My 15 years Playing on Cruise Ships-Pros, Cons and How to Get the Gig
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- čas přidán 17. 06. 2024
- Ever wanted to do a cruise gig or just curious about what being a musician on a ship is like? I've done about 35 contracts over the last 20 years or so(with at least one contract a year in 15 of those years) and in this vid I share with you the pros and cons of playing on a ship, the kinds of gigs available to guitarists and how to get(and keep)the gig if you want it.
There are many agents that book musicians on ships, but the only one I can vouch for personally is Suman Entertainment as they have booked me since 1997. Competitive pay and they recruit for pretty much any ship you would want to work on.
Suman Entertainment www.sumanent.com
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Three quarters of the aspiring cruise ship musicians watching this video stopped watching at "drug test."
lol
Lol sighed audibly
Hahaha!
Haha!!! 🎶✨🐎
Upon hearing"drug test";Enter screeching tire sound or scratched record effect!😳😮
You are awesome brother!!!
Good Luck and have fun on the gig :) Looking forward to the 'cool' lesson
Thank you Rick for a cool video. Appreciate your playing and your dedication.
What an intelligent, well presented and clear thinking guy. Even though a cruise ship is not for me, I found your video worth watching as an excellent example of how to convey information.
I'm not a professional musician and will never be working a cruise gig myself, but I started watching this video and found it so interesting and straight to the point that I watched it all the way through. More informational videos should be like this one. Great job, Rick!
Thank you!
Very informative. Thank you so much!
Once I was called at the last minute to take a month-long cruise gig at the perfect time with a Greek band. I got the gig by word of mouth, but I didn't have my passport so missed the opportunity. I was kind of crushed, as I hoped I could get into that biz, but I had never been on a cruise before (STILL HAVEN'T!!) and I had all the questions you just answered for me. Thanks so much for taking the time. VERY informative!
Man, I just got back to your channel(keep comin back)... Thanks for letting us in on the things most "teachers/instructors" Dont even think about. Guess that's why you're a "professor". Keep 'em comin Rick! You're an inspiration for guys like me!!
thank you Scott!
Thanks for sharing the info. Best of luck to you!
Thanks for watching!
Thank You, thanks for your informations! 🤗 Really helpful!
Good advice and nice ESP’s! I have a 92 Mirage myself.
Thanks Dean, yeah the old Japanese esp's are great guitars
Can't thank you enough Rick!
Just found this channel! Really cool info thanks Rick!!!
Thank you Stacey!
Great info Rick! I am a jazz vocalist, but your tips were still applicable. Thanks!
Thank you for watching Toni!
Spot on great video. 10 years on cruise ships
Excellent video! I listened up to the point of describing guitar gigs (since I’m a former cruise ship drummer) and this video is spot on!!!
Cool, thanks!
You are good!! Thanks!
Thank you for posting Rick...as a guy who LOVES TRAVEL and a fairly versatile guitarist... I have constantly been asked by folks around me to do these cruise ship gigs....I always wondered what was behind the scene....as a kid that grew up on small boats and with the help "Your Video"........... I have been empowered with enough information to RUN FOR THE HILLS....thank you thank you Sir!
Haha its certainly not for everyone but the travel is great
Thanks for all the info. Very helpful.
no worries, glad to help
Thanks, this was really interesting. Good luck on that gig Rick :)
thanks Edvin, looking forward to the Artic!
@@TastyGuitarcom
Great channel
Thank you Brian!
@@TastyGuitarcom "Arctic" guitar guy
Dude . I love your funk lessons. Man you make them seem so easy. Thanks for all your effort. Truly an amazing guitarist - I m in awe (actually Dead Jealous :)
thanks Paul!
@@TastyGuitarcom No ... Thank you.. Watched your video on being a guitarist on cruise ships.. I worked on them as well .. not as a guitarist ... interesting about the accommodation though. Ours wasnt too bad.
Well that answered my questions. Thanks.
Super interesting vid, thanks mate
Thank you for watching!
Really good information. Thanks a lot. I'm a Mexican drummer and definitely I wanna do this. Thanks!!!
Thanks for watching and best of luck!
Thank you brother .., this helps a great deal since Im going on a ship shortly as a one man band. God bless you
Great man, have fun!
This was like listening to a sweet story and going to sleep..❤️
thank you so much for the tips !!
