Tim Redman, bandleader of his band “Retrospect” has put together a library of backing tracks for songs that him and his band have been performing on cruise ships for a number of years. Tim is offering to sell these backing tracks to those that are interested in adding relevant songs to their repertoire.

As you may know, most cruise lines prefer to hire smaller cover bands rather than larger ones. If you’re hired as a 4-piece band, it’s difficult to make the songs sound full and complete. These backing tracks will help you achieve that.

The tracks were produced on a Macbook Pro using Logic 9, a Motu 828 FireWire audio interface, with various synth plug-ins. The tracks have keyboard parts on them. Some have percussion, and some have extra guitar parts. Tim can send more samples if required, as well as samples of specific songs if needed.

They’re $9 each. Tim may also be able to create new tracks for you for $15 each.

Click here for a list of the tracks for sale.

Here are some samples for you to check out.

By now we’re well aware of the fact that airlines love coming up with all kinds of ridiculous charges seemingly by the day. They don’t like to make them easy to find though. ABC have compiled a list of charges that’s really helpful. You can download it here.

Celebrity Cruises have recently sent us an email pointing to a recent development at UPS, the shipping company. The idea is to ship some of your equipment to your port of embarkation ahead of time using a “luggage box” which you purchase at a local UPS store. This reduces cost and makes travels much more comfortable.

Celebrity Cruises seem to think that this is a solution for those musicians that have to travel with a lot of equipment. You can get the details by clicking here.

I’m especially excited about this episode because we’ll get to look at music jobs on cruise ships from the perspective of a Cruise Director. I have recorded a conversation with Karen, Cruise Director with several cruise lines, whom I had the chance to work with a couple of years ago. Enjoy the podcast.
If you have questions about anything, feel free to contact us via email at info@oceanbound.ca or phone number at 450-714-0964.

Karen, thank you very much for your help with this episode.

In this 21st episode of our podcast “Music on cruise ships” I’ll discuss the details of a cover bands’ job with bandleader Tim Redman. You’ll get insider tips on repertoire, equipment, life on a ship and much more. Feel free to contact us with questions via email at info@oceanbound.ca or via phone at 450-714-0964.

Thanks Tim for your help.

One way in which gigs on cruise ships are different from gigs on land is that you’ll have to travel far with your gear. If you take lots of it, you will almost certainly be charged big bucks by the airlines and you’ll run the risk that they’ll damage it. Regardless of the charges and the risks involved, you’ll also have to carry your gear and set it up. Who wants to break hauling gear around? Cruise lines do ask you to play in various lounges around the ship, so moving your gear happens quite often.

So, it goes without saying that taking as little gear as possible will save trouble and cash.

It is important, however, to do so without sacrificing the quality of your sound. I have, in previous posts, talked about the fact that a lot of entertainers use outdated midi sounds that just aren’t professional sounding and thus will likely keep them from getting jobs.

Fortunately, there are many great products out there that allow you to do both, minimize your set-up and update your sound library to the very latest. Now, this is not an article in which I’m going to outline all the options you have, I’m not the right guy to do so, this is merely to get you to think about your gear and hopefully avoid problems before they arise.

I did do a bit of research though and came across some great solutions. If you’re a keyboard player, it would be great if you could use the keyboards that most cruise lines provide and leave yours at home. Naturally, you’d have to find a solution to take your sound library and your sequences with you though. I came across Sonic Cell by Roland that does the trick. It’s not only a sound module, but it also has the capability of playing back wave, aiff, mp3 and midi files, it’s an audio and midi interface, and it can be used to hook up directly to your computer for editing in your favorite DAW (Digital Audio Workstation).

This way it helps on stage, but you can use it in your cabin with your laptop to create new songs as you go along. Naturally, this option costs some money which you may not have

A cheaper solution would be to put all of your sequences on an ipod. This is cheap and simple, but you don’t have the flexibility of the Sonic Cell. You couldn’t create or edit songs and thus be pretty much stuck with the repertoire you brought with you.

The Sonic Cell also works well for guitarists and thus it would be ideal for guitar/vocalists, piano/vocalists, duos, cover bands etc.

I would encourage anyone that knows gear better than I do, to post comments about other suggestions so we can pass this along. So pack light, it keeps money in your walled and your back will thank you, and keep your sound library fresh and up-to-date, not only will it help you get a job and keep it, but you’ll enjoy playing so much more.

This is one of the funkiest songs I know. Get ready to shake it. (Yes another song for Steve Gadd to shine).

Artist: Al Jarreau
Album: Roof Garden
Song: Roof Garden

Today’s pick is from one of my all-time favorite albums. Al Jarreau recorded “This Time” in 1980 with producer Jay Graydon. Nothing but the best of the best musicians on this album. A lot of the songs are really “funky” and performed with a lot of taste and soul. Do yourself a favor and check it out.

