Playing guitar on a cruise ship.

Dennis M

Junior Member
Joined
Dec 12, 2009
Messages
25
Reaction score
0
Location
Staten Island, NY
Hey, everybody,

Last April I started working on a cruise ship as a guitarist with the show band. I love it. After "practicing" for 44 years , I finally got a job as a paying musician! :)
We play every day, different venues around the ship, we get paid on a daily basis, the food is great (we eat with the passengers in the Lido), the accomodations are small, but do-able, and the musicians I work with are really good. I play electric: lead, rhythm, slide, and harmonica, using my Strat, and usually a Fender Twin Reverb, or a Roland Jazz Chorus.

I have been to the Baltics, and the countries in and around the North Sea, and am able to get off the ship in each and every port to explore the cities and ports. This fall, I was in Mexico, the Panama Canal, the Caribbean, and I leave next week for a series of Hawaiin cruises. 3 months at a time.
This fall I set out for a 6-month gig which will take us to Alaska, Japan, China, S. Korea, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Australia, The Great Barrier Reef, and then Christmas in New Zealand! Phew!

One must be able to read music, like you are reading this post. But it is a great gig, and the only type of full time job for musicians out there, what with the ecomony. Put aside your stereotype of cruise ship bands: this gig rocks! The 21st Century cruise line passenger wants to hear Beatles, Clapton and Santana!

Really!

I would be glad to discuss more with anybody who is interested. It is not for everybody; a lot of my musician friends turn their noses up at this, they have families, don't want to be away for months at a time (that is the only downer), or they just aren't up to the challenge of reading and playing music on a daily basis.

But it is a great gig, like I said, and am happy to be working and doing something I love. It hardly feels like work.

Dennis M.
 

AlohaJoe

Senior Member
Joined
May 13, 2008
Messages
2,967
Reaction score
2
Location
Ecotopia
I have have friends who have done it and loved it. It sounds like a great gig to me! Enjoy yourself and take lots of pictures! :mrgreen:
 

tjmangum

Senior Member
Joined
Oct 22, 2007
Messages
1,620
Reaction score
15
Location
Salem, Oregon
Congratulations. Sounds like a great gig.
My wife and I took our first cruise last spring and I was impressed with how versatile the musicians were from show to show and to different venues.
If I were single and had any musical talent I'd love to do something like that.
Good luck!
tj
 

fronobulax

Bassist, GAD and the Hot Mess Mods
Joined
May 3, 2007
Messages
24,708
Reaction score
8,836
Location
Central Virginia, USA
Guild Total
5
Sounds like fun.

1) Who is doing the arrangements and programming? Is there a "band leader" on board or was that taken care of during the 44 days or what?

2) Do you have any other onboard duties besides playing?

My cruise experience was as a passenger on steamboats on American Rivers which is clearly not comparable to the more common ocean cruises. Depending upon who operated the boats at the time the "talent" either worked up their own shows with broad guidelines or they executed a performance orchestrated by the home office. It was common to walk into an "empty" bar/lounge during the day and hear the bandleader working out an arrangement on piano. The talent also had other duties as assigned. They would often lead bingo, cards or other low key passenger activities, supervise kite flying and provide "supervision" for walking tours on shore. I even saw them helping the deck crew with baggage at departure.
 

The Guilds of Grot

Enlightened Member
Joined
Oct 10, 2006
Messages
9,547
Reaction score
4,716
Location
New Jersey Shore
Guild Total
117
I wish I was good enough to land a gig like that!

When you get to Vietnam be sure to look up Marcellis, and then you can have a Chrismas "Henie" with Coastie in New Zealand!

So, any seasick problems?
 

fronobulax

Bassist, GAD and the Hot Mess Mods
Joined
May 3, 2007
Messages
24,708
Reaction score
8,836
Location
Central Virginia, USA
Guild Total
5
The Guilds of Grot said:
I wish I was good enough to land a gig like that!
I know I'm not. The bass players on the cruises I was on had all been playing professionally for 20 years or more. Playing bass was their "day job". They played both upright and electric. One even pulled out a sousaphone for Dixieland! They had to cover many styles including folk, swing, rock, pop, Dixieland and jazz. They always had to back the banjo player for at least 45 minutes every day in a trio setting :lol: A couple of times they had to do songs that they had not rehearsed so they were getting cues and so on in real time. And every time they sat down to eat or otherwise appeared in a public space they had to deal with questions from well intentioned passengers such as me.
 

dapmdave

Enlightened Member
Joined
Mar 18, 2009
Messages
7,612
Reaction score
24
I think it would be more likely the cruise line would give me a discount for leaving my guitar home in the closet. :roll:

But seriously, sounds like a great gig. My wife and I have been on a few cruises (we live next door to Port Canaveral) and the music is usually great. My lovely wife dragged me to the ice show on Royal Caribbean, and I ended up loving it. The performance was arranged around Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon".
 

killdeer43

Reverential Member
Joined
Aug 21, 2008
Messages
21,848
Reaction score
111
Location
Northwest Washington on the Salish Sea
A friend of mine plays clarinet (not a Guild) in a small jazz combo on cruise ships. He enjoys not only the music and other 'perks' while cruising, but also the opportunity to visit a variety of places he couldn't otherwise afford. :wink:

Joe
 

Dennis M

Junior Member
Joined
Dec 12, 2009
Messages
25
Reaction score
0
Location
Staten Island, NY
fronobulax said:
Sounds like fun.