Thanks for watching!
Excellent video! 👌 You will do exceptionally well as a Band Master.
Thanks, but that is a job I would never want lol
Thanks for the tips - something to aim for :) 🎷 💕
Thanks for watching!
Great stuff man. I'm a solo piano/singer and always thought about doing this when I was younger. At 53, that ship may have sailed (pun intended)...kudos to you young buck! Thanks for the info.
The solo piano/singer gig is a great gig on ships, never too late to get out there! I'm 48 btw, not exactly a young buck lol
This was a great video. Thank you. I am super interested in doing this. I am married with one kid and I need to do something else, besides the day in, day out, grind. I am a chef and the culinary, world is screwed up. I want to do, what I was born to do and that is, play music. I have years of experience, in all fields of music. I have been a studio and hired gun. I build, repair and tech but I put it on a shelf. I have never stopped playing or writing. At 53, I still got it and then some. Anyway, I am gearing up for this adventure, next year. Thank you for your time and experience and knowledge.
Most of all, for sharing.
Thanks Chef! Best of luck, most important thing is have a great prono video and big songlist.
Hi Rick. Enjoy your videos mate. Great playing always. I spent a year on a ship in my early 20s in 89. 4 piece night club band- 4 hours every night. Good players and could play what we wanted so was a whole lot of fun. A bit rough on my health though as too much fun was had! Thanks for your vids. Cheers.
cool Brett, yeah back in the 80's everything was alot more casual from what I've heard....very corporate atmosphere these days which takes alot of fun out of it, and yeah partying every night in the crew bar can take its toll lol..... but I still do one short contract a year for the travel :)
Are you allowed to interact with passengers in your off time? Do you get the same food as passengers?
Thanks for your lessons-I’ve learned a lot from them.
Yeah you can mingle with passengers, but not too much lol, that is the easiest way to get fired....but most musicians choose to hang in the crew area where booze is $1-3 vs 10 bucks for the same thing in passenger bars.....and yes, musicians are allowed to eat passenger buffets and go to specialty restaurants with a big discount
Thanks dude!
I spent a year and a half working on Carnival cruise line as a Showband drummer, and we always had a day off every week. This was around 2014-15
Consider yourself lucky, showband musicians generally have a little bit lighter schedule...75% of my contracts were 7 days a week
Hi Rick. I did cruise ship gigs on and off for 20 years. I'm a singer/pianist, so my gig was usually in the piano bar. Since I don't drink, I can definitely assert your statement about being able to save a lot of money. That was a pretty good deal. I loved the travel and the food. I hated being away from my kids, the really bad and expensive internet service and the training/in-port manning/abandon ship drills. I did like getting really strong playing chops and learning a whole lot of new material since top 40 was different in different parts of the world, so I had to increase my repertoire considerably. And, lastly, I learned from Dutch passengers the benefits of using black licorice to protect my singing voice, and that probably extended my useful singing career another 40 years.
Cool Les, likewise for me it was mostly a very positive experience, though got completely sick of sleeping in bunk beds, though as a soloist sure you had your own cabin all the time
@@TastyGuitarcom Well...not immediately. I shared with a show band member in my first contract....later I got my own room...and in my last contract I got a passenger cabin to myself..so I went out on top.
Black licorice candy?
@@MrSeeker42 Yes, Dutch black salt licorice is the best, but really any black licorice will help protect a larynx.
Ufff, I don’t know. The taste of liquorice is absolutely horrible.
My wife and I have an acoustic duo, the children are adults and we were thinking about this idea...my wife's brother did this for a long time as well and I think the accommodations, or lack thereof, is what made (her) decision lol...I was in the navy so a lot of the "cons" I'm used to.
if you were in the Navy a cruise gig would be a piece of cake for you, best of luck!
Awesome video. Very objective, information. Thanks for putting that together. Any tips, advice or recommendations for bass players?
Thanks Darrin, either put a 5 piece party/dance band together or if you have the reading chops try for an orchestra gig, those would be your best options.
So unfair that the musicians in the orchestra band are the least paid... I mean they have to sight read everything, in every genre, with almost no rehearsal, and they're the one who play the most!
agreed, except they dont play the most
@@TastyGuitarcom could you do both?
