Picture the pomp and ceremony of Parliament Hill with thousands of tourists watching the colour guard march past.
Now picture yourself in the middle of it, banging a bass drum to keep everyone in step. Can there be a better place to be a part of the country’s pageantry?
For second-year Don Wright Faculty of Music student Cameron Beare, that picture is a reality after spending this past summer playing snare and bass drum – in full dress uniform – as part of the regimental band for the Changing the Guard ceremony.
The 50-year-old ritual is based on one at Buckingham Palace. Members of the guard, including the ‘new’ guard, ‘old’ guard and band, march to Parliament Hill each morning in a colourful parade.
To join that group, Beare tried out when auditions were held at The University of Western Ontario. While he was interested in getting paid to play, there was a deeper motivation.
“My whole family is military,” he says. “My father is in Afghanistan; he’s a major general there. My brother is in the reserve. My sister is at Royal Military College to become an artillery officer.”
Being able to play percussion was only the first step. After Beare passed the audition, he had to undergo basic training.
“Boot camp was the most interesting part,” he says. “It was a lot of fitness, weapon care, dress and deportment. It was very different from being taught as a musician, where they try to teach through empathy and understanding. The military is not so much what, but how you deal with the stress. You do remedial drill for punishment. Coming away from basic training, I thought I’d never be stressed by school stuff again. Musicians are not always the most fit.”
Also foreign to most musicians are the 5:30 a.m. wake-up calls and inspections.
“It’s very different from university,” Beare admits. “You learn to keep up and deal with situations that are out of your control. It’s combat so you learn to react. I got really efficient at it after a while.”
Beare was surprised by the number of people who came to watch the parades. “There were 500-2,000 people Monday to Sunday on the hill. I didn’t expect that. It was a cool feeling.”
Not so cool, though, were the heavy uniform and bearskin hat he was required to wear in the hot Ottawa weather. Fainting was not uncommon among guard members.
“I didn’t go down,” Beare laughs, “but I had a lot of ‘bear bite’ – a temporary migraine caused by the rim of the headwear.”
The highlight of the summer had to be Canada Day, when Beare played for Queen Elizabeth. “We played God Save the Queen as she arrived in the country, with jets flying overhead and artillery firing,” he says. “It was the most intense moment of my musical life. It was almost like being in a war zone.”
However, the summer wasn’t all about music. Training also continued throughout the weeks in Ottawa with a Battle Fitness Test awaiting the end of summer. It included such activities as a casualty drag and trench dig, as well as physical fitness tests.
Beare is in the music education program at Western, planning to become a music teacher after graduation. But there are several things he learned this summer he’s already applying.
“Don’t sweat the small stuff. When things are going crazy at school, I think back to basic training and how I was able to shrug it off and charge ahead. And being physically active,” he says.
He also gained more pride.
“They told us to remember we’re representing the Canadian military. I felt I had some special insight into that. And I was representing my family,” Beare says. “It’s exhilarating marching through a crowd. You have more responsibility than just playing music. You are representing people who are risking their lives daily.”