Sousa had a connection to music and marching from the start

Antonio Sousa, the father of John Philip Sousa, played the trombone in the US Marine Band. This is a fascinating fact about John Philip Sousa that explains why he decided to enlist his son in the band. In addition, young Sousa was born in Washington and grew up nearby the Marine Barracks. It was all part of his early life.

When he first started learning music, John Esputa Sr. taught him solfeggio. However, because of the teacher's propensity for losing his temper, this was only fleeting. As a student of John Esputa Jr., the father of his former instructor, under whom Sousa studied the violin, piano, flute, many brass instruments, and singing, his serious musical education began in 1861 or 1862. Esputa had a temper like his father, and the teacher-student bond was frequently strained, but Sousa advanced very quickly and was also discovered to have an excellent pitch. During this time, he created his first work, "An Album Leaf," which Esputa rejected as "bread and cheese" and which was later destroyed.

In 1868, his father enlisted him as an apprentice in the US Marine Band. In the five years after quitting the band in 1875, he played the violin and honed his conducting skills. After re-joining the Marine Band in 1880 and serving there as director for 12 years, David Blakely, P.S. Gilmore's old agent, engaged him to lead a band. Blakely wished to rival Gilmore. He dedicated himself entirely to conducting and writing music from 1880 till his death. The sousaphone, a huge brass instrument akin to the helicon and tuba, was created with Sousa's help.