Royal Marines Band Service - Royal Marines School of Music

Royal Marines School of Music

In 1996, the School of Music was moved to HMS Nelson in the Portsmouth dockyard. Today all Royal Marines Bands are required to provide every imaginable musical ensemble including orchestras, quartets and dance bands, as well as traditional Military (parade) Bands. To achieve this, all RM musicians, except solo specialists, are required to attain an above-average standard on both a string and a wind instrument. As a result of this special versatility, Royal Marines musicians are recognised around the world as being both thoroughly professional and highly-talented within the military musical world, and the music world generally. The "Solo Specialists" have to become exceptionally highly-talented on their chosen single instrument. The Corps of Drums receive an equally thorough training and pride themselves on maintaining the highest standards of drill, bugling and drumming. Their glittering presence at the front of all Royal Marines Bands on the march gives the bands a visual impact that is second to none. The Drum Majors are selected from the Corps of Drums.

The Royal Marines School of Music is where the exacting process of producing military musicians and buglers worthy of the Royal Marines begins once musicians and buglers have completed their 15 weeks of military training. Through a very productive link with the University of Portsmouth, Royal Marines Musicians can now attain civilian qualifications linked to each stage of their training and professional promotion courses. Male and female students, aged between 16 and 32, are trained in all aspects of military music. They are taught by professors of the highest calibre that include musicians from the top London and provincial orchestras. The students are also drilled in all aspects of military ceremonial in order to ensure that the worldwide reputation enjoyed by the Royal Marines Band Service for both its music and precision marching is maintained. At the School of Music the future of the Band Service, based upon the experience of the past and the professionalism of the present, the musicians train for two years, and buglers for eighteen months, after fifteen weeks military training.

As their careers progress, Musicians and Buglers may return to the Royal Marines School of Music to undergo further musical training to qualify them for higher rank, after passing the Junior Command Course (to become Band Corporal) and Senior Command Course (to become Band Sergeant). This culminates in a place on the Bandmasters' Course that is widely recognized as one of the most demanding courses of its type. Students study all the main music disciplines; the orchestral and contemporary wind band repertoire and they work with renowned figures from the world of music.