What Level Musician Gets Hired on Cruise Ships? — Transcript

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1. 0:00You're a musician. You've been  playing for years, maybe 10,
2. 0:02maybe even more. And you've heard about cruise  ship work, the salary, the travel, the contracts,
3. 0:07and some part of you is interested, but there's  this one question that you keep coming back to,
4. 0:12and you haven't found a straight answer to it  yet. Am I actually good enough? Not just good
5. 0:17enough in a vague way, but good enough for this.  Good enough to get hired? Good enough to perform
6. 0:23every single night? Good enough that an agent  looks at your show reel and says, "Yes." This
7. 0:28is exactly what this video is about. I spent four  years on cruise ships as a piano bar entertainer,
8. 0:33including one contract that lasted 11 months,  and I now coach musicians and work directly with
9. 0:38booking agencies. I've had real conversations with  agents about what they're actually looking for.
10. 0:42So, I'm going to give you the real benchmarks,  not just the version that feels good, but the raw
11. 0:48honest one. The version that actually helps you  figure out where you're standing right now. Okay,
12. 0:52let's first talk about the honest benchmark for  technique. So, it really depends what instrument
13. 0:57you play and whether you sing or not. And you  don't need to have conservatire level, but you
14. 1:02do need to have a solid and consistent technique  and to be able to perform under pressure. A lot
15. 1:07of people ask me if classical training is  required. If they look at certifications or
16. 1:11these kind of things and the truth is they don't.  They just look at what you can do right now. What
17. 1:16are your abilities? So if you're applying for a  role as part of the orchestra or the show band,
18. 1:21they're going to audition you and to see  what your level is right now. And otherwise,
19. 1:25they're just going to look at the at your video.  But what you've done before, what you've studied,
20. 1:29they just don't care. And that doesn't matter. I  think it's really cool to have classical training,
21. 1:33but it's definitely not a requirement. And the  truth is that stylistic flexibility matters way
22. 1:37more than technical flexibility. What I mean by  that is that if you're able to play different
23. 1:42generous to make it sound like you're playing  different things to someone who knows nothing
24. 1:47about music, right? But they're going to tell,  hey, I can tell the difference between these two
25. 1:51things you just played here. That matters way more  than you knowing how to do crazy skills up and
26. 1:56down. Especially if you're reading sheet music,  which is not going to be helpful to you at all if
27. 2:01you are performing in front of a crowd and that  uh you are applying for a job where interaction
28. 2:06really matters and where you're supposed to know  stuff off the top of your mind with the lyrics
29. 2:11or the chords in front of you. And so the real  question to ask yourself, I [snorts] think is more
30. 2:15would you be able to perform in front of a group  of strangers for two hours without falling apart?
31. 2:21If you're not, it's actually okay, too, because  as you're going to be working on the cruise ship,
32. 2:25you're going to be getting experience. When I  started, I was not really good. I didn't have that
33. 2:29that much experience. And I learned as I go.  I was really really nervous at the start and I
34. 2:34figured it out as I went. My chords, what I was  playing was kind of boring and always the same
35. 2:39at the start. And then I learned as I went,  but you do need to have some technique and
36. 2:45some confidence in playing different styles and  on accompanying yourself. um if that's what you're
37. 2:50applying for. Now about site reading. So it's the  same as classical training if you're applying for
38. 2:56an audition where you're going to need to read  sheet music like for the show band for example.
39. 3:00So so the show band is the band that accompanies  the showcast on the main theater stage then you
40. 3:05really need to know site reading and the audition  is going to be about this. But if you are applying
41. 3:10for a solo position or duo trio or party band  you do not need site reading at all. What really
42. 3:17matters for these positions is that you can learn  songs quickly that you can adapt to whoever you're
43. 3:22playing with. If you're playing a singer who needs  you to uh turn the key down, for example, because
44. 3:28it's too high for them or whatever, if you're  playing with someone who doesn't know the song
45. 3:31and you're like, being able to adapt is really  important. And if you're playing on your own,
46. 3:35it really doesn't matter if you know site reading  or not. Now, how good do you need to be at singing
47. 3:40and playing at the same time? Now, again, it  really depends what you're applying for. If you're
48. 3:43applying for my position like piano entertainer,  piano vocalist or even guitar vocalist, then you
49. 3:48really need to sing. Obviously, of course, you  need to sing in tune and you need to and the
50. 3:52benchmark I'd give it is someone who doesn't know  you, would they say, "Hey, you I like your voice,
51. 3:57like you sing in a nice way." If they do say that,  that's a good sign that you're nice listening to.
52. 4:03You should know this. Like, are you do you  think you're you have a nice voice to listen to?