@@joethrelfall6370 no. they play simultaneously nightly
Great video I have been wondering how the lifestyle was or is
1$ - $1.50 beers? that's worth it in it's own right! as a passenger, they're closer to $8
Yeah right, the real partying happens below decks :)
all that does is make everyone an alcoholic
@@stephendoss8354, and?
Great video mate. Very informative, thank you. Btw I’m not a Fender Guy but wow that Tele is Sweeeeet 👌😎
Thank you!
Lol thank you!
I'm studying drums & percussion in college at the moment, gonna go for the show band gig after graduation, jazz ensemble would do as well :)
Cool, good luck to you!
Just study the BEATLES and you've done well by learning
Hello Mikko. I am a former cruise ship drummer of eight years and currently I am doing research to put together a course on how to do get the work. I would like to get on a call with you to discuss what you would like to see in a course to prepare for this kind of work. Go here to schedule a call calendly.com/drum-tip-tuesday. (this is NOT a sales call, just research)
great video
Thank you!
Great Vid👍🏻
Thank you!
This man is playing ESP guitars.. huge respect. ESP is really good. I'm in Japan, ESP is top quality
Love the old ESP 400 series, awesome guitars. Wish I still had this guitar!
thank you a lot. LIKE
Thank you so much Rick for answering my question in a timely manner, I.may have more questions. So do you have any videos of you performing on your cruise ship gigs?
Sorry I dont think I have any videos on ships
Your hardcore bro, I've always wondered about the cruise gigs, luckily I played my past 20 yrs on land pretty consistently with opportunities in foreign countries and even last second replacements in very famous bands while being in opening acts. Being in music cities helped and you wrote not burning bridges with agents and others is understated key in this business. Your commitment to the contracts builds you up seniority and reliability is key land idk about water, minus rigorous tentative schedules when being a studio muscian and the 300 song lists are not as intimidating after you sleep with your instrument for years learning to play as long as your playing for money. As you said talent, but I wonder if the uniqueness is squashed being that they want a format of every genres and flavor to entertain the most stringent of critics. So no playing SRV behind your back if that your shtick or being a Beatles cover band works very well on ships. It's the conservatory graduates gig to tighten your chops before hitting the road as a journeyman per se.
The cruise gig is good for someone who wants to travel, play and get paid consistently. Musically it's a dead end but does allow you to become a well rounded player if that is your goal. But there are room for Beatles cover bands/ tribute bands too, just in the guest entertainer gig. Most players on ships are kinda young and mediocre, though I have seen some some amazing players too. I've outgrown the gig, but still do 2 months a year for the travel. Currently in Namibia on a gig and its incedible!
Did 8 years myself and just got back into it and started vlogging about it. Still don't get why musicians end up getting so dark. Free food, room, travel, I mean it's worth trying at least once.
I think there are a lot of reasons to get burned out, too much BS these days on ships, but overall it's still a great gig to do a while, especially for younger single musicians
Great vid,!, I didn’t see the links or info for agents... that would be great if you could suggest them.
It is a dream come true. Don’t need any booking or Rockies…stage and guests are always at the same place 😀
Thanks for the video.....can you do another one for the guest ent gig? I will really preciate that info
Well, there is not a lot more I can tell you, I was a sideman in a guest ent singer's band, something that's almost unheard of in the industry because they are always backed up by the orchestra these days. Your best bet to get a guest ent gig as a guitarist would to put together a tribute band/act, you would have to have a top notch show though.
Grand vid man and I thought very useful all the infos U gave on table. I have a doubt, I play double bass, only, and have experience in orchestra, small combos (chamber music) as in duos and trios. Because of my profession I'm obliged to have sighreading and play both with bow and pizzicato. I'd like to know what sort of ship should I apply to get the job? There is no one interested in working as duo or trio in a cruise with me, so I'm alone in this path and I really don't know how to approach the agents.
Sorry but getting a gig as a double bass player would be next to impossible. If you play electric bass you could do the orchestra gig though.if there are any acoustic bass players on ships they would come on as part of a combo
There is one more kind of gig that you didn't mention: the local-flavour-act that gets paid to go on board all kinds of ships when they are in harbor, perform, then leave again. I did that for years. You don't get the accommodation and travel experience, but you do have passenger status when you're on board, and you can negotiate for things like free booze and getting some or all of the courses on the restaurant menu. It's a great way to find out whether doing a full on-board gig is something for you.
