Chart Interpretation
Many musical acts onboard a ship — from piano bar entertainers to party bands to cocktail pianists — learn the songs that make up their respective repertoires either purely by ear, or with written music that they have time to look at and study beforehand. Orchestra musicians bear the unique responsibility of having to sight-read […]
Port Procedures
There are a great many aspects of life on a cruise ship that will be novel for most musicians. For this reason, the upcoming posts will deviate from music-related themes to familiarize future shipboard musicians with concepts and routines that will quickly become normal and even second-nature once on board. This particular post will deal […]
Production Shows
For anyone who has played a production show before, this entry could be quite boring (and for that, I apologize). However, it should be sufficiently interesting and informative for prospective orchestra musicians. There are two production shows on a given night, spaced apart, so the second starts roughly an hour after the first one finishes. […]
Side Jobs
As mentioned in previous blog posts, the large number of free time musicians have on board can be spent in a myriad of ways. However, in addition to activities for one’s own health, education or leisure, there are actually some ways to earn a bit of extra cash. Below are a few examples of side […]
Ports
This is the second of two posts designed to provide some information and insight into the ports so integral to the cruise ship industry; the previous entry dealt primarily with procedures for getting on and off the ship, and this entry will delve into the actual stops the ship makes during its run. The term […]
Keyboard Patches
At first glance, the terms ‘pianist’ and ‘keyboardist’ appear to be virtually identical. True to form, most people use the two interchangeably when describing someone who plays an instrument with black and white keys, regardless of whether the instrument itself is acoustic or electric. However, the argument can be made that the difference between ‘pianist […]
