Learning new Music During rehearsals I usually aim for 12-15 songs per day, that way at the end of the week there’s enough time to play through the rehearsed sets and get a sense of what they feel like. 15 new songs a day is a lot, especially on your first contract it’s insane how much work it is. Yes, for most songs there are charts, but they usually suck and many times you spend more time correcting a bad chart than if you’ve had written it yourself in the first place. The

I’ve made a couple of posts discussing why someone shouldn’t do and who shouldn’t do a cruise ship gig. Since I’ve been a cruise ship musician for quite a while, there obviously have to be great sides to the gig. In this post I’m exploring why musicians should do cruise ship gigs and what benefits come with it. You’re always onstage During a contract you usually play 2-4 sets per night, six nights a week for six months straight. That’s a hell of a lot of time for onstage perf

Listen to the blog post here. In my experience American crew members tend to struggle more with certain aspects of ship life than other nationalities. It’s important to note that I’ve been working on Carnival Cruise Line ships. All the ships that I’ve worked on sailed from American ports with mainly American guests. Yet, out of the around 900 crew members onboard, usually only about 12-15 of them are American. Even though Americans aren’t far from home and don’t have to speak

It’s all the same At times the gig can be depressing and boring. You’re stuck on the ship for a couple of months. If things work out, you stay with the same band for the duration of the contract. That means you’re playing with the same six people for a couple of months straight. After rehearsals in Miami the band might have a repertoire of 200 songs. You usually don’t add a lot of music while onboard. It can be really tiring to perform the same tunes over and over again and y

As you know ship life doesn’t suit everybody. Life onboard is different from life on land and some can’t or don’t want to adjust to ship life. It’s not just the life style that doesn’t suit everybody, the musicians’ job is quite unique as well. Working for a big company A cruise line is a big company with thousands of employees. Carnival for example has over 30’000 shipboard and almost 4’000 shoreside employees. A company this big has to be structured and efficient in order t

I’ve already mentioned this subject. I talked about how you’re basically homeless when you’re onboard during a contract. But there’s more to the story. You’re also homeless between contracts, especially then. That’s one of the major reasons crew members keep returning to ships and basically say goodbye to life on land. A new start Life on ships is far away from life on land. Not measured in kilometers or miles but by where your attention and energy are focused. On your first

This is the second post where I'm sharing some of the things that stand out when living on ships that you don't necessarily have to deal with when living on land. You’re homeless One of the things you don’t notice until you’ve actively thought about it. For the duration of a contract which can be up to nine months you don’t get to be in a place anybody has been calling home. You’re either on the ship or off the ship. When you’re off the ship though you spend the time in resta

As you might imagine life on cruise ships is quite different from life on land. Some of the differences are obvious while others are small details that you wouldn’t have thought of unless you’ve experienced ship life yourself. I’m sharing with you some of the differences, some of them make life on ships easier, others make life harder and others are just a matter of getting used to. The list is in no particular order and more posts about this topic will follow. Cities at nigh

The Last Sea Day is right before Embarkation day. It’s pretty much like the first sea day only that it’s the last day of the cruise and not the first one. Who'd have thought... Guests At this point guests already know the ship. Instead of walking around exploring the ship, they go straight to their favorite spots. Guests prepare their luggage, buy some more souvenirs from the gift shop and do all the things they wanted to do before going home. It’s an insanely busy day for gu

Whether you’re a guest or a crew member, port Days are the most exciting days of being on cruise ships. In this post we’re taking a closer look at what port days can be like and what guests, crew and musicians do when they dock in a foreign country. Ships usually dock between 8-10am and set sail again somewhere around 4-6pm. Guests Most guests try to get off the ship as soon as the ship docks. Some guests though simply stay on the boat and enjoy the fact that there’s almost n