Wow, I didn't even know that was a thing. We live in a port of call for cruise ships, so would be interesting to look into. Thanks for the idea!
@@h5mind373 glad to help. Additional advice: before you contact anyone, put together a proper concept with entertaining banter. Put yourself in the shoes of the Program Director who has to verbally sell you to each new batch of guests. Make their job as easy as possible. Our tagline was something like: "a musical journey through Europe from up north down to the Adriatic sea" , and the program directors hung on to that line with gusto. And of course, be equal parts entertaining and emotionally resonant
I’ve been the guitarist and now MD on a Cunard Ship forge last decade. Before that I did party band on P&O Australia. I manage and schedule all 30 musicians. Fortunately the show band and ballroom band, come on as a group and the musicians are solid.
That is super rare, sounds like a cool situation.
Hey Rick I'm really interested in getting on a ship maybe at the end of this year so I would like to know more about everything. Specially what it takes, you know, to get myself more prepared through the year.
Really helpful video!
+Héctor M Herrera R email me your promo video Hector, I will be honest with you on whether you have a shot or not, or what you need to improve on to get the gig. tastyguitarlessons@gmail.com
Right! i will, thanks man!
I'm not a musician but found this very interesting.
Right on, thank you for watching!
How might this vary for different Instruments? I mainly play Organ (B-3)/keyboards as a main Instrument.
I am pushing myself to improve on guitar (also working on playing the guitar while using the Organ Pedals to play bass).
Years ago I had a Piano/Organ teacher that would play Cruise Ship gigs. Her husband also played, they would bring a B-3 with Leslie, a Wurlitzer Electric Piano and a serious of Vibes and a shitload of printed music.
In my case I am not that great a sight reader, but I have held down a piano chair in big band before, I have played Instrumental Jazz/Lounge gigs as a single, worked OS Blues/R&B bands and the like.
I had a studio apartment where I wanted rehearsal studio space, so I turned the Walk-in Closet into the bedroom.
good god somebody brought a B3 aboard a ship?? that would never happen these days lol Your best bet would to get your reading chops together and do the orchestra gig or if you sing well you could do a piano bar gig
can you show us some examples of guitar charts that get sent to you for sight reading? I've worked with a bunch of different types of charts and mostly we get a rhythm chart with a few lines written out. but, it would be fun to see what really gets used out 'in the trenches'. thanks.
Hi Micah, I've never done a full on reading gig on a ship, that is the orchestra gig, the only one I haven't done. I have seen the charts for some shows though and some of the guest entertainer charts can be intense. And the band usually only have an hour to rehearse the show and sometimes don't get the charts until rehearsal, So needless to say you would really need to be an excellent sight reader to pull off that gig. I would suggest asking this same question in one of the Facebook cruise musicians forums, there are several. Sure a current or former orchestra musician would be willing to share.
Rick, can you record one of your solo cruise shows as a demo of your other styles?
the sharing the room part is the deal breaker for me. I'd go nuts without a little "alone time"-even if the room was just a small closet sized room.
yes, the room sharing does suck
Hey, what a great video! It's not a gig I've ever considered after a friend of a friend told me about his worst experience... Basically, mid-cruise, a SERIOUS star (Brat-pack, but not Sinatra) turns up and decides to take the stage. He insists that the band use his own arrangements and key for each song, which they did perfectly. Star turns up, absolutely blind drunk, consistently sung completely out of key and very angrily blamed the band during the performance. The following morning the captain dismissed the band, leaving them stranded with their instruments somewhere in the Caribbean.
EDIT: also, that ESP tele is amazing.
Wow that's awful. I'm guessing it was Dean Martin?
@@TastyGuitarcom apparently he was a gentleman :)
Thanks. That was interesting. I have watched similar videos by a singer and a drummer, and - even though they were on different cruise lines, they had similar experiences in that they were not working 7 days a week. *QUESTION* How do you cope with musicians' injuries - tendonitis, laryngitis, tinnitus?
