I can almost always write music; at any hour of the twenty-four, if I put pencil to paper, music comes.

On leaving the Marine Band Sousa organized his own band. He organized The Sousa Band the year he left the Marine Band. Because of his mastery of march composition he is known as "The March King" or the "American March King" due to his British counterpart Kenneth J.

His father eventually enlisted him in the United States Marine Band as an apprentice in 1868. John Philip Sousa (/ˈsuːsə/; (November 6 1854 – March 6 1932) was an American composer and conductor of the late Romantic era known primarily for American military and patriotic marches. Sousa began his career playing violin and studying music theory and composition under John Esputa and George Felix Benkert.