4.1

CAMPUS

The Norwich Guidon
October 16, 2003

Corps buglar continues NU training tradition

Brian Nickerson, Corps of Cadets Regimental Bugler, plays one of many daily calls. He is also responsible for training other buglars. (Plourde photo)

By Carson Miller
Norwich Guidon Staff Writer

The sound of a bugler has for centuries been the signal to the army to wake up, to go to sleep, and to prepare for battle.

Today, every military base carries on this tradition with these same bugle calls.

Norwich University follows in this tradition, but it is the students' responsibility to ensure the calls are played.

A bugler has played calls at Norwich since the institution was founded in 1819.

The regimental bugler this year is 19-year-old Brian Nickerson, a sophomore physics major from Newburg, N.Y.

Nickerson is the first trumpet player in the regimental band as well as a soloist in the Grenadiers Jazz Band.

It is Nickerson' s job as bugler to teach prospective freshmen buglers how to play all of the calls, so that they can play them next semester.

"This year's practices are a lot more regimented than last year's," Nickerson said. "We picked one call or two calls per week, depending on the length, and would work on that call the whole week."

After the specified training period, Nickerson and his staff of four buglers rate the freshman buglers on how well they play each call.

Practices are held Sunday through Thursday nights in White Chapel for one hour each day.

With this new training program, Nickerson has adopted a way to effectively train the freshmen not only with the bugle but also to become better overall mucicians.

The prospective buglers begin their hour-long practices at 10 p.m.

"I want to add more pressure onto what they do, so they will have to push themselves a little harder and become better buglers," Nickerson said.

Throughout the school year, the regimental bugler's job is to train a replacement. Even though there is only one bugler which holds the official title, there are nine other buglers who help.

Nickerson wants the buglers to "become a tighter-knit squad, so that they can carry on the traditions that we are trying to start and carry on the same training regimen."

Nickerson added that he wants the training to be "standardized over the years, instead of being put together at the beginning of [each school year]."

One of his goals is "not to make perfect regimental buglers out of all six of them, but instead to make better trumpet players, so that the calls sound better for the regiment."

It is Nickerson's responsibility to carry on the tradition of bugle calls, which hve been passed from bugler to bugler since Norwich's founding in 1819.

Nickerson has compiled a handbook of bugle protocol and of "all the music that the bugler plays."

The buglar position is one Nickerson wanted from the start. "When I was a prospect here, I saw the regimental buglar and thought it was pretty cool," Nickerson said. "It is what I wanted to do as a sophomore."

Nickerson uses a variety of lip exercises to give the buglars more control of the sound that comes from their horns.

"I have them all blow up balloons at the same time to see who can put the most air in the balloon," he explained. "I also have them take buttons and pull them with strings between their lips and teeth; it's like pushups for their lips."

The Norwich Guidon is a twice-monthly student newspaper distributed at Norwich University. It provides laboratory experience for students in the Communications program. Claims asserted by letter writers, editorials and other articles do not represent the positions of Norwich University. The Norwich Guidon welcomes signed letters to the editor. They should be no longer than 300 words. Unsigned letters will not be printed, but names may be withheld upon worthy request. All letters are subject to editing for length and good taste. Mailing address: The Norwich Guidon, Communications Center, Norwich University, Northfield, VT 056632. www.norwich.edu/guidon. If you have any questions or comments about the paper, please contact Professor Ken Bush at kbush@norwich.edu.