Cruise ship gigs

[ChrisDowning]

When I learnt to play the guitar back in 1960, my teacher had me doing reading from day one and told me if I didn't do an hour's practice a day he would stop doing lessons for me. So learning to read was just part of the process. Nowadays its classical guitarists who are good readers because that's how they learn new pieces - from the page not from TABs or YouTube. A classicalpiece from 1850 needs to sound the same as the day it was written and note perfect - reading is the route to achieve that.

As rock, blues, and pop guitarists we can skirt around reading because so much of what we do is improvised - so long as it sounds prettyclosee to the original, that's fine. If you get stuck on a solo that needs to be note perfect read the TAB on it. Now this works for rock solos that last say a minute max - but classical players need to learn or read a tune that may last 25 minutes - hence reading is the route.

BUT - there are areas of the music business that need readers. Big swing bands, dance bands, ships and hotel house bands, session work in studios, TV shows, and Theatre pit work, are a few I can think of right now. Friends in the UK Musicians Union tell me that the house band for 'Strictly Come Dancing' probably contains the best musicians around London, in one band. They rehease on Thursday and do the show live on Friday - they are all superb musicians and of course everybody sight reads very well. The whole show is done off the music page.

So how to learn to sight read. It has often been said that reading music is like learning a foreign language or learning to read text - well I am happy to tell you its nothing like as hard as that. Its just a matter of starting from easy stuff and getting used to that before moving on up to harder stuff. Bit by bit you'll find yourself seeing a note and your finger moves to play what you see.

I always suggested the Mel Bay Series by William Bay called Mastering the Guitar which comes in books 1A 1B 2A 2B 2C and their are a couple of other books on sight reading that will give you the wrinkles on how to use positional playing to help you read in all the keys - in other words you don't need to read in every CAGED pattern in every position to get by. You might also like to follow the syllabus by Trinity Music College on plactrum guitar (maybe do the exams as well?) - you can get a PDF download of this for free from their website - look for 'plectrum guitar syllabus'. This is rumoured to be changing sometime soon to a very much more a readers / jazzy style course aimed at future pro players. You'll already find this course pretty jazz orientated as you get to the higher levels.

Lastly, the mechanics of learning - this all needs a whole lot of repitition. Trust me, I have taught a lot of people how to read once they already play well by ear and TAB. Get yourself an egg timer - the sand sort that you can just flip. Break the music you are studying down to something you can play in ten seconds duration - that means the sand timer will run out in two minutes when you have played it 12 times. Move on the the next ten seconds worth - depending on how hard the music is this will be two or three bars at a time. Realistically you will get through about 25 of these little exercises in an hour. Five repeats of these bars of music over the next five days so you've played each 60 times and you can move on to new music. This may seem like a grind, but this is the most reliable way to learn to read - if you rush it you'll end up making regular errors - not a good idea when you are being paid to know this stuff.

My students used to like the idea that they could count up the bars of music in a learning book and be able to predict when the last page would be finished. So with the above regime, we would be doing 25 exercises of three bars each over five hours - 75 bars in five days at an hour a day - so Book 1A of the William Bay series that has about 500 staves and 1750 bars will take you about 120 days to complete - you'll probably crack on better than that as an established player - but don't underestimate the work and the learning process.

Is it hard work? Yep. It is straight out of the 10,000 hour process of deliberate and purposeful practice - its hard work. It's also nodding in the direction of The Suzuki Method - lots of repitition and rote learning. And if you feel you can definately go faster, it is an adjustable process.