Album: This Time
Artist: Al Jarreau
Song: Spain

The CLIA or Cruise Lines International Association, has posted some more statistics and an overall positive outlook on the immediate future of cruising on their Web site. It’s a long read but don’t worry, I have picked out some of the more interesting tidbits for you.

Before I go ahead I should put a bit of a disclaimer out about CLIA. It is a nonprofit organization but it represents 25 cruise lines and it works closely with the travel agents that book the cruises. So, it goes without saying that the CLIA’s main concern would be the well-being of the cruise industry and thus I’m not sure how reliable their data really is. I have been reading their reports for a couple of years now and I can’t help but notice that they have been nothing but positive.

I get a bit suspicious of their overly positive attitude especially when you compare their findings with what the entertainment departments at the cruise lines tell me directly. If you go by CLIA’s numbers, you’re led to believe that everything is hunky-dory while on the other hand entertainment departments have shortened the rotations of musicians, refuse to pay expensive flights if they can avoid them, lengthen musicians’ employment contracts, and implement company-wide salary freezes.

Now I have to admit that I’m only in contact with entertainment departments and thus don’t get any inside information into the overall state of the cruise industry. Also, the CLIA’s findings are and overall picture of all their cruise lines, including all the departments on ships and thus I may incorrectly assume that if an entertainment department is implementing cost-cutting measures, that doesn’t necessarily say anything about their overall state. As a matter of fact, they may argue that their cost-cutting measures have worked in their attempt to keep cruise fares down which enabled them to keep cruising at full passenger capacity (CLIA claims, for example, that in 2009 the average occupancy of cruise lines’ ships was 104.4 percent).

So, with this in mind, and because of a lack of other reliable sources for cruise data, let’s look at some of the numbers.

Since I’ve been reading CLIA reports one statistic that keeps coming up is the fact that, according to CLIA, 80% of North Americans have never cruised before. Knowing that the same North Americans are making up by far the largest group of cruisers, this is an important number.

Adding to the future cruiser potential is the fact that cruise vacation adoption in Europe and abroad is apparently growing at an “accelerated rate”. For example, in 2009, CLIA says that 76.5% of passengers came from the U.S. and Canada while 23.5% were internationally sourced. International cruisers in 2000, in comparison, were less than 10%. For 2010, CLIA expects an increase in passengers of 6.4%.

To tap into this huge potential, cruise lines are continuously upping their passenger capacity by building more and bigger ships. 14 new ships were introduced in 2009 and 2010 will see 12 new arrivals. Between now and 2012 that number will be 23 new vessels.

So, the potential is there and cruise lines seem to have enough ships to accommodate all these people. Now all we need is enough passengers. Are they in fact signing up in large numbers? CLIA says yes.

CLIA’s travel agents have reported strong interest in cruising for 2010. 75.7 percent of these travel agents expect an increase in sales while 11 percent of them expect a “hold”.

CLIA says that people continue to plan cruises because the latter “continue to rank number one among consumers for perceived value and vacation interest”. The cruise lines are also looking to keep potential cruisers interested by offering shipboard amenities never seen before, such as full-sized waterparks, adults-only areas, comedy clubs and more. Shore excursions will be expanded and diversified, incentives are given to those that book early and the increase of number of ports in the US puts more people within driving distance of a port.

There you have it – huge potential, enough ships and passengers signing up in numbers. What does this really mean for us musicians?

All I can say is that if CLIA got their figures right, it can only be good for us. A healthy company is a good employer. Over the past 18 months or so, getting a gig on a cruise ship has undoubtedly gotten harder. Yes, the cruise lines have shortened their entertainer rotations, but this alone is not why it’s harder to get a gig with them. The fact that more musicians than ever are applying for gigs on ships has a lot to do with growing wait lists. Musicians that may have worked solely on land may be looking to cruise lines for jobs because they can’t find work on land.

So, let’s hope that CLIA is right, that cruise lines will do better in the future. Let’s hope that means more musicians will be needed in the future and that cruise lines start handing out salary increases again. And let’s hope it starts soon.

Just because you’re at sea doesn’t mean you have to stop being creative. If you’re planning to record some of your song ideas the minute they pop into your head, you need a flexible recording device with you. Korg just announced their “Sound on sound” multi-track recorder, that’s small enough to fit in any gig bag and it’s packed with some nice features.

The unit can record an unlimited amount of tracks (not that you need that but nice to see it could), it’s got 50 preset rhythm patterns on board, can record up to 200 songs, uses AA batteries and it’s even got a tuner built-in. It’s also got “sound stretch” built-in, which lets you speed up or slow down music without changing the pitch. This actually comes in handy when you want to learn a difficult passage of some lick.

Oh, and it’s also got 100 effects built-in for guitar, bass and vocals.

A big drawback is that it doesn’t have any XLR inputs, only a 1/4″ balanced phone jack and a 1/8″ stereo mini jack. The unit isn’t shipping yet so yo have to be patient, and the list price is a bit of a enigma since many sites show a different price. The “buy now” feature on the Korg site shows it as selling for $299.99 once it ships. Probably safe to say that you’