Why do I play Taps? It’s really not that hard, or so you think. Four notes, that’s all Taps is. From the starting note of your choice it’s just a set of intervals. The first recorded occasion of Taps being performed as honors for a fallen service member dates to the Civil War. There are a lot of stories about Taps, but not the ones you can find of the Internet. This isn’t about the history of Taps, it’s what I experienced playing Taps and why I still do. To be blunt, Taps was not my favorite thing to do as a military musician. My first enlistment in the Marines was that of a Marine Corps bandsman, a 5541 (trumpet) to be exact. My first job as a fleet musician was to play Taps. I remember it because it was cold, humid, and windy. I remember the funeral of the reservist who was killed because his fellow Marines were hot rodding an amphibious assault vehicle (an LVTP-7, 29 tons with a top speed of 30 mph), the funeral of a 19 year old Marine was killed by another Marine in an argument over a woman, and the funeral of a New Orleans police officer killed in the line of duty. There were others. The Marines talk about every clime and place and I feel like I went to every clime and place to play Taps. They had one thing in common – everybody pretty much kept it together until the about the second or third note. After that, the emotions often became too overwhelming to control. No matter where they had me stand, those emotions were very apparent. And through it all, I played. I still play today. Why? It’s not my job any more. It’s more than debt of gratitude, its a sacred obligation that I owe to those who have gone before me. I don’t really care about branch of service; I am there to honor their service. They deserve more than someone pressing play on a playback device. They deserve someone to render honors, honors that they earned. It doesn’t matter where or when they served, but only that they served. It’s not that hard to do. The person you’re honoring wasn’t that different than you. They deserve the honor of real music, they earned it.
Posted on: Wed, 20 Nov 2013 02:14:55 +0000
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