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CCF Band

Band Courses Summer 2010

Over the summer I spent 3 weeks with the national CCF band playing various parades and concerts.

The highlight of these was playing in London for the Cadet 150 Royal Review. This day involved us marching and playing from Horse Guards Parade to Wellington Barracks. This was a great experience, as it is not every day that you have people 3 or 4 deep lining The Mall for you to play for them. This was the conclusion to 3 days of preparation that happened whilst we were based at HMS Excellent in Portsmouth. We had a member of HM Royal Marines Band Portsmouth helping us make sure that everything from our drill to our music was perfect for the Royal Review.

The second of the three weeks was at Britannia Royal Naval College Dartmouth. It is a very prestigious place to be allowed to go as a cadet as it is the location for the Royal Navy’s officer training course. We stayed in the officer cadets accommodation which is a lot more luxurious than other Naval bases I have stayed on in the past.

During this week we provided the music for the Dartmouth General Camp. Most of our time was taken up learning new marches and drum displays to play at the numerous parades and dinners we played at. We also got the chance to participate in the activities that were available to those on the Dartmouth General Camp such as boating down on the River Dart which was brilliant fun and also getting involved in the sport and other evening activities. The Second Sea Lord was the inspecting officer for the main parade at the end of the course which lasted an hour and a half as he was very intent on speaking to everybody on the parade.

The final of the 3 weeks was also at BRNC. This was a more relaxed week as we had already learnt all the music and displays we were required to perform the previous week. This was a much smaller band with 20 cadets rather than the normal 65. We got a lot of free time and got involved with most of the activities on offer for the cadets on the Gold Duke of Edinburgh’s Course which was taking place whilst we were there. We got to ride the motorbikes of the Royal Signals Motorbike Display which was brilliant fun as well as getting to use the pistols and rifles fitted with lasers on the range from the Infantry Recruiting Team.

I would thoroughly recommend any cadets with an interest in both music and the cadets to go on this course. You get trained by the best musicians in the world who make the whole experience great fun. This course gets you to play at some great venues in both the military and civilian world.

Adam Kula-Przezwanski

*****

National CCF Band Audition April 2009

I decided to go to the CCF Band audition to try and secure a place for the Cadet 150 celebration in the summer of 2010 in London. It was the second time I had done this course so I knew quite a few the instructors and some of the other cadets on the course. We spent every day of the three days playing music. We stayed in a mess block at HMS Raleigh. Apart from the early wake up calls everything was great in the mess block. The food was very good. We ate in the phase one trainees dining hall with the trainees and cadets that were on other courses.

We practiced 3 marches over the week. We were not expecting to play a parade until one day when we were practicing on the drill square, and one of the officers at Raleigh asked one of the course instructors whether we would like to play the colours parade on the last day of our course. It was a really good but strange experience as we were the people that the public would blame for making them a little late for work! It is right by the front gate so anybody coming into Raleigh wouldn’t be able to get in the main gate as it was shut whilst the parade is going on, which meant we caused a queue outside the main gate for about 3 minutes which was quite funny.

We were in capable hands all week, as we were being trained by the Royal Marines Band and Corps of Drums from the Plymouth Band. Being a drummer - the other 5 drummers, the drum major and I were trained all week by the buglers from the Plymouth band. This was the best training any musician could ask for as you are being trained by the top musicians in the military. A thoroughly enjoyable few days and some good training before the Cadet 150 parade in London next year.

Adam Kula

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