Military band in the context of "Music director"

United States military bands include musical ensembles maintained by the United States Army, United States Marine Corps, United States Navy, United States Air Force, and United States Coast Guard. More broadly, they can also include musical ensembles of other federal and state uniformed services, including the Public Health Service and NOAA Corps, the state defense forces, and the senior military colleges.

During the colonial period, most British army units posted in the area that would become the United States had bands attached. The first recorded instance of a local American military band was in 1653 in the New Hampshire militia. The oldest extant United States military band is the United States Marine Corps Band, formed in 1798 and known by the moniker "The President's Own". The U.S. armed forces field eleven ensembles and more than 100 smaller, active-duty and reserve bands.

A march is a musical composition with a strong regular rhythm which in origin was expressly written for lockstep marching of soldiers. As a musical genre, it is a type of martial music, most frequently performed by a military band during parades.

March music pieces vary widely in mood, ranging from the emotional funeral march in Wagner's Götterdämmerung to the brisk Romantic marches of John Philip Sousa and the militaristic hymns of the late 19th century. Examples of the varied use of the march can be found in Beethoven's Eroica Symphony, in the Marches Militaires of Franz Schubert, in the Marche funèbre in Chopin's Sonata in B flat minor, the "Jäger March" in the Op. 91a by Jean Sibelius, and in the Dead March in Handel's Saul.

A brass band is a musical ensemble generally consisting primarily of brass instruments, most often with a percussion section. Ensembles that include brass and woodwind instruments can in certain traditions also be termed brass bands (particularly in the context of New Orleans and Japan–style brass bands), but may be more correctly termed military bands, concert bands, or "brass and reed" bands.

The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed on a mouthpiece vibrates to produce a sound wave inside the instrument's body. The pitch is controlled by opening and closing holes in the body to change the effective length of the tube. The holes are closed by leather pads attached to keys operated by the player. Saxophones are made in various sizes and are almost always treated as transposing instruments. A person who plays the saxophone is called a saxophonist or saxist.

The saxophone is used in a wide range of musical styles including classical music (such as concert bands, chamber music, solo repertoire, and occasionally orchestras), military bands, marching bands, jazz (such as big bands and jazz combos), and contemporary music. The saxophone is also used as a solo and melody instrument or as a member of a horn section in some styles of rock and roll and popular music.

The Western concert flute can refer to the common C concert flute or to the family of transverse (side-blown) flutes to which the C flute belongs. Almost all are made of metal or wood, or a combination of the two. A musician who plays the flute is called a “flautist” in British English, and a “flutist” in American English.

This type of flute is used in many ensembles, including concert bands, military bands, marching bands, orchestras, flute ensembles, and occasionally jazz combos and big bands. Other flutes in this family include the piccolo, the alto flute, and the bass flute. A large repertory of works has been composed for flute.

The tuba (UK: /ˈtjuːbə/; US: /ˈtuːbə/) is the largest and lowest-pitched musical instrument in the brass family. As with all brass instruments, the sound is produced by lip vibration – a buzz – into a mouthpiece. It first appeared in the mid-19th century, making it one of the newer instruments in the modern orchestra and concert band, and largely replaced the ophicleide. Tuba is Latin for "trumpet".

A person who plays the tuba is called a tubaist, a tubist, or simply a tuba player. In a British brass band or military band, they are known as bass players.

The euphonium (English: /juˈfoʊniːəm/ yoo-FOH-nee-əm; Italian: eufonio; Spanish: bombardino) is a tenor- and baritone-voiced valved brass instrument pitched in 9-foot (9′) B♭ an octave below the B♭ trumpet or cornet, employed chiefly in brass, military, and concert bands. The euphonium is a member of the large family of valved bugles, along with the tuba and flugelhorn, characterised by a wide conical bore. Most instruments have four valves, usually compensating piston valves, although instruments with four or five rotary valves are common in Eastern and Central Europe.

Euphonium repertoire can be notated in concert pitch in the bass clef, or in the treble clef as a transposing instrument in B♭. In British brass bands, it is typically treated as a treble-clef instrument, while in American band music, parts may be written in either treble clef or bass clef, or both. A musician who plays the euphonium is known as a euphoniumist, a euphonist, or simply a euphonium player.

A marching band is a group of instrumental musicians who play while marching. Historically they were used in armed forces and many marching bands remain military bands. Others are still associated with military units or emulate a military style, with elements such as uniforms, flags and batons and occasionally rifles or sabers. Instrumentation typically includes brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments.

Marching bands are generally categorised by affiliation, function, size and instrumentation. In addition to traditional military parades, marching bands are frequently seen at events as varied as carnivals, parades, sporting events, trade union events and marching band competitions.

Martial music or military music is a specific genre of music intended for use in military settings performed by professional soldiers called field musicians. Much of the military music has been composed to announce military events as with bugle calls and fanfares, or accompany marching formations with drum cadences, or mark special occasions as by military bands. However, music has been employed in battle for centuries, sometimes to intimidate the enemy and other times to encourage combatants, or to assist in organization and timing of actions in warfare. Depending on the culture, a variety of percussion and musical instruments have been used, such as drums, fifes, bugles, trumpets or other horns, bagpipes, triangles, cymbals, as well as larger military bands or full orchestras. Although some martial music has been composed in written form, other music has been developed or taught by ear, such as bugle calls or drum cadences, relying on group memory to coordinate the sounds.