Wish We Had a Bugler

[Eagle732]

I wish out troop had a bugler. When I was a kid in Scouts my cousin Dave was the troop's bugler since he played the trumpet in the school band. From what I remember he was pretty good but every once in a while he would miss a note and take a ribbing from the guys. He played Reveille and Taps on every camping trip. I think it really adds a lot to the experience and I've noticed that during summer camp the boys will stop and listen when they hear a bugle playing taps from a distant camp.

 

Well I may have found the answer, instead of a Scout Bugler you can invest in the Ceremonial Bugler.

 

http://ceremonialbugle.com/

 

An electronic device designed to fit in a bugle and simulates real bugle calls. Just think, for a mere $170 you can own your very own Ceremonial Bugler. Now you might think that $170 is too much but think about it. You don't need to feed the Ceremonial Bugler (except maybe a few batteries), it never misses a note, and it never misses a camping trip! Until the real thing comes along I think I'll invest in the Ceremonial Bugler.

 

 

 

 

[Buffalo Skipper]

I live one of the largest communities of military retirees in the nation, and I have heard these "fake" bugles play at several funerals the past few years. The local naval base is a training center which draws in service members from all the branches. These students are encouraged to participate in the ceremonial teams, and can be heard daily at local funerals. They are taught how to "simulate" playing a bugle, and do so flawlessly. Nearly all in attendance have no clue they are not really playing.

 

That said. We enjoy our bugler playing at campouts. We even have a back-up, as we have another scout who also plays the trumpet. Maybe in a few years, we can trade off who is playing the bugle.

[Frank17]

We come from a large troop (50+ scouts), and always seem to have a few that are taking trumpet in band. They were shy for a while about taking Bugler on as a POR, until I explained we would not require it at every meeting, only on COHs, summer camp, and other formal events. This took some of the pressure off and gave them time to learn the calls. Since then, we have had some do it at every meeting. Fun!

[Knot Head]

I love having a bugler again that misses a couple of notes. Adds a little something extra to the campout.

 

 

[HobcawChaos]

Camping this summer in Pohick Bay, VA, we could hear Taps at 11 pm from Camp Belvue. One of my favorite things that week. It almost had a magical quality for the kids, too. "See the soldiers are going to sleep. Be quiet and go to sleep too. They get up early and will be made if you keep them up."

[scoutldr]

Since I have an vintage Rexcraft nickel plated BSA bugle in mint condition, but don't have a clue how to play it, I was ready to plunk down the $170. Looks like you have to buy the whole thing from them for $525, though. (bugle, case, insert). Can't buy just the insert unless you have previously bought the bugle from them. Dang.

[Stosh]

As many of you know, I do Civil War reenacting and as Captain of our CO and senior Captain of our reenacting association, which means I have seniority over all the other company captains. Because of this I often times get tapped out by the major to be regimental adjutant. Whenever I accept the assignment, the very first thing I do at an event is find out if any of the companies have functional musicians! Yes, even before organizing the companies, I need to be able to communicate with them.

 

I can stand out on the parade ground a quarter mile from camp, turn to my bugler and say, "First Call". That notifies the 6-8 companies back in camp to get geared up, we're going to be doing something. 10 minutes later I turn to my bugler and say "Assembly". This lets all the company commanders to get their boys lined up in the camp streets. 2 minutes later I turn to my bugler and say "To the Colors". The men march out and fall into line on the parade grounds ready for Inspection.

 

Can you imagine how much more difficult that process would be if I didn't have a bugler? Try notifying 6-8 company commanders to get their men ready, then tell them to march out to the field to a place I have not yet located?

 

That bugler's only job is to dog my heels throughout the weekend. I get the men up in the morning, get them to inspection, call officers together, etc. all with the bugle.

 

Buglers may be an old remnant of what Scouting used to be, but there was a vital importance to that job besides just making it nice for the flag ceremonies in the morning and evening.

 

So the choice is easy, get two-way radios for all your boys or train up a functional bugler. Both work equally well.

 

I'd trade in 3 excellent SPL's for one adequately functional Bugler any day! Any boy that's a brass player in the band can do bugle. Even if he were to learn from scratch, he should be able to become functional with maybe a month or less worth of practice.

 

If the Bugler POR is a blow off in today's world, it's because most people don't understand what a bugler's supposed to do besides play reveille in the morning and taps in the evening. Just think of it as each boy is a virtual blackberry and the bugler is the person who texts the message to everyone. It's communications, not ceremonial.

