From the monthly archives: September 2008

I found a really cutting op-ed article… today about musicians that play commercial gigs.  It’s well-written and possibly the best argument I’ve read on what is a very common topic among musicians.
The idea is that you cannot be a real artist and play commercial

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As I mentioned earlier in an article about cruise ship musician skill level, you should have very good sight-reading skills if you are going to work on a cruise ship, especially if you are planning to work in the show band. Its no surprise that…

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Dave was right.
It’s the second day of this cruise, and we are already seeing improvements. The old MD is back, and H. is a lowly sax player again, and nothing more. The one thing we aren’t happy about now, is that H. got away…

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I found a little write-up… today by a music director on Princess about how to get the MD job.  The writing is a little disjointed, but the information is correct.
The position of Music Director (MD), sometimes also called “Bandmaster,” is a management position within

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I., a pianist, asks:
Are you allowed to use sheet music when you’re playing in a lounge? I use a MusicPad Pro (digital sheet music viewer thing) which I have packed full with an obscene amount of real books. Would this be allowed?
I’ve seen…

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What Happens If I Get Fired?

On September 20, 2008 By

I like to check the traffic stats of this site regularly.  Not because the site gets a huge amount of traffic, just because it’s interesting.  In most stats you can see how people got to the site.  If they found the site through a search…

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GhostWriter is working in the show band on a cruise ship in the Mediterranean.  A few weeks ago he had some trouble with his bass and writes us today with some tips on musical instrument maintenance and repair.  This is great information! ~ Dave
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C. is a drummer and asks:
I want to know about port cities. From what I’ve been told, musicians get to go on the port cities just like the passengers do, obviously when we’re not playing, that is. How does it work? Can you plan…

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Chris is leaving to play in a show band soon and asks:
What I want to know is: when do we play. All I know is about the 8PM and 10PM shows. I am SURE though that there is more, and I’ve been trying to…

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