I received an email this week from a reader who wanted to know how good a musician you should be to play on a cruise ship. He asks:
I’m comfortable playing with a jazz (definitely pop/rock) band once I know the tunes, but wouldn’t be confident to play solo jazz standards in a lounge for an hour without sounding like I was faking my way through it. Does that sound like it would be decent enough to get on a ship?
Essentially, that’s for the cruise line or the talent agency to decide. Whoever runs or reviews the auditions probably has a pretty good eye and ear for what they’re looking for. But I can say a few things.
It is, essentially, a job for full-time, professional musicians. That is, people who, when not on the ship, still make their living playing music. In theory, at least. The reality, though, is that making a living playing music on land is a lot harder than on ships, and some musicians work on ships for a few years and then trail off to more lucrative lines of work later. You should be, however, someone who does or could make a living playing music full-time, were there enough gigs to go around.
Now – more specifically:
If you are going to work in the show band, the band that backs the guest performers, you need to sight-read very well. You usually have a short rehearsal in the morning of your show, and that’s it until you play two shows that night. You should probably have been trained to be a professional musician either at a music school or through many years of lessons.
The show band, at least in my experience, also plays impromptu jazz sets now and then for special events. On this gig the leader calls tunes out of a real book and the band makes up arrangements as they go. For this, it also helps to have a good training in jazz, but I did see show band musicians that weren’t good at jazz – especially British musicians who didn’t get as much jazz training as the Americans and Canadians. If a show band musicians played so-so in the jazz sets, but continued to perform well in the guest performer shows, their jazz sets were mostly over-looked. I think the idea was the that shows were the priority on that gig.
If you are one of the other bands – the bands assigned to a certain lounge in the ship – it might be a little different. Even to this day I know guys who’s heads are full of standards and tunes, and can play just about anything, but have trouble with written music. You might be able to get away with this if you were, say, the piano trio/vocal jazz band in one of the smaller lounges. If you have your act together, you sing well, you play well…people might not ever notice that you’re reading chops are a little shaky. Its not like guests would be bringing you charts to read down during the night.
If you are a guest performer you should either be really incredibly good, or have some schtick that is good enough to make people forget that you aren’t that good. This is probably true of all musical acts, and you all know what I mean. Guest performers don’t sight-read nothing for nobody.
Bottom line, if you are a member of the show band you should be well educated and trained in many different commercial styles. This gig gets populated by a lot of people fresh out of music school. If you are lounge band, that jobs seems to carry more autonomy with it, and your skills can be more concentrated on your particular kind of music and act.
Aside from that, I would generally suggest that you should be a really good player. If, when you play gigs, you regularly have people you don’t know (not your mother) come up and tell you they enjoyed your playing, that’s a good sign that you might be good enough. If you don’t have those people yet, or more to the point, if you don’t play gigs – keep shedding and get your chops up to speed before you audition.
David J. Hahn
David J. Hahn is a Broadway conductor and keyboard player. He co-founded MusicianWages.com with Cameron Mizell in 2008. Visit his new project, Songwriter.fm and sign up for his songwriting newsletter.
[...] is a follow-up question to a previous post, How Good Do You Have To Be?, where I discuss the skill level needed to be a cruise ship musician. Sight reading is a major [...]
Hi. I’ve been looking through this website and I am finding that it’s very helpful. I’m trying to find a gig like a cruise line because I want to be able to play and travel. I passed an audition with Carnival (on electric bass) and I’m just the medical tests away from being put on a ship. However, I’m definitely a little leary of my abilities.
I can read. I can read chord charts on the spot in whatever style, I can play jazz just fine if I’m reading out of a realbook, and I can read notation if it’s pretty reasonable. However, I’m definitely worried that some random, crazy piece of music is gonna be put in front of me one night and I’ll be dumped on the spot or something. Do musicians have any time during the day to go over charts, or is it more the case that stuff gets handed to you on stage and you either read it perfectly, or watch out? Is it always different music every time, or do charts get recycled and after a few cruises you’re just reading the same charts?
thanks,
~Jason
p.s. anyone who has some insite, or knows first hand what being a bass player on a cruise ship is like, please either respond here or e-mail me at: efficacious7613@hotmail.com
I have read music for more than 25 years but sight reading developed in me after being chair bassist of school and pro big bands for more than one year each band reading three new charts every week. I noticed that if I stopped being orchestra musician my sightreading skill is not in real shape. I compare it with a football player: Although the player knows the theorie’s rules it is’t easy to play a super bowl when you’d been retired for more than six monts waiting for a better chance to fit in a new big band or so.
