If you can read music, you can probably hear this piece in your head just by looking at the notes. If you can’t, you can probably hear it as soon as you learn the name.

This is “Taps”, the solemn bugle call played at military funerals since the Civil War. Built around just four different notes, with twenty-four notes in total, it’s as simple a piece of music as there is. But each note is packed with as much meaning as the greatest symphony, as much emotion as the most romantic love song. It’s a piece that honors those who made the ultimate sacrifice for our country.

A piece that provides comfort and closure for those they left behind.

Taps as we know it was first composed during the Civil War. A variation of an even older bugle call, it was originally created as a way to signal “lights out” at the end of the day. (The military still uses Taps for this purpose today.) But within just a few weeks, the call took on new meaning during the burial of a Union soldier. Realizing that his men were too close to the Confederate army, a man named Captain John Tidball was concerned that the customary three- gun salute would be misinterpreted by the Confederates, who would return fire during the burial.

As Tidball later wrote, “The thought suggested itself to me to sound Taps instead, which I did. The idea was taken up by others, until in a short time it was adopted by the entire army and is now looked upon as the most appropriate and touching part of a military funeral.”¹

Taps has sounded at military funerals ever since. In fact, since 2000, members of the Armed Forces who pass away are guaranteed a two-person military honor detail, including both the folding of a US flag — which is presented to the next of kin — and a rendition of Taps.

These days, however, the military loses more veterans each week than they have buglers and trumpeters. In 2022, for example, roughly 260,000 military funerals occurred around the country. So, when a musician isn’t available, a digital version is provided.

But something often gets lost when those twenty-four notes come through a set of speakers.

While a recording is undoubtedly better than nothing, it’s not the same — so it’s no wonder that many families specifically request a musician to play Taps in person as their loved one is lowered into the earth.

Answering that call are two organizations: Bugles Across America and Taps for Veterans. Both groups are made up of hundreds of volunteers who will travel to play Taps whenever a family requests it. Some of these musicians served; most did not. Some are professional musicians; many are amateurs and hobbyists. Some are older and have been playing Taps for decades.

Some are still in school. Some will play at large memorial services; others will play in a modest backyard, as a loved one’s ashes are spread under the shade of their favorite tree. They perform in awful weather, in front of dozens of people they do not know, feeling intense pressure to play each note as well as they can, with as much feeling as they can…so that all those gathered there to mourn can feel as much peace as they can.

All are willing to travel, at great distances and often on just one- or two-days’ notice, because of who they are really playing for.

As one 19-year-old volunteer named Aidan Peterson explains it, “There’s no reason to not think about every note like it’s a story. Like you’re telling the story of this soldier.”²

Taps is just twenty-four notes, but each is packed with meaning. As the music rises in pitch, they tell the story of an American who stopped what they were doing and went to serve…and in serving, made both themselves and their country far greater than it possibly could be otherwise. As the music falls, they complete the story. The story of someone who served honorably, faithfully, selflessly…and now can rest.

Every Memorial Day, we honor those who gave everything to our country. We attend memorial services. We visit cemeteries. We lay flowers on graves. But sometimes, it’s easy to feel inadequate. As if there were more we could do. That’s why we love stories like these: Because they remind us that even the simplest gestures (and songs) have power. Any act of remembrance immortalizes those who died serving our country. And it can mean everything to the living who lost a son or daughter, mother or father, husband or wife. As that young volunteer trumpeter, Aidan Peterson, said: “Maybe it won’t change the world…but it might change someone’s day.”²

Because for those who served, and in serving did change the world, changing someone else’s day in their memory may be one of the greatest tributes of all.

This Memorial Day, we invite you to take a few minutes and listen to Taps. Listen to the notes and ponder the people those notes commemorate. And in doing so, let us all remember this: While their service is over, their stories will live on forever.

Wishing you a safe and peaceful Memorial Day.

Sincerely,

Barbara B. Hudock CIMA®, CPM®
Chief Executive Officer
Founding Partner

Michael J. Hudock, Jr., CPM®
President and Founding Partner
Wealth Consultant

1 “Taps,” Veterans of Foreign Wars and Live Taps Bugler,  https://vfw3973.org/di/vfw/v2/default.asp?pid=15343 and https://www.livetapsbugler.com/about-taps
2 “The Volunteer Buglers Giving 24-Note Salutes,” The NY Times, https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/11/arts/music/taps-veterans-military-buglers.html