GoArmy.com > Army Bands > SGT Gary Corbitt

My name is Sergeant Gary Alan Corbitt. I'm stationed in Ft. Campbell in Kentucky. I'm a saxophone player. My saxophone is a sexy instrument. You can play virtually anything with the saxophone. It's such a versatile instrument. You can play jazz in one beat, you can play Tchaikovsky in another, and it's a great feeling to be able to sit down and just have everybody say, "I love that instrument," and I'm like, "Yeah, me too." I love being able to make that raunchy dirty sound in jazz combo and then turn around and play a real pretty sound from marching band or something like that. It's a great feeling.

I had some friends that were joining the Army Band, a euphonia and a flute player. A senior band liaison from the recruiting command came down and talked to our band one day during concert band. And I was sitting there thinking to myself I had been planning about where I wanted to go and what I wanted to do with my life. And I had my form filled out to go to a university to be a music major there. I slowly realized that the life for me was to go into the Army. It was going to be something that I could gain discipline, and yet at the same time get better on my saxophone. I've had a blast ever since.

A lot of my friends have reenlisted, especially musicians, because they see how much fun they're having and they see how much fun they might be able to have in other Army bands. So they reenlist and they go everywhere. We've got bands that deploy, and we've got bands that just hang out and play, and it's all basically in how you play and what you want to do with it. Me personally, I want to go overseas for my next tour and then come back and be a recruiter, and who knows from there. I've looked at being a drill sergeant. I've looked at staying just a bandsman and playing until I get out of the Army.

I think technically I'm a lot better. I can do things that I wasn't able to do before and I understand how the instrument works now. I can sit down and sight read music like crazy. If they put something in front of me, I'll play it for you. If you want something worked out, I'll work it out for you.

I went to the School of Music down in Virginia Beach and I sat down and practiced probably 24 hours a week there, and I had a blast doing it. I learned so much doing that. Then I got to my band and they gave us private lessons, and we started working with the instructors there. That's been pretty cool. I've been able to learn things that I didn't think I could learn. My fingers are getting a lot faster than they were in high school and so it's feeling a lot better when I play.

The Army is what you make it. You know you can do anything you want to in the Army, there's so much to do, there's so many opportunities, there's so many benefits to it. I would highly recommend it for anybody. Musicians, I would highly recommend it because it gives you a chance to meet other musicians of different backgrounds. A chance to hear things that you might not have heard before and do things that you might not have done before. The musical backgrounds of some of these people is amazing. There's wide variety of people and everything works together—it's amazing, you wouldn't think you could, but everything ends up working together and making some beautiful music.