Thanks for watching. Never dealt with tendonitis. Tinnitus sucks and there's nothing you can do about it really, but most of the time I dont notice it that bad unless in a dead quiet room. Losing your voice is a real problem for singers, especially if singing for months at a time without a day off. My solution was to get plenty of sleep and limit my alcohol to almost zero. When my voice was in rough shape I had plenty of instrumental tunes to help get me through but I dont remember having a big problem at that time.
more good advice
How about the equipment? What did you take? Were you limited ? 1 or 2 guitars, amp type etc. Thanks
A big con for me would be rough seas!
It's actually very rare to have rough seas unless you are doing an ocean crossing, these ships are huge and you dont notice the movement that much most of the time.
Rick. I enjoyed your well presented and informative video although I would have liked to have heard about individual cruise lines. I worked for 5 years back in the 70s for RCCL on their first three ships (18,000 tons, so tiny by today's standards). They were 9 month contracts and we shared decent sized cabins above the water line and we ate in the passenger dining rooms along with the cruise staff. The officers did not like the musicians although we did nothing to help our situation. For example in the Captains' cocktail party when it was an officer's invitational dance we played a fast short number and when it was a ladies invitational and all the older ladies grabbed an officer we would play a waltz medley!! Also in the night club we could stop playing if there were less than 15 people so if an officer went to the bathroom and the number went down to 14 we would quit!! Quite a number of musicians were caught in compromising places and handed their ticket home on Saturday mornings followed by celebratory drinks in the officer's mess I'm sure. Having said that I did 3 RCCL contacts and then went onto Commodore working with German officers who were much easier to get along with. Everybody partied on the Boheme and Caribe and I met my wife to be and 40 years later we are still sailing along. I did it for the travel opportunity and even though I didn't go to as many places as I hoped I still enjoyed it and was a better musician at the end of my time than at the start.
9 month contracts! That would have drove me nuts haha, 2 months in and I'm already climbing the walls. And yeah the whole officer douchebaggery lol, that hasnt changed much. That's great that you can look back on it with fond memories, I'm mostly the same, although I think I did do too much time onboard, but I had a blast for the most part. These days I do 1 or 2 contracts a year aboard The World, the floating condo for the super rich, the best gig at sea really. Headed to Japan this September for a short 3 week stint. Thanks for sharing your story!
Thanks banana
Sounds like joining the Navy.
Minus the killing people.
Except you get to keep your hair and you don’t work 18 hours a day.
Your video should be used as a model for all other videos like this.
Thank you Freda!
Great video. Can you give me a setlist for what you'd be doing everynight? Say for an hour long set.
+Goldie Mack it really depends on the gig and venue, you have to come prepared for pretty much anything, but most stuff I would play on a ship would be old school rnb, soul, classic rock and blues, some jazz and even a few classic country tunes
Is this the Famous Rick from the Jane Powell band and so much more? Greetings to you from San Antonio - and if I'm not mistaken we were on a few ships at the same time twenty years ago - All the best to you - and this video is right on the money!
DerekLewisSuperStar Derek! Wow, what a blast from the past dude. Yeah you were on my first or second contract on the NCL Seaward I think. Remember the bass player Mark? think he still lives in San Antonio, you should look him up! Hope you are well!
Hi I was wondering if you could help me figure out a query, I am a musician who is able to sight read guitar tablature with ease, however, not able to read traditional sheet score music. Is it possible to sight read from guitar tabs to get a cruise ship musician job, for example in the audition as well as on board - or is it strictly traditional score only that is accepted? Thanks
Hi Shwan, for an orchestra gig it is strictly notation, and a lot of the time the musicians get the music at the rehearsal so not much time to even look it over. But there are other gigs, playing solo or as a duo with another musician or singer, for those gigs you juat play your repertoire, no need to read.
do you know derek conlon? piano guy-we loved his playing on royal caribbean-or joyce kuo? she played all that queen stuff!
Sorry I dont them
Hi Great video! I always wanted to play on a cruise ship but at 57 (excuse the pun) that ship has sailed for Me... I do have a question? How hard is it to maintain Your instrument while sailing. For example guitar strings, drum sticks, drum heads, picks etc. You mentioned that living quarters are small...just curious....
When I was doing ships I would always take enough strings, picks etc to last the entire contract. Never had to do much besides change strings in the cabin. Can't remember a time when I had an issue with a guitar but have had a few pedals go out while onboard and a couple times the onboard engineers/electricians were able to repair them.