I had been reading a lot of the “Partition Real Book” which includes bass lines and working on phrases, playi along with recordings and developing different repertorie by the time I’m not yet a chair musician. I noticed some times the editor writes “Sample bass lines” or “vary a lot the music line” directiions and not always the lines lead the bass but also a lot of just chord notation which is comfort and faster in order to play long and repetitive passages. Does this kind of music papers combining lines and chord symbols apply in cruise bass charts?
I have been wondering about cruise ship jobs a lot lately. Thank you for clearing up some of the confusion with these articles.
You wrote that you have to be a good reader to play in a show band. How good? I am a e-bass player who graduated from the Berklee College of Music with a reading rating of 6 out of 8. Is that good enough? How complex are the charts that they throw at you?
I really appreciate everything that you’ve published on this site. It’s extremely helpful for one who is interested in this field. Out of curiosity, what is the youngest musician you’ve seen or played with on a ship? Thank you!
Hi Joe –
I’m very glad you’ve found the info useful. Thanks for reading.
I’m not sure of the youngest…but it was under 21 and over 18. Somewhere in that range.
Just as a sidenote, though, I always recommend that people finish college before taking the gig. Or at the very least, be legal drinking age beforehand.
Thank you. I was wondering about that for a while (because of the bars and such..) What about the main genres? Is there one style that sticks out, or one style that is played more than others? Thanks again!
Hi Dave,
I’ve read most of the articles you’ve posted about being a cruise ship musician, and I have a few questions. I’ve been playing and studying guitar for several years (I’m 21), and after having graduated university with a degree in Economics from Boston Universty, I’ve began studying at Berklee (after studying privately for a long time). I’m an excellent sight reader, and though I mostly concentrate on Jazz, I’ve been a member of a backing pop singer, and played in big bands and pits for musicals, as well as placed into higher levels of theory and arranging classes. However, I have not finished MUSIC school yet, and I’m only 21. Do you think this will hurt my chances, if I wanted to begin, say, in late December/early January? Can you describe the average guitar player in the show band? Additionally, is there ANY way to get in decent shed time?
-Jeremy
Dave,
Great info! I’ve been considering this as an option for when I have summers off during medical school to earn some extra money for the family, but don’t see that working out based on everything I’ve read.
However, the info you’ve provided still applies to other gigging situations and I was wondering if you had any recommendations on which Real or Fake books to get. There seem to be several these days and I’m having a hard time picking which one to get as a “standard.” The last time I used one was in the 80s and it was the wink-wink-nudge-nudge kind that everyone had, but no one would admit to having!
Hi,
I am guitarist and I am thinking of doing a cruise ship gig. I saw how small the crew rooms are and I assume you don’t want to spend very much time there. I am wondering, what is the situation in terms of being able to practice? I know that for a drummer or horn player this is a complicated question, but as a guitarist I don’t take up much space (physically or sonically) when I am practicing. Is it reasonable for me to be expect to practice a decent amount in my free time? Are the crew rooms big enough to accommodate that, assuming I can get some time alone in there each day? Thanks.
Julian
Hi. I’m probably the great exception to most postings here. I would love to perform on cruise ships. I am 80 years of age, I play the Tyros 3 keyboard. I read well, but only from “fake books”. I’ve performed many times, but mostly at Retirement homes, where i always get many compliments. I have always played solo, and would love to play solo in a lounge setting, etc. I play the songs “you grew up with”, meaning a lot of them dating back to the early part of the 20th century, although I will also play songs from the 60;’s, 70′s and 80′s. Is there a chance for someone like me?
Hi Dave,
I’ve been doing solo gigs using backing tracks, singing and playing keys over them….are there positions available for this? My vocals are very strong, and I love entertaining….my rep. includes dance music, easy listening, and rock/pop.
Hi Cat –
Yes, I think there are. You should submit your material to the agents and cruise lines. Try this:
http://www.musicianwages.com/cruise-ship-musician/how-to-get-a-cruise-ship-musician-job/