[Stevebol]

I actually went on a cruise last Feb. Came up unexpectedly and I went with all my relatives. First off I messed up my back a week before and the jacuzzi's and drugs were like heaven. Haven't felt that good in ages.
Just some observation about the whole thing;
There was a folk/pop kind of solo thing in a pub. Sing along music. I liked it and he had a good crowd. The jazz combo...I felt for them. Almost no one paid attention so it was 8 people the first night and then progressively less people over the 8 days.
I LOVED how musicians on the street went about things in St. Martin. Hit play on the drum machine and do the song. Nice and simple. I know that probably wouldn't relate to jazz but that's the way to go for a lot of music.
Why don't musicians do it in the states?
The disco was surprisingly empty on the ship. Whatever.
There were two dance/Top 40 bands. I think Filipinos do a lot of those gigs. They were both solid. One was just anything Top 40/oldies and the other was a little more latino. That the right word?
The music out on the deck when they finally got around to it after windy conditions was the steel drum thing. No vocals, guitar, just the steel drum sounds. Kind of weird it sounded like the same song over and over.
The cruise started to get old after about 6 days but it was a lot of fun. I even got my old behind to try the surfing contraption.
If you're a musician, it's a gig but I doubt it's something I'd be interested. The jazz combo was from Australia and I talked to the leader for a minute. There's nothing about the working conditions that would bother me.
Are people allergic to jazz or something? I listened for 30-45 minutes every night.
In general people on the ship wanted to drink, sing along or dance.
My pet peeve is when people drink and dance at the same time.
That was my experience. I don't know if I'd ever go on another cruise. It's probably not me.
Come to think of it there might have been a vibe where people in the jazz club didn't know whether to talk if they wanted to or not talk. There was no talking.
Seems like jazz is halfway between the local dive and Carnegie Hall.
Almost forgot- karoke. I actually did karoke before it came to the states. It was a laidback thing people did in small clubs in Japan. Everyone sitting at the bar would participate. I sang My Way or something.
The karoke club on the ship was packed every night. people hanging on every note. We forget if we've had some experience that it' a big deal to people that haven't performed before.
It was strange.
Then karoke came to America..

[mrcee]

I was talking to Mexican female vocalist recently. I sat in with her for a couple of sets at a brunch gig. Not much talk about career things but she asked me if I gigged for a living, I said No and she said, You're lucky. I found out later that her bread and butter was cruises.

[Stevebol]

I was talking to Mexican female vocalist recently. I sat in with her for a couple of sets at a brunch gig. Not much talk about career things but she asked me if I gigged for a living, I said No and she said, You're lucky. I found out later that her bread and butter was cruises.

I think one of the bands was probably from Mexico. They started off with something similar to mariachi. I'm not very familiar with the music. Interestingly they started off the 1st couple nights and the 1st sets with a drum machine.
I got the impression that whoever hires the entertainment is flexible. There's singalongs, dance music, jazz, karaoke. If you want the job it's there.

[mrcee]

I think one of the bands was probably from Mexico. They started off with something similar to mariachi. I'm not very familiar with the music. Interestingly they started off the 1st couple nights and the 1st sets with a drum machine.
I got the impression that whoever hires the entertainment is flexible. There's singalongs, dance music, jazz, karaoke. If you want the job it's there.

Mexican music is misunderstood. Non Mexicans tend to use the term Mariachi for all varieties of Mexican music when in actuality it's a specific sub genre. The bands can be big and the guys all wear matching uniforms with sombreros and big floppy bow ties. Lots of violins and other stringed instruments incl. a harp sometimes and trumpets.

Singalongs? Lot's of requests probably?
Ouch! sounds worse than yet another chorus of Autumn Leaves.

[Stevebol]

I was talking to Mexican female vocalist recently. I sat in with her for a couple of sets at a brunch gig. Not much talk about career things but she asked me if I gigged for a living, I said No and she said, You're lucky. I found out later that her bread and butter was cruises.

Don't know why she hated it so much. Must be either working conditions(some people hate being below the water line) or just the audience in general. They want to tan and shop. Music is an afterthought. There seemed to be a particular kind of dancing. Drink, dance and flirt all at the same time.
Jazz? Forget it. People weren't interested at all.
Hey, it's a gig.

[mrcee]

I don't think was really complaining all that much. Although I could see it getting old. I think it was more of the case where she was envying someone who didn't have to compromise their music in order to make a living.