 

Stosh

[struax]

All i can say is that i really enjoyed holding the POR of Bugler, missing notes was part of the game and being annoying to those that didnt want to wake up made it fun as well..

 

Scott

[DancesWithSpreadsheets]

Stosh, I don't know about any brass player. As a tuba player I'd have a hard time getting my fat lips into that tiny bugle mouthpiece. Course if you don't mind your bugle calls about 2 octaves lower I could always play them on my Sousaphone!

 

DWS

[Stosh]

DWS -

 

On the contrary! Any brass player knows how to make a bugle work, regardless of its size. They also know how to read simple music and the best part is there are no valves or slides to mess with.

 

Our local bugler (CW reenactors) is a tuba player in our community capo band. He does just fine, but does realize the difference in mouthpieces as you have pointed out. Difficult? Yes, Impossible? No. Just a little more practice and you should do just fine. As a matter of fact, the practice on the bugle has improved his tuba playing, making it more precise and fun once he builds up the muscles for the bugle.

 

The nice thing about it, is you do know how to make a brass horn work so it should be reasonably easy to teach one of your boys to be a functional bugler.

 

Some of the old BS handbooks have basic bugle calls and back in the 40's BSA put out a small pamphlet "Learn to Play the Bugle in 5-minutes". It is grossly misnamed, but it does start with a boy who knows nothing about music and/or bugles and can get him up to functionality in about 3-4 weeks.

 

Instead of thinking about the bugle as a ceremonial music instrument, think about it in terms of communications. That bugle can be heard quite a ways depending on weather conditions, but a good bugler standing in your campsite at summer camp should be able to get to about 75% of the average camp to communicate something from the leadership. (i.e. medical accident in campsite. Bugler sounds the alarm, any boy in your troop close to the health lodge can relay that information to the health personnel quicker than sending a runner. Response time is cut in half.)

 

What's really fun is when one goes to a national reenactment and there are multiple regiments and each bugler is playing different things at different times for different reasons. Learn to pick out the calls for you and it's a piece of cake keeping thousands of people in the loop! (Envision a summer camp where every troop has a functional bugler!)

 

Ever wonder why the military used a bugle? (and drums for that matter) It wasn't ceremonial, but became such, once the radio came into existence.

 

Stosh

 

Forgot to add! All those flute players out there that are in Boy Scouts (okay, okay, once you get done laughing...) the fifer was even more important than the bugler.

 

Drums were for communicating to 100 men in a company, bugle was for communicating to the company commanders of the regiment (10 companies, 1,000 men) and the fife was used to be able to communicate between regiments. The drum's range in battle was about 50 yards and wouldn't interfere with the communication of the next company. The bugle is about 1/4-1/2 mile depending on weather conditions.

 

When General Buford had the confederates pinned down outside the village of Gettysburg in the opening hours of the 3 day battle, the infantry was about 2 miles away when the command was given to amass all the fifers to the head of the column and to play "The Campbells are Coming". Over the din of battle, Buford was assured reinforcements were at hand even when they couldn't see them as yet.

 

Never underestimate the importance of the Bugler as a genuine POR!

 

Stosh(This message has been edited by jblake47)

[cackle881]

Our bugler not only plays the bugle for all of the traditional functions, but he also is in charge of all important announcem- oh no, I almost said it!

[eagle90]

AT the 1997 National Jamboree in our subcamp we had the "pleasure" of being woken up every morning by Reveille played on on the BAGPIPES by our neighboring troop. That got old pretty quick. Although the last morning he the piper did play the National Anthem, and that was stirring.

 

 

[John-in-KC]

Stosh,

 

The issue is quality of the embouchure. EagleSons tuba professor has forbade him stepping down to anything smaller than a trombone mouthpiece. It's all about the physiology and the muscular formation.

 

DWS,

 

EagleSon is a sophomore tuba performance major now. He checked out a 'phone from his university marching band and played it at Scout Camp all last summer. He's transposed several bugle calls to Bb flat bass clef.

 

There is nothing wrong using any musical instrument to support a Troop. The object of the exercise is to support the Scout, not to fit the square peg in the round hole. Adjust the POR to Musician if needed.

 

There even was a patch for Musician, from 1938 to 1951: http://mitchreis.com/images/music1.jpg(This message has been edited by John-in-KC)

[OldGreyEagle]

Anyone who laughs at a Boy Scout playing a flute must not have heard of Ian Anderson, he turned it into a Rock and Roll icon

[Oak Tree]

There even was a patch for Musician, from 1938 to 1951

 

There still is a patch for musician.

 

http://www.scouting.org/scoutsource/Media/InsigniaGuide/06C.aspx