Hi TastyGuitar.Com great information by the way, I was wondering how many songs do you need? ... & also could you get away with say 100 originals for something like solo acoustic vocal cafe type music, singing them over and over? .... or do you need to have mainly cover songs? ... also do you need to know the songs of by heart or is it ok to have a song sheet? thanks!
Need at least a couple hundred tunes, covers, not going to get the gig doing originals though you can play them occassionally.
+TastyGuitar.com Is there a certain age and education you have to be to enter as a duo guitarist and singer, do you have to already know the singer or can you just get assigned a singer and what are the sleeping quarters like for duos?
Duos go on as an established act, cruise line does not form these. No age or education requirements but they usually prefer younger these days. Shared room in bunk beds are the norm.
Hi, thanks for the great information; I was wondering what is the advantage, financially or otherwise, of applying direct with the cruise line rather than an agent? Also, what if you are based in a country that the cruise line does not sail to/from, does this limit employment opportunities due to cost of travel, distance, logistics etc?
It is definitely better to go direct with the cruise line if possible because agents take 20% on average, unfortunately it's tough to do direct as most lines deal exclusively through agents. I've seen musicians from all over the globe on ships, from as far away as Brazil, Australia, south Africa etc but they will expect you to do at least a 4 month contract to justify flying to and from the ship.
@@TastyGuitarcom That's good to know; cheers!
4:25 "land" gigs lol!
HAHA Excellent video. The comments were hilarious.
Thanks for watching!
@@TastyGuitarcom Recently found your channel and am binge watching and learning. I spent years trying to figure out how to play those tasty licks. Thank you.
Great video. What is the pay like? 3 month contract 4 piece.
varies depending on cruise line and agency, most 4 piece bands are making about $2500-2700USD per person/per month....not great but no commute, and room and board, air tickets paid etc
Nice video, as a guitar player how do you cope with cold fingers?
you mean warm up stuff? I do simple chromatic exercises up the neck for about 15 minutes before the gig, that usually works for me. Sometimes I also soak my hands for about 5 minutes in hot water, somehow helps me to loosen up
TastyGuitar.com yes, thanks. It's hard to play when fingers are freezing. do you wash your hands after playing for hours or do you rest your hands for an hour before getting them wet?
I’m not sure how I missed this video tasty. What does the average pay look like for a 6 month or three week gig?
Thank you for your videos and all you do!
Depends on what gig, please be more specific
What does a three week gig land you?
3 week gigs dont really exist unless it's a fill in spot Pay could be anywhere between $550 to $1000 a week, usd depending on type of gig, cruise line and whether you go direct or through an agent.
LOL had a good buddy of mine from a sheltered upbringing in the midwest played a cruise ship 3 month contract gig out of Miami i think it was throughout the Caribbean in the early 2000's . On Two different trips norovirus broke out on the ship and he was still required to play.... with a buckets behind the amp for the band members infected. Apparently theme trips had just started as a draw. One was strictly gay patrons that he said was surreal due to the level of open promiscuity, drag queens, furry's, multiple genres within the gay community( twinks, bears, leather, Biker) something not so accepted at the time and something he had never even heard of to the most extent. The second one was something dealing with WWE and had various wrestling personalities on the cruise. Course that type of person that watches WWE ....apparently there were fights all over the ship between patrons and something like 30 people got kicked off at different ports. Great stories... but he choose not to re sign.
KC O I
Rick can you please show us your cruiseship rig. What do you use for background music. Thanks very much.
can't figure out how to add a picture here, but these days I go direct with my pedalboard on a ship gig...it consists of a exotic wah, ep booster, ac booster, another ep booster, tech 21 blonde preamp/speaker simulator, mxr chorus, strymon flint reverb/tremolo, tc x4 delay, ernie ball jr volume, boss rc-3 looper. The tech 21 blonde is key, allows to run a pedalboard direct with a decent tone, almost like a mic'd amp. Do alot of stuff just acoustic/vocal or with live looping. If using backing tracks will run those with a great app called OneTrack with an iPad.
TastyGuitar.com Thanks very much for replying, I hope you post one of your live performance. People who cruise, normally dance Cha cha, rumba, mambo, salsa. How do you play these music when they do these requests?
kinda rare to get these requests these day, there is usually at least one band onboard who will cover that style, depends what gig you plan on doing, if its solo or duo you don't need, if playing in a larger combo you should have some of this stuff ready
TastyGuitar.com thanks Rick!
