tuba and trombone and joined the Army as a musician, expecting to play trombone. But they put him on tuba for four years instead. He came out a fine tuba player, a heavy smoker, and was basically a different person than when he went in. From basic training on out, the military is not civilian life and you'd be wise to look into what military life is like, seriously, before you make that decision.

MaryAnn wrote: From basic training on out, the military is not civilian life and you'd be wise to look into what military life is like, seriously, before you make that decision.

This.

Ace

Full disclosure: I am a former Air Force musician—not a former Marine. I seriously doubt that the band would buy YOU a tuba. They may (may... not will) buy another one for you to practice...I doubt it. But, when you leave that band—either by transfer or by discharge—you WILL leave that tuba behind. You MIGHT get to take a mouthpiece or other “expendable” items such as valve oil and slide grease. Make no mistake: that $12,000 tuba belongs to the band. I know a bass player that tried to keep his bow—it didn’t work out well: he was fined and made to return the bow.

Edit: You will likely be living on base—read: you won’t be practicing at home, but more likely at the band hall. That practice tuba is VERY highly unlikely. Remember: the recruiter’s job is to get you to say “yes”—Their promise is iron clad...until you get on the bus to Parris Island.

So I typed up a longer reply but I guess it didn’t go through. Oh well.

I’m an active duty Army musician. I’m not any kind of recruiter, I’m not a Marine, and I’m not any kind of DOD spokesperson. That being said, I do think serving as a military musician is a great way to make a living while focusing on mastering your craft.

To answer a couple of your questions:

The military won’t buy you “any” horn you want. You get to choose from whatever is in the band’s inventory. If there’s a shortage and funds are available you can request a new instrument. You do not get to keep said instruments.

The education benefits that come with the military are outstanding. I don’t believe the GI Bill covers all those fees colleges love to add on, but pair the GI Bill with a performance grant and you’ll most likely be paid to go to school. I don’t have experience in this area so if I’m wrong someone please correct me.

I’m not going to tell you if it’s better to join now or later. I do know it’s getting harder and harder for people to join military bands right out of high school. I also know that I would have been a terrible Soldier if I’d have joined at 18. I did college first and signed up at 24. I’ve been in almost nine years now. It’s gone well for me.

I will suggest that you look into National Guard and Reserve bands. This gives you the education benifits and you still get to go to college at 18 instead of 22 and being all Billy Madison.

In short, good for you for looking for ways to pay for school that aren’t loans. Keep it up. Practice hard, eat right, and drink water.

And get your butt into shape if it's not already. The military is very strict with height/weight requirements and fitness. Go to any military band concert and you won't see any fat people in uniform. Pushups, pullups, situps and running are tested regularly. Marine boot camp is no joke.

mikebmiller wrote:And get your butt into shape if it's not already. The military is very strict with height/weight requirements and fitness. Go to any military band concert and you won't see any fat people in uniform. Pushups, pullups, situps and running are tested regularly. Marine boot camp is no joke.

You are correct----good physical condition and proper body weight are expected of all military musicians. As a former Army bandsman, I know this to be true.

A few weeks ago, I attended a concert by the US Navy Band DC on their tour of the western states. Every member was ship shape in their physical appearance.

Ace

Don't do it for the benefits. That's all the wrong reasons.

I had three moments that helped shape my mind towards doing military music:

- The Navy Band (yes, the "Chief's Own" from DC) came to my college and played a concert. After sitting in the front row, then getting on stage to join them for a march, I realized that they're very good musicians, and that great tuba playing wasn't restricted to just the major orchestras and famous brass quintets.

- My college quintet played a series of Memorial Day services at five nearby towns. I don't know why it hadn't occurred to me before, but that was when I realized that Memorial Day happens everywhere, not just the one cemetery back home where my parents regularly played for a service. It showed me how many people truly cared about their veterans.

- When I sat in with my parents' community band for a 4th Of July concert, we played the Armed Forces Medley as usual. This time, instead of burying my head in the music, I looked to the crowd periodically to see who stood up for their service song. For each branch, I saw not just "old people", but veterans standing with the energy of their pride, dedication, and sacrifice.

My point --

Military music isn't about playing notes and taking home a paycheck. You may be the only connection that a parent has to their kid who's deployed and getting shot at. You'll trigger memories for the old guys who were three-and-out in Vietnam and still wish that their brothers made it home.

Whether or not a unit buys a horn for you is inconsequential. The job isn't about you. It's about them.

Leland wrote:

- The Navy Band (yes, the "Chief's Own" from DC) came to my college and played a concert. After sitting in the front row, then getting on stage to join them for a march, I realized that they're very good musicians, and that great tuba playing wasn't restricted to just the major orchestras and famous brass quintets.

A Navy band played at my Father-in-law's funeral almost ten years ago at Arlington National Cemetery.

It remains one of the most oddly thrilling experiences in my life.

My son's a 19-year old Marine clarinetist from California, currently stationed on the East Coast. He participated in recruit training with other prospective Marines during his high school senior year, then off to boot, then MCT, then Naval Music, and joined a fleet band last Fall.