53. 4:07And I think this is the the most important  benchmark. And of course, for everything else,
54. 4:11like all the other jobs, you don't need to play  and sing at the same time. Unless you want to,
55. 4:15you might be able to do that in groups, like in  party bands. If you're part of one and you want to
56. 4:20do it, but it's optional. It's more like whether  you're a singer or an instrumentalist, then you
57. 4:25have to focus on your thing. Last thing I'd like  to add is that especially for solo positions,
58. 4:29agents are really looking for connection.  Like, can you connect with the audience?
59. 4:33Can you befriend them? Can you get them to be  engaged in the evening? And these kind of things.
60. 4:39It's really, really, really important and they  tend to look for this sometimes as much as the
61. 4:45music side of things. So, if you can develop that  entertaining side of things, that would be really
62. 4:51useful for you. And one example I'd like to give  you is that I have seen classical trained singers
63. 4:57that have wonderful voices that they trained for  decades and they wouldn't get hired on a cruise
64. 5:03ship because this is all they have. And the truth  is that even if it's really beautiful to listen
65. 5:08to, this is not suitable for the role of being a  piano vocalist, piano bar entertainer where you're
66. 5:14very close to people and you need to have it  balanced. Also, when you're a piano entertainer,
67. 5:19there are three things that really matter. And  same for a guitar vocalist. Uh there's the piano
68. 5:23side of things, there's singing side of things,  and then the entertaining side of things. You need
69. 5:27to have at least two of these where you're really  good and to showcase that in your show reels so
70. 5:33that you have all the chances to get there. Some  people are not such great singers. Some people are
71. 5:40not such great um pianists, but if you have humor  and you know how to play the piano, or if you're
72. 5:45just really good at what you do musically and you  don't really know how to interact with people,
73. 5:49usually you're going to get a chance. Now, about  stage fright, a lot of you might be wondering
74. 5:53like, "Oh, I just have so much stage fright.  I don't know if I'd be able to do what you do.
75. 5:57I was really, really, really scared when I started  performing on cruise ships. And I think it's just
76. 6:01a normal musician thing to experience that.  And the truth is that if you're applying for a
77. 6:06position where your video, your show real is going  to be your audition, where you're not going to be
78. 6:11auditioning, so all the roles like duo, solos, or  party bands, then it doesn't really matter if you
79. 6:17experience stage frights. You just need to get the  clips where you look the most confident, right?
80. 6:22Uh, but of course if you're paralyzed, it probably  will show on your show real. Uh, but I would not
81. 6:27worry so much about this because as you perform  hours a day, you're going to get confident very
82. 6:31quickly. Like your body can't get stage fright  for many hours at a time at the same level,
83. 6:37right? The anxiety goes down. You get used  to it. You get more comfortable. You adapt.
84. 6:42So that that's not something I would worry about.  Quick pause here. If right now you're wondering,
85. 6:45okay, but what about my specific situation? Am  I good enough? Am I the good kind of profile to
86. 6:51get hired on cruise ships? I can help you figure  that out by booking a call with me down below.
87. 6:56There's a link right here where I can help you  on the music side of things or preparation for
88. 7:00cruise ships side of things. And if you have any  questions, this is the perfect moment for me to
89. 7:06get in touch with you and see if your project  is actually a fit and how likely you are to get
90. 7:11hired on cruise ships. So, feel free to book that  down below and let's get back to the video. Now,
91. 7:16how big and how good does your repertoire needs  to be? So, if you have at least 150 songs in your
92. 7:23repertoire, again, if you're applying as a solo  duo or party band, that's already good enough
93. 7:28and that's already enough to keep you going for a  couple of nights without having having to repeat
94. 7:33the same songs over and over again. It's really  important that you diversify the decades of songs
95. 7:40that you have, the generations, so that we have  a bit of everything. And also in terms of styles,
96. 7:46it's really important that you show versatility.  And of course, try to pick international and known
97. 7:51songs so that if a guest asks you a song that they  want, maybe you're going to know it. Now, there
98. 7:57are a couple of myths that you might have heard  like, "Oh, you really need this." Or maybe some
99. 8:01beliefs that you have that are actually completely  wrong for getting hired on cruise ships. The first
100. 8:05one is perfect pitch. You absolutely don't need  this or you don't need to be the best musician in
101. 8:11the world to get hired on cruise ships. So many  times I've seen people who are not that good,
102. 8:16who don't have such the best voice in the world,  but they're good at entertaining. They're good at
103. 8:21what they do on the piano or on their instrument.  Nobody will ever ask you for a perfect pitch.