TastyGuitar.com OneTrack is no longer available. Have you switched to something else? I'm having a hard to finding a suitable replacement.
I’d be willing to do this for 1 week out of the month, and repeat. Do they ha e those type of contracts fir solo artist dinner/lounge music type of stuff?
Was in the Navy and, my long days at sea are over Johnny.
No, nothing nearly that short
Hey you mentioned having a set list of 200 to 300 songs. Can you add a link to songs one should know. Maybe even your set list. thanks.
There is no set list that will work on every ship. Passengers vary greatly by cruise line, itinerary and length of cruise. If you would be playing on a short 3 or 4 day Caribbean cruise you need to have a lot of party music together, everything from new top 40 to some disco and classic rock anthems. If you were to do a 2 week Atlantic crossing the age group is 55+ mostly and you'll need some ballroom dancing stuff, easy listening acoustic, jazz standards and 60s to 80s hits. A safe 200 tune songlist would include all of this stuff
Hi Sir Thank you for all your information! I was wondering if these are cash gigs.? I'm sure you understand.Thank you again best of wishes to you and your Teddy Korbos !!!
If you are a US citizen or resident you have to claim it and are issued a w2
Thank you for your reply I meant to ask you how many hours do you play a night ?
@@theodorekorbos2804 4 45min sets is standard, however it can vary depending on the cruise director. Once started a contract that they tried to make me do 5 sets a day 7 days week and I noped outta that in a week
Thank you again for your reply I really appreciate all your information. If I was a younger man I will definitely think about it sounds kind of exciting I mean I do understand that there's pros and cons but at least you build your chops become a better player I guess! Thank you again so very much best of wishes to you. Teddy
how long would you recommend playing guitar before signing up for one of these gigs? ive played casually for years and im just picking up sheet music, how fluent in sheet music/ music theory should I be before considering doing this?
Depends on what gig you are trying to do, please be more specific
@@TastyGuitarcom im just trying to get on the boat, I dont really have a preference on what I want to do, it all sounds like it would be enjoyable
Are there gigs for instrumental soloists? And are they willing to use wired musicians like I do ambient bass solos would that be accepted on a cruise?
Not really, most solo entertainers are expected to sing as well
how much action do you get on tour
For the musicians that already had contracts. How much you guys earned monthly to play in cruisechips?
I know thats not a Fender but I'm sure the versatility of a Telecaster would come in handy. What guitars do you take ?
Just the one that's in this video, an 80s esp 400 series, plenty versatile and road worthy
I have a couple of questions. Do you have to bring your own gear? Also how long is a gig on a given day? Great and informative video!
they do have amps, but you never know what they will have, mostly crappy solid state amps which I'm not into, most people suffer through it but I choose to bring a small tube combo or just go direct with my pedalboard and a preamp pedal which does the trick depending on the gig. The schedule varies on the cruise line, average is 4 45 minute sets per day but they may spread those out as they wish which can turn a 4 hour day into an 8 hour day if you play a pool set in the afternoon, then return at night which does happen
Thanks for the info! So what is a good wattage for a small tube combo amp?
depends on the gig, but I wouldn't take anything bigger than a small 10-15 watt tube combo, cause playing in more than one venue per day is pretty common and moving gear around a big ass ship sucks!
One last question lol Do they mic the amps?
depends on the size of the room, small room no mic, big room mic'ed
Very busy gigging solo guitarist singer here. I use drums/bass tracks and know hundreds of songs in many styles. I am also a fulltime elementary school music teacher with 8 years till retirement, at which point I'll be 55. I know I've got the chops, experience and professionalism, but honestly, is that too old for this kind of gig?
Really depends on your songlist and video presentation. I think there are probably plenty of solo guys in their 50s out there doing it. But you should present a youthful energy in a great video and have some fairly current tunes in your song list.
What is was the best line to work rccl carnival Norwegian etc
+Michael Collings too much bs to deal with on ships these days, NCL used to be ok but have heard bad things from fellow musicians recently. Did a contract on celebrity last year which was overall pretty good, but cabin was dreadful, but probably one of the better lines to work on for a musician.
A friend of mine from Durban S.A. got into some mischief and was dropped off with his passport in Istanbul
Some horizontal pleasure with one of the guests.