1) Who is doing the arrangements and programming? Is there a "band leader" on board or was that taken care of during the 44 days or what?

2) Do you have any other onboard duties besides playing?

.

Fronobulax,

There is a 8-piece band on all but a couple of the Holland America Cruise lines. But it is the same layout on all ships. Guitar, bass, percussion, drums, piano, keyboard, sax, female lead vocal. The band leader is most times a piano player, but sometimes, like my last two contracts, is a sax player. We play our "dance tunes" out of two books, for a total of 300 songs. Even though we should be prepared to play every one of them, most times we get around to doing only about half those.

So if I leave a ship, go on another, the band is the same, the songs are the same, and are numbered. #55 is :
"Dance To The Music", #74 is "Evil Ways", #227 is "Smooth", #242 is "Surfin' USA", and so on. With the musicians, it is like precision pieces, take one out, replace it with an exact duplicate, and there is virtually no need for hours of rehearsal. That is why everybody has to be able to read music.
And yes, all this comes down from the home office, and is the same for all ships. It is a good system, I think.
Then we provide musical backing for guest entertainers, and that takes place in the main stage. For that, the guest brings his own charts: guitar, keys, piano, drums, bass, etc. And we have a rehearsal for that. And then two shows at night, 8:00 and 10:00.
No other duties, other than specific jobs in the event of an emergency. That is all we do, is play music. An average work day is usually at night, about 4 - 5 hours a day. We have the mornings and afternoons - most of them - off.
But we do work every day. There are no weekends, no holidays. Our "week" is a cruise: either a 7-day, or 10-day, or 14-day, you get what I mean.
44 days; not sure what you mean by that. The usual contract is for 3 months, local, or oversees: 6 months.
Needless to say, it is a cool gig.

Dennis M
 

Dennis M

Junior Member
Joined
Dec 12, 2009
Messages
25
Reaction score
0
Location
Staten Island, NY
The Guilds of Grot said:
I wish I was good enough to land a gig like that!

When you get to Vietnam be sure to look up Marcellis, and then you can have a Chrismas "Henie" with Coastie in New Zealand!

So, any seasick problems?

No, man, it has been smooth sailing :) Although I have heard some crazy stories.

We did have Hurricane Bill headed our way, but the captain took a detour, and ducked the boat into the Gulf Of St. Lawrence to avoid a colision, and came back out after the storm had passed. Never saw it.
 

Dennis M

Junior Member
Joined
Dec 12, 2009
Messages
25
Reaction score
0
Location
Staten Island, NY
killdeer43 said:
A friend of mine plays clarinet (not a Guild) in a small jazz combo on cruise ships. He enjoys not only the music and other 'perks' while cruising, but also the opportunity to visit a variety of places he couldn't otherwise afford. :wink:

Joe

Guild made clarinets??
 

fronobulax

Bassist, GAD and the Hot Mess Mods
Joined
May 3, 2007
Messages
24,708
Reaction score
8,836
Location
Central Virginia, USA
Guild Total
5
Dennis M said:
And yes, all this comes down from the home office, and is the same for all ships. It is a good system, I think.
Thanks. As a manager, that is a system I would like because it is easy to keep things running smoothly. As an individual I would hate to think I was an "interchangeable part" as a musician (ignoring my lack of talent) but you do what you have to do.

The 44 days was probably a misunderstanding on my part. I somehow got the idea that you had spent 44 days in rehearsals before cruising. I should not have gotten that idea from your post. I was probably extrapolating from a friend who is a commercial pilot. He had been furloughed, has been called back and will spend the next month in training and refreshers before he actually gets pack into the cockpit.
 

Dennis M

Junior Member
Joined
Dec 12, 2009
Messages
25
Reaction score
0
Location
Staten Island, NY
fronobulax said:
Dennis M said:
And yes, all this comes down from the home office, and is the same for all ships. It is a good system, I think.
Thanks. As a manager, that is a system I would like because it is easy to keep things running smoothly. As an individual I would hate to think I was an "interchangeable part" as a musician (ignoring my lack of talent) but you do what you have to do.

Well, when you go in and out from one Halcat band to the next, it is good to know they are playing the same songs, as the one you were in last. You can fit right in. I always hated long rehearsals.


The 44 days was probably a misunderstanding on my part. I somehow got the idea that you had spent 44 days in rehearsals before cruising. I should not have gotten that idea from your post. I was probably extrapolating from a friend who is a commercial pilot. He had been furloughed, has been called back and will spend the next month in training and refreshers before he actually gets pack into the cockpit.

Well, when the singers and dancers come on board, they will have gone through a long rehearsal period, like you mentioned. They have a number of set shows they do, so naturally they would have to have that period of rehearsal. Not so with the band members. It's a little diferent.
 
Top