Mysuru police band offers training for school students

Managements of both government-run as well as private schools in the district, who are interested in training their students in playing musical instruments like the bugle, trumpet and drums, can approach the Commandant of KARP Mounted Police, opposite Karanji Lake, Mysuru. The training will be provided free to students of middle school and high school, who are part of their institution’s music band, said Siddaraju, Commandant of mounted police, Mysuru. 

The offer for training comes following a letter received by the Mysuru police from the office of the DirectorGeneral and Inspector-General of Police. Personnel from Mysuru’s police band will visit schools and educate the school band members on the various aspects of playing bugles, trumpets and drums, Siddaraju said. 

“We will be deploying one or two personnel to each school that expresses interest in this exercise. It should take about one or two months to train students in one school,” he added. City Police Commissioner B Dayananda said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi, during a recent conference with Director-Generals of Police of different States, had expressed the opinion that personnel from police bands ought to teach music to school bands to help build bridges between the police and the student community. “Wherever there are police bands, the members must teach student bands to play musical instruments,” he said. 

The Mysuru Police Band, which routinely performs in front of Mysuru Palace during Dasara, has a long history. It started as a palace band over a hundred years ago during the rule of the Wadiyars. These palace bands “which included the Indian Orchestra and English band” were later integrated into the police department in 1951.