I always thought that this would be a cool MB for the kids to get. The merit badge goes hand in hand with the Bugler position in the troop. Of all the positions, I thought this one was a real badge of honor as it took some skill to achieve. All the other positions require just time in service and a willingness to do one’s best. I bought a bugle off ebay to try to get the boy’s inspired to play. ($35 or so - $20 for the bugle, $15 for shipping direct from India). I brought the bugle, music, and cassette tape to meetings, and with my musical background, I thought I could connect with a few kids and teach them.

Unfortunately, the bugle is a very difficult instrument to play and few kids really want to spend the time learning this from scratch. Seriously, don’t kid yourself, it is not the same thing as playing a finely tuned valved trumpet. Those kids who take trumpet in the school band are probably the only kids who will want to take on this challenge.   I would seek these kids out and talk to them about the special opportunity here they may be interested in.  Encourage them to pursue this on their trumpets. You may want to find an old beatup trumpet on Craigslist or ebay (or a cheapy new) for scout camp. My thought was to have the bugler do some leatherwork on it and make it old-school looking.

Here is a ppt file of all the music for you to download. This came from usscouts.org, probably the best scouting support web site I know of. Their site also contains midi and mp3 files for the music. It clearly states for these audio files they are not for redistribution, so while I am trying to stay away from links (they need mantaining), I have to give you this one.

bugle-calls.ppt

http://www.usscouts.org/usscouts/mb/mb032.asp