104. 8:26The second one, improvisation. Is that important?  Yes, it is kind of important. Before I got hired
105. 8:31on Royal Caribbean, my agent was asking for  me to like know how to improvise a little bit,
106. 8:37especially like blues stuff. Um, so it depends  again on the position that you're applying for,
107. 8:41but yes, it will be important that you know some  kind of improvisation, but I wouldn't say that's
108. 8:46the one thing that will get you not hired uh if  you don't have it. And one small tip for this if
109. 8:51you want to learn how to improvise, like literally  just focusing on the blues scale and basic chords
110. 8:56on the left hand. Yeah, like that's really a  really really easy way to improvise like going
111. 9:01up and down the blues scale. Uh, and that makes  it look like you know how to improvise even though
112. 9:05it didn't take you long to learn that. Again, if  I if you want any help with this, feel free to
113. 9:10um book a call with me down below. Now,  what about original music? Well, agents,
114. 9:14they don't want this. Like, you have to think  about the cruise ship perspective. The goal of the
115. 9:20cruise ship is to get their guests to be happy and  for them to be happy with the music. They need to
116. 9:25hear songs that they know and to recognize the  songs and to sing along and these kind of things.
117. 9:31And so if you talk about your original music, and  I have so many musicians that come to me and say,
118. 9:35"Oh, can I sing my original music on ships and I'd  love to do this for my own songs." And I'm like,
119. 9:41"Yes, maybe once you will get on board, you will  be able to sing your own stuff because people will
120. 9:46get curious. They'll ask you like to sing uh  song. Or maybe one day it's quiet and you just
121. 9:52don't really have anybody asking you for songs,  so you're just going to play your own song and
122. 9:56nobody's going to notice." And maybe you can even  say, "Hey, this is what I wrote." But you really
123. 10:01have to sell yourself at first. And so don't put  uh your own songs in your show reel. Make sure
124. 10:07to keep that on the side and to really give what  the agents and what the cruise lines want. So what
125. 10:12the guests want from you. And then once you're  on the ship, it's different, right? So really
126. 10:16focus on covers. Covers that are famous. Even if  it's boring, like again, once you get on the ship,
127. 10:21you can do whatever you want. Now, let me tell  you what it looks like for a musician or a singer
128. 10:26to be not ready because I've seen so many of  them. and agencies keep seeing musicians who are
129. 10:31underprepared, not ready, and that will  probably really struggle getting hired because
130. 10:38they're just not good enough yet or there's  some reason why it just won't work for them
131. 10:43in that moment. So, if you're applying for  a singing role, so if it involves singing,
132. 10:49you need to sing in tune. You need to have  a good rhythm. You need to have some kind of
133. 10:53presence. Uh, again, like the benchmark I told  you about earlier, do people say you have a nice
134. 10:58voice? Do people say you're nice listening to,  you don't have to be the best singer in the world,
135. 11:02I never really took vocal lessons. I mean, maybe  a couple, but that's it. But I always had this
136. 11:07thing where I knew I sing in tune and people tell  me I have a nice voice. So, this really matters.
137. 11:13If you sing out of tune, if you don't know  how to if you don't have any musicality,
138. 11:18it's going to be really difficult no matter the  instrument for you to uh get a job on cruise
139. 11:22ships because they're looking for people who are  good. This one has nothing to do with the music,
140. 11:27but it's really important if you don't know how to  be on time or to be professional. And I think this
141. 11:33might be one of the reasons why so many musicians  miss out on these opportunities is because
142. 11:39they don't reply. They don't know how to reply  well. they don't know how to write well in an
143. 11:43email to an agent. Um they miss the deadlines  for sending documents or signing a contract.
144. 11:50And this has nothing to do with the actual music,  but it's something that can really um get you like
145. 11:57so many times also on cruise ships I saw musicians  who got fired because they didn't respect the
146. 12:01rules for whatever. And so being able to respect  the hierarchy, respecting the rules, showing up on
147. 12:08time, being professional basically, also following  all the things um that you need to do in terms of
148. 12:13sending to the agents. I did a video about the  show that you need to send, for example. And
149. 12:18if you follow all of this, then it already shows  you're professional and that you're someone they
150. 12:22can count on. And that's really, really important.  So you are not ready if you are not professional.
151. 12:27If you can't have a boss and if you can't show  up on time and show up in a professional way.
152. 12:33Now musically you are not ready if so let me  take piano as an example because that's the one
153. 12:39I I play. So let me tell you what it looks like  to be ready. It's you can play different styles.
