The Jordanian Armed Forces Band

The Jordanian Armed Forces Band was established in 1921 with a core of 10 musicians. In the decades to come, the full band – seven musical groups including an orchestra – was formed in eight stages, and today includes more than 500 musicians.

The military musical band’s official duties include performing during welcoming ceremonies for official guests of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, as well as during all Jordanian national occasions and in various local festivals. Members of the band’s symphonic orchestra, the first in the Arab world, occasionally accompany the monarch during his international travels.

Band members are trained in the army music school, established in 1966. The school’s instructors have emerged from some of the most prestigious music colleges around the world, and they coach musicians from Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Syria, Yemen and other countries. Students proceed through basic, advanced and band master courses. The school also houses a music library, which keeps more than 1,000 compositions on file and archives the Jordanian Armed Forces Band’s performances and clinics.

The Jordanian Armed Forces Band also marches and competes internationally, with hundreds of performances under its belt, and has been the recipient of numerous awards.

The band is returning to the tattoo this year for the first time since 1963, where it will march to the following musical numbers: Atholl Highlanders, Louden’s Bonny, the Black Bear Salute, the Jordanian Special Forces March, the People of the Red Kouffiyah (a reference to the red and white men’s head dress common throughout Jordan) and the Army Song.

The band is represented at the Edinburgh Military Tattoo by 77 musicians and is accompanied on the field by the Honor Guard’s Silent Drill Team, formed in 2007, the Mounted Honor Guard and the Circassian Guard of Honor.