RSL trumpets importance of bugle
When RSL president Graham Edwards went to school Anzac services, he noticed the Last Post was nearly always played on a trumpet instead of the traditional bugle.
To encourage students to learn its history and to play the tricky instrument, the RSL decided to give bugles to 20 schools to mark the Anzac centenary. He presented the first bugle yesterday to Kalamunda Senior High School Year 10 student Aiden Law-Davis.
"There is no doubt that every commemorative service that's held, whether it's on Anzac Day or any other day, is always enhanced with a live bugler," Mr Edwards said. "And I think it's a great way, too, for young Australians to learn more about what the Last Post means, and to learn about the history and the heritage of the Anzacs."
Aiden, who has been practising the unfamiliar instrument for a week, said a bugle was far more difficult to play than a trumpet.
"You have no valves to change the notes with, so you have to use your lips and the air pressure," he said. Aiden will take the bugle to Europe this year to play the Last Post and Rouse at many World War I battlefields with the Perth Hills and Wheatbelt band.
Band director and school music teacher Peter Hind plans to develop a course so that students who pass an exam on bugle calls and military protocols will get RSL accreditation to play at ceremonies in their local area.