You say you love performing: He finds this aspect tremendously rewarding. He loves playing, especially in quality groups, and feels he's touching lives and doing a good work. He marched in the New York St. Patrick's Day parade last weekend, with a swing through Boston. Right after arriving at station last Fall, he spent a week in Estes, Co, performing nightly at the Celtic games, and has traveled to DC to work with the President's own, along with performing for and working with band kids at various schools along the East Coast, and innumerable other gigs, some of which we've been able to livestream or download from DVids. They did not perform at Mardis Gras, this year, which is apparently a typical gig for them, but in June they are spending a couple weeks in France for the Belleau Wood Centennial celebration. Seems like they're always headed-to or returning from a performance. He doubles the saxes (and tuba of all things), and is trying to work his way into a jazz or big band group in addition to the main band work. He can't get enough; he's even talking about re-upping when this contract expires.

He did not choose an instrument. They issued him a Buffet R13 Greenline, but he prefers his personal horn, so we shipped it to him, and that's what he uses exclusively. As someone mentioned, the instruments are stored near or in the practice facility, so there is (in his case), no second 'practice' instrument. The tuba players march sousaphones, so it appears they get two horns - marching and concert. He sent me a picture of the music supply depot - thousands of mouthpieces and reeds available for the borrowing. Looks to me like a Kid-in-a-candy store arrangement.

Boot camp was awesomely hellish. He has some uproariously funny stories and overall, he enjoyed it. "Adult Boy Scouts", he called it (he's an Eagle Scout). They've already invested heavily in the recruits; they're trying to keep you in, not kick you out, but they need to prepare you rigorously (every Marine a rifleman), so there's no molly-coddling. He came out with huge, rock-solid horse-like thighs, and no one knew or cared that he was a musician; no special treatment.

MCT was fun - machine guns, grenades, NVGs, live-fire drills . . .

The Naval Music School was pretty intense for him, and he earned 60 college credits (two years' worth) applicable toward a music degree, should he choose (he's still deliberating whether he wants an engineering track). Pressure and stress, but he was pleased to improve as a musician, both theory (he'd taken AP Music Theory in high school, but felt barely prepared) and playing (tons of horn time and private instruction). Unlike boot camp, where no one quit, but some of his platoon dropped to a later class (mostly due to illness or injury), some of his music school classmates couldn't pass muster, so they dropped (they were given plenty of opportunity to switch to a later class and keep studying, though). They were already under contract, though, so they had to choose a different, non-music MOS to fulfill their contract.

Undergraduate degree: While he's serving, he can earn an undergrad degree by correspondence, and while there's over a hundred eligible schools (many well-known, prestigious universities), it's not "any school". Their performance schedule keeps them hopping, though, so my wife and I feel "we'll see" about his assertion that he'll earn the undergrad while he's in. Afterwards, though, there's a generous program that should all-but-cover his costs, whether to complete his undergrad, or to tack on a masters. Note, though, that unlike his high school peers who are racking up tens of thousands of dollars of undergrad costs & debt, he has the opportunity (whether or not he exercises it) to earn his undergrad on the same 4 year schedule, but will have served his country (very important to him), traveled the world as a professional, performing musician, be in superb physical condition, have been a US Marine (he's tremendously proud of that), and likely have close-to or a little over six figures in savings at the end of his 4 year commit (the pay's low, but he's a skinflint and he already had a college savings account that he's adding to). The long-term financial effect could be profound - if he sticks with the Marines, he'll never make anything close to what he'd make as a silicon valley software engineer - but he loves what he's doing and isn't hung up on the material side.

Recruiter: YMMV, but as skeptical and cynical as I admittedly was, his recruiter never shaded the truth or miss-represented the opportunity. He told us they couldn't and wouldn't risk the Marine Corps reputation or their considerable financial commitment in a recruit, so he gave us everything he knew, bad with good, and all promises were in writing.

TLDR: Talk to a recruiter and keep your options open. If you want a music career, you're probably looking at a graduate degree, anyway, so earning an undergrad during your 4 year service stint and then continuing on to grad school vs. straight to university and then to grad school is possibly a 6-of-1, half-dozen-of-the-other situation. Worst case if you go service, is that you're 4 years academically behind your high school peers, but with lots of life experience under your belt and good stories to tell.

tokuno wrote:...but in June they are spending a couple weeks in France for the Belleau Wood Centennial celebration.

That's outstanding. If he goes to perform a ceremony at Aisne-Marne, tell him to go take a drink from "Devil Dog Fountain", down the road from the chapel at the cemetery.

tokuno wrote: ...came out with huge, rock-solid horse-like thighs,

Just like bloke!!

No resting stand for him.

BTW, OP, or Jason as it appears your name is, if you're seriously considering whether to enlist, start working out now.

Go run and go lift. It'll take at least three months to start getting into decent shape (this is part of why boot camp is 3 months long), but more is better. Max out your pullups (20+), crunches (115+ in 2 minutes) and 3-mile run (18:00 for a perfect score). Ask your football team's receivers and wideouts how they work out. Buy P90X and follow everything in the book it comes with.

(personally, I'd say to do this even if you don't enlist, because being in shape is much nicer than being out of shape... been both, much prefer the former)