Remember there's tons of surveillance..
of all the ways to get fired on cruise ships, that is the quickest. And they will put you off in the nearest port.
Hectic
Hello, Rick! How are you doing?
So... I am a full-time professional singer and guitarist musician based in a large metropolis here in Brazil. I work approx. 250 to 300 gigs a year, at an estimated 2h30min each. Got very interested after watching a few videos about that Cruise Ship gig.
I speak fluent english, fluent portuguese and advanced spanish. My range is baritenor, going from a G2 to an A6, and I studied most vocal techniques from almost all the main musical genres popular in worldwide radios today, even including reggaeton hits. I am a not-so-great guitar player, sucking almost entirely on jazz and fusion, but doing easy work in other areas like rock, pop, blues, reggae, indie, surf music and etc. as well. My repertoire goes between 400 and 500 songs singing and playing at the same time. I know entire cover shows from the following bands: Maroon 5, Coldplay, U2, The Weeknd, Justin Timberlake and Justin Bieber. My rig is definetly packed, using for vocals a Neumann KMS105 and a Telefunken M80 with a TC Helicon VoiceLive 3 Extreme and for guitar a Fender ST62 Strat with a Line6 Helix LT stompboard in a Fender Twin Reverb 1967.
Do you think my resume, plus making a great video and a nice big and organized catalog can help me stand out and get that gig faster than usual with a nice deal? Actually... Do you even think I have the chance to get it, since I live in Brazil? I don't know how is the market open to musicians from my nationality, and honestly don't know where to start besides applying to the websites you posted in the description and checking facebook groups and stuff. Appreciate your kind guidance.
Best regards,
Iago Vital.
you have a good shot at it, do a great video and send me the link and I'll reply with any advice I have to improve it.
@@TastyGuitarcom Thank you so much for your fast reply. Will do! Thank you!!!
@@TastyGuitarcom Best regards! The show reel will be completed probably in 2 weeks notice, but I am releasing first full music videos almost daily. Check out the first one I've made and tell me if it meets the standards most agencies require to add the act to their roster, please...
Here you go with 'Mi Gente', by J Balvin ft. Willy William performed by my band live: czcams.com/video/NyfTbpU5yjc/video.html
@@IagoVital Hi Iago, your video production looks good enough, you would just need to do 5 or 6 well known party songs in English also and edit them together, about no more than 1 minute clips of each song, so total video length about 5-6 minutes is enough. If you do that I think you have a good chance. I have some Brazilian friends working on cruise ships and would be happy to put you in contact with them because they work with an agent in Brazil that gets them work on ships. One thing I recommend though is it would be better if you played guitar in the video also instead of just singing. That is because in all my years on ships I never saw a band with just a male vocalist that didn't play an instrument. If there was a vocalist not playing an instrument it was always a female. But the size of your band is what they are looking for these days, 4-5 piece. Get the video together and we'll take the next step!
@@TastyGuitarcom I am posting a total of 10 songs, and this is the only one in spanish. The rest of it is totally in english. I would love to reach out this agent you mentioned.
I just got caught totally off guard with the playing guitar advice. I totally play electric/acoustic guitar in a huge amount of songs but for this footage I focused on showing the "pop singing frontman act" stuff and I am very sad to know about it after paying for the whole audio and video thing since I can't fix that. Only way to save it would be recording another gig, which is something I sadly don't have the money to right now. Well, that's really sad.
Thank you for your advice, though. Will comp the whole thing and go to the next step (stoping by here to tell you more when I do). Cheers!
Would love to hear a bit about how you made this gig sustainable, most people I hear about get really burnt out after a contract or two.
Its easy to get burnt out after a couple contracts, after my first contract I said I would never do it again, too much drama in the band. Couple years later did a shorter no drama contract, then got picked up to play with a guest entertainer which was an awesome gig, amazing singer and band, and good $, no reason to stop. Did that gig for 5 years pretty much 8-9 months a year til got burnt out. Took a year off then went out solo which I could work as much or as little as I wanted and did it on and off for 5 years or so. I was careful not to burn bridges with an agent that trusted me to be a pro and gave me work whenever I wanted it, that is pretty key. Now I just go and do a short 3 or 4 week contract every year to satisfy my travel itch.
TastyGuitar.com great way to work the system