154. 12:45You can self accompany confidently. So you can  sing and play and look around, right? or if you're
155. 12:51just playing as an instrumentalist, you the level  is even higher. Um, you can play the keyboard,
156. 12:58you can play the guitar, you can play whatever  instrument it is at a level where you you would be
157. 13:04hired as a an instrumentalist like this in a pro  band, even on land, right? This is the benchmark
158. 13:09we're looking at. Uh, a lot of the times you will  have to learn songs unless you're a solo vocalist
159. 13:16uh solo act, you will have to learn songs very  quickly, you know, maybe in an hour or two. So,
160. 13:20you have to be good at picking things up. You  have to be good at improvising solos on the spot.
161. 13:26Um, and that that's really important. And for a  solo piano vocalist, you need to have different
162. 13:32patterns of accompaniment. You need to be able to  play upbeat stuff, to play stuff that are slower.
163. 13:38I'd say in terms of the instruments, it's  more okay for a solo act to be less good
164. 13:46on the instrument. If you're not that good, you  can hide it. Um, I actually have a musician that
165. 13:51I coached who didn't feel like it was her main  strength, but she still got hired because, uh, she
166. 13:57had the voice, she had the presence, she had  the professionalism, uh, and she was committed
167. 14:02and she did the work and and then she's getting  better, you know, on the instrument. So, yes,
168. 14:08this this I would say is the benchmark. If you  have any questions about your specific situation,
169. 14:11you can leave a comment below and I'll reply to  as many as I can. And again, it's very silly,
170. 14:16but in terms of repertoire, you are not ready if  you don't have 150 songs at least. Like that's the
171. 14:22bare minimum. If you don't have these amount of  songs, of course, if you're applying for the site
172. 14:26reading for the orchestra show band is different.  Um, you need to be really good at site reading.
173. 14:32You need to be able to read the the sheet  music and to play it instantly. Something
174. 14:38like that. Sometimes you're you're getting shows  in the theater that are tonight and you have to
175. 14:43have two hours to rehearse it and you're going to  play in front of a thousand people. So you have
176. 14:47to be really good at this if you're on the side  reading audition side of things. If you are on the
177. 14:53repertoire side of things, you need 150 songs. It  needs to be diversified and ideally you you really
178. 15:00want to go more like 200 250. This is definitely  a reason why you're not going to get hired
179. 15:05if you don't have the repertoire. So really really  important and the last thing is that you're not
180. 15:10fully ready if you don't have the documents that  are needed to work at sea. There's STCW which is a
181. 15:16safety at sea training. Uh it's like a whole week  where you are learning how to do safety at sea,
182. 15:23how to take care for passengers and these kind of  things if something h bad happens at sea. And the
183. 15:28second thing is a medical exam. We both can cost  a little bit of money but both are mandatory for
184. 15:34you to work on cruise ships. I wouldn't say to get  these things before you get a contract. First get
185. 15:40a contract, get in touch with agencies and once  you have a contract, they will tell you what to
186. 15:45do. They will tell you what you need. But if I  had to answer to this question honestly because I
187. 15:49know a lot of you guys uh who talk to me under my  YouTube videos like in the comment section or who
188. 15:56I talk to on Instagram, on Facebook, etc. A lot of  you and a lot of us actually because I'm the same
189. 16:02think that we're not good enough and that's just  a musician's thing. you probably are. When I first
190. 16:07started on cruise ships, uh it was around COVID  time and I spent 10 days in my cabin uh isolating
191. 16:14because I couldn't get out. Like everyone who was  new on the ship had to isolate for for 10 days and
192. 16:20I got so panicked and so obsessed and so anxious  because I thought I wasn't good enough. Uh but the
193. 16:26truth is that if you are hitting the benchmarks  that I described here in this video, if you know
194. 16:32how to sing, if you know how to like roughly, if  you know how to play roughly, you know, and uh if
195. 16:38you get a response from an agent, like you are  good enough. And I think a lot of you probably
196. 16:42are. And if you're not, then you probably know  what you need to work on. And I'd say that across
197. 16:47all the musicians that I've coached and that I've  worked with and that I've seen trying to apply on
198. 16:51cruise ships, the most often it is live confidence  like confidence to perform live and repertoire
199. 16:58range that they need to work on and the rest is  fixable. So yeah, you can build it. Now, if you
200. 17:03have questions about your specific situation,  your level, your repertoire, your show reel,
201. 17:07or if you want help preparing for a cruise ship  audition, or preparing your show real, or you're
202. 17:13building up your skills to get there, you can book  a call with me down below. I work with Musicians
203. 17:17101, and I can tell you exactly where you stand  right now and what you need to fix in order to
204. 17:22have better chances of getting hired on cruise  ships. That's probably everything I wish someone
205. 17:26told me before I sent my first application. Good  luck with this and if it helped you, feel free to
206. 17:31subscribe. I post videos like this regularly for  musicians who are thinking about taking this path.