Week 11

Well, it would appear that the Royal Marines Band Service has not gained its reputation as being the world’s finest military band by sitting on their laurels and allowing the dust to collect on their lockers!

This week has been our first at the Royal Marines School of Music.  Basic Training is over and done with (for now) and its time to get down to the finer points.  It’s been a shock to the system for all.  There’s a whole new training team to meet, and get used to, very different standards to adopt and of course weekly rounds of the accommodation to prepare for!

Monday mainly consisted of briefings, a few lessons for some, a couple more briefings and we even had a briefing or two, just to let us know how the training was going to work for the next couple of years. The excitement was almost palpable as at last, after 10 long weeks of playing with compasses, rifles, cammo cream and bandages, we were at last issued our instruments.  At last, the familiar!  As Troop 1/07 cradled their new beloveds, carefully carrying them across HMS Nelson back to their practice rooms (some of the bass players cursing themselves for not learning the piccolo!) it was clear that, although a long way off, we were starting out on the journey to join our future bands.

The rest of the week was hard work, I’ll be honest.  Rounds almost went so well, alas, but for a few details.  Only small things mind, like leaving tea and coffee making facilities out in the spare room, talk about your school boy error!  Anyway, this did not find us favour with the Drum Major, and in an effort to get to know us all better, he arranged some team bonding session every night for the rest of the week!

We certainly knew him a lot better by the end of that.  It would appear that the School of Music staff become rather excited about locker inspections and kit musters!  Not quite as excited as us, but I’m sure we’ll come round soon enough.  That was pretty much the evenings taken care of.  Daytimes, we started to settle into our new weekly routine.  Private practice sessions, lessons with the Professors, theory tests, drill sessions and our first Training Parade band session on Tuesday morning.  Luckily it was without instruments on this occasion! Goodness only knows what would have happened had we been let loose with them as well!  Some of us are still trying to work out how to hold the damn things, let alone play them, and you can forget the marching part!  Nonetheless, the session was useful, adapting our drill to fit with the ceremonial drill that will become second nature in just a few short terms!

So, after landing somewhat with a thud, we look forward to starting a new week afresh, with more steep learning curves, but hopefully more and more success.

Bug Crossley

Monday

We had all spent the weekend preparing for the start of the next phase of training – music!  Most of us were both excited and anxious.  Finally Monday morning had come and it began with a refreshing phys session with Cpl Sansby.  This involved running around Base many times with a few press-ups in between laps. (Harder than it sounds!)

After phys we changed into our new rig with the Neptune House red ribbon on our shoulders and anxiously marched across to get our new instruments from Stores.  Some of us got off lightly, whilst others, like bass players, (the Pearson brothers) had a bit of a handful.  We met our Instructors and Professors and got a chance to settle into our cells (our homes and places of practice for the next couple of years).

The afternoon was enjoyable as we attended a master-class on jazz and improvisation.  Then we arrived back at Britannia Block ready to go cleaning crazy for rounds!

Tuesday

We could only hope we had done enough to pass rounds of our accommodation.  Our first Training Band was in the morning with the Drum Major, although, without instruments, we were taught counter-marching.  The afternoon was time for Military Training and we spent that cleaning our rifles.  Our rifles seemed somewhat heavier than we remembered.

Tuesday evening brought extra rounds for some of the girls and all of the guys, due to standard of accommodation not being good enough. Another set of extra rounds went by for the lads including full kit musters, lockers inspections … more extra parades were heading the lad’s way.

Wednesday

We watched the parade band in the morning.  Then we had talks with the DOM(T) and the Bandmaster.  Some had an incredibly relaxed afternoon whilst learning the Alexander technique.  The evening saw extra rounds for the lads again.  The girls waiting with baited breath for the verdict; more extra rounds for the lads.

Thursday

We had an aural test to assess our abilities and sort out which groups we would be in.  Lads had extra parade and there was a fancy dress cowboys and Indians social.  This was a fun night of line dancing (lads v girls) with the girls winning, and music from the dance band.  Most lads eventually passed extra rounds so could join us in their long awaited cowboy costumes (Horner being particularly protective over his neighing horse head on a stick).

Friday

The morning saw drill, with our Troop trying to keep straight faces as the Phase 2 parade band marched past us in fancy dress (including half dressed Indians and cowboys)  in aid of Children in Need.

The afternoon was spent watching recitals that turned out to be awesome performances inspiring us further.
Friday night finally came and the Phase 2s invited us to let our hair down with them on a pub tour of the old town.  Despite having a curfew, we all had a great fun packed night.  Bring on the weekend.

Musn Hurley

	Meet the Troop
	Meet the Training Team
	Meet the School of Music Staff
	Service Slang Abbreviations