Enjoy the benefits of a premium membership!
Upgrade Account
-
TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
Join free Log in
Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.
Mark Smith from Talkingbass.net leaves wife and two little kids to join the ship!!!
In this clips he shows what does he pack with him....how he arrives and joins the ship...his cabin...it's worth to have a look at it!!!
At this point in time, it doesn’t look like a very positive situation.
- Apr 1, 2000
- 17,398
- 9,828
- Disclosures
- Endorsing Artist: Roscoe Guitars, DR Strings, Aguilar Amplification
PM me. I have a friend that books for a cruise ship line. Have a passport ready to go
As far as I know, for the night big theater 'tuxedo-thing' show-band, production-band, orchestra-band or whatever they might call it, a strong sight-reading is required. For the 'short-trousers-aloha-shirt' reggae-thing by the pool in mid-afternoon or whatever in lunch-time, perhaps that is not so important.Oh, well hey, maybe now I stand a chance.my reading is rusty, but still usable.
A drummer I knew told me a ton of reading is involved. Maybe it just depends on the group.
The industry may never be back, and the ships are better scuttled as artificial reefs.
Yes; when I wrote that comment(which now seems like a lifetime ago), I believe the news was just breaking about the cruise ship in the Pac NW that was refused port because of infection spreading on the ship. Notice how this thread came to a grinding halt right after that?
---It's a pity. I am still working hard and daily on my sight-reading...to an uncertain goal-date. I even got subscribed to sightreadingfactory.com, which I strongly recommend to everyone: tons of random sightreading exercises bumping in front of you, one right after the other. As you finish, automatically another one bumps. Very similar to a real situation. But...at home.
I don't know if the companies still make auditions, since it seems ships will not sail. I still have not tried to apply, simply because my skills need to be polished just a little more...
Anyone knows about how is this industry going at the moment? Although....not too difficult to guess...I presume.
I've heard nothing but great things about sightreadingfactory.
I doubt cruise ship companies are going to be auditioning musicians any time soon. I know one of the main musician hiring agents for one of the biggest cruise companies who got laid off weeks ago due to the pandemic. Many crew members were stranded on ships all around the world for weeks due to Covid, and some still may be floating around out there, and they couldn't disembark anywhere to get home. A Canadian friend of mine was "stranded" on a ship like this for at least 3 weeks after the passengers disembarked, then she spent 2 weeks quarantined in a hotel room somewhere (Australia I think?) then flew to Canada and quarantined for 2 weeks in a hotel before going home. A handful of crew member suicides have been occurring on these stranded ships during this time. I'd recommend holding off until after the whole pandemic thing passes and the cruise industry has time to sort itself out, if it survives.
My two cruise friends say nobody is hiring, and will not going back to cruise ship work. Vivian made her whole career on ships, like 15 years, and Adam was top tier for 10 years. Neither will sail again.
It is a real shame. As far as I found out, cruise gigs were perhaps one of the easiest ways to enter the professional circuit and quit amateur playing "just for a beer and a taxi"...forever. It seemed that almost no word of mouth was needed. I myself got a call for an audition just three weeks before the spanish government started the alarm state and thus...the lockdown. Attached is the mail from the responsible.
Translated into english:
"Hi, Juan.
Thanks for the material.
We can arrange an online audition, next week if it suits you.
Greetings
(...)".
Now I even feel lucky none of this came out in the end. As I told, three weeks after; the lockdown. I pretty much could have ended up as in the impressive story SLO Surfer tells. Besides, what Paulabass tells is really sad....
Translated into english:
"Hi, Juan.
Thanks for the material.
We can arrange an online audition, next week if it suits you.
Greetings
(...)".
Now I even feel lucky none of this came out in the end. As I told, three weeks after; the lockdown. I pretty much could have ended up as in the impressive story SLO Surfer tells. Besides, what Paulabass tells is really sad....
OP, I’ve just uploaded my take on the gig, search TB for “My Cruise Ship Experiences (as a bassist)”.
In my book it’s a very polarizing experience. I’ve done two contracts and still can’t decide whether I liked it enough to go back or just forget about it. However, as long this pandemic is out there these ships are potential swimming prisons, and I won’t risk beimg cut away from my family for an indefinite duration locked in a cabin on my own.
As for sight reading the formula is as follows:
House band musician (orchestra, trio, etc.) = sight reading almost exclusively, loads of styles
Party band/non-house act (solo performers, quartets) = Reading is optional, you play your own stuff, anything goes.
Guest entertainer = same as non-house, but you are expected to bring charts for the orchestra for special theater performances
In my book it’s a very polarizing experience. I’ve done two contracts and still can’t decide whether I liked it enough to go back or just forget about it. However, as long this pandemic is out there these ships are potential swimming prisons, and I won’t risk beimg cut away from my family for an indefinite duration locked in a cabin on my own.
As for sight reading the formula is as follows:
House band musician (orchestra, trio, etc.) = sight reading almost exclusively, loads of styles
Party band/non-house act (solo performers, quartets) = Reading is optional, you play your own stuff, anything goes.
Guest entertainer = same as non-house, but you are expected to bring charts for the orchestra for special theater performances
This statement is perhaps misleading. While most party bands don’t sight read, these bands don’t play “their own stuff.” That makes it sound like they are playing originals. Party bands are straight up cover bands and they need to know 200-300 tunes, and be able to learn more throughout a contract. Also, “anything goes,” is also a bit misleading. Party bands will be monitored by a music director and cruise staff for volume, song selection, and professionalism on stage. Sight reading is optional for them, as long as they can perform the cover tunes.
Edit: also, seeing as all cruises are currently shut down, you couldn’t work on a ship even if you wanted to for the foreseeable future. I’ve got friends who have been making their living on ships for decades who are screwed right now.
Spot on, I was a bit superficial about my words of choice. By "their own stuff" I meant the repertoire the band put together on land and not supplied by another guest entertainer or MD. "Anything goes" means that you can decide whether you want to memorize all the songs in your repertoire by heart, or stick to self-made or otherwise acquired charts. I saw some guys still walking around with actual folders of chord sheets, while we used iPads to create set lists comprising of charts we made.
TUI is hiring duos, as Mein Schiff 1 and 2 have started sailing, just like MSC and some other companies, but yeah, the rest are pretty much nonexistent right now.
