How Good Should Your Sight Reading Be?
We have a new question today – this time all the way from Germany and concerning sight reading.
I´m not a great sight-reader. You wrote the sight-reading part of the audition is quite difficult but the music on the ship is cheesy and not so challenging. Do you think you can cope the job as a bass player if you are not a great reader? What´s your opinion?
(Gruess dich Lea! Wo wohnst du in Deutschland? Ich war ein Austauschstudent im Munchen 10 Jahre vor. And clearly, my German has not improved since then!)
This 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 concern for many players, and I’m sure this is a question many people would like to know.
If you are in the house band or the show band (they are called different things on different lines), you should be a good sight reader. Probably the most frequent complaint I hear from cruise ship musicians about other cruise ship musicians is that “so-and-so couldn’t read the chart!” The show bands end up playing a lot of different music every day, and they rehearse as infrequently as possible. Basically, you need to be able to play anything that is put in front of you.
So if you are a lousy sight reader, the show band is not the gig for you. But there are other jobs that don’t require as much sight reading that might be a better fit.
For instance, I met a piano bar entertainer a few months ago that couldn’t read music at all. He had tons of books with him, but he read the chords and the words and the little black dots are more or less wasted ink. That’s possible in the piano bar lounge where you decide what you’ll play and nobody ever brings you any music to read.
Also, the solo cocktail pianist could get away with poor sight reading. This is another gig where the set-lists are determined by the performer and no one brings them charts to read.
One-man-band gigs – such as a guitarist/singer with a drum machine – there’s another gig with zero sight reading.
I could go on, but I think you probably see the point. The gig on ships with the most sight reading is the show band. If you get in that gig, be prepared to sight read every day. If you have a solo gig, then you shouldn’t need to worry about it nearly as much.
For tips on improving your sight reading, read the post How to Improve Your Sight Reading.
About the author
Hi Dave, I am a strong Alto Saxophone player but have no experience playing flute or clarinet. Is it manditory to double, and will it be difficult to get onto a ship if I don’t. Should I still try for an audition?
Thanks
Joel
2/19/2009
Hi Joel –
I’m not entirely sure, to be honest. All 4 of the sax players I worked on ships with doubled on at least flute…so maybe that answers your question. I think you should be able to do the gig without having to double, though.
If I were you I’d call one of the talent agencies and see what they say.
Good question, Joel.
2/20/2009
Hey Dave !
Great site. Answered a lot of my questions I had written to you in my previous e-mail. I was just wondering something. While I can sight read written music pretty effectively (through classical training). My jazz chord reading is not really on the spot i.e. it takes me a few minutes to figure out the chord, and forget about transposing it to another key. Would that be a problem if I’m applying for the showband piano player position? Are the chords written on the sheet music given to you in notation? Or is it like common lead sheet style.
ps: I’m practicing furiously in the meantime however !
Oh another thing too is I wanted to ask if you (or anyone who reads this) have heard about carnival not returning calls? I had replied to their e-mail that they sent me about confirming my audition day, but when I clicked on the “OK” button it sent the e-mail back to them and I didn’t write down the exact date and time (I’m pretty sure I remember it though). I called and left a message but they haven’t returned my call.. I also sent them another e-mail but no reply either… whats the deal?
4/23/2009
Hi, Dave
your website is a gem even if I don’t like the answer you give.
I’m a bass player for 20 years…C&W,rock etc. Recently I found Big Band/Swing
and am teaching myself to read from the Hal Leonard way. I absolutely love it and practice insanely but still new, Takes me about two or three days to POLISH some tuses…one day for simpler ones. 6 months ago ( when I started,it took a week so I’m steadily making progress}.
I’m in the process of aquireing a 3/4 double bass and will work at it with the same vigor.
Aside from the time to learn double bass, Is my rate of learning from sheet music way to slow?
What is the reality of my worth at this time?
I humbley Thank you for any advice
forrest hancock
7/6/2010
Leave a comment
Do you have a general question about cruise ship musician jobs? Please be sure you check the main page of CCSM to see if your question has already been answered. If you can't find the answer to your question, please post your question in the Cruise Ship Musician Forum. Thank you for visiting MusicianWages.com and the Chronicles of a Cruise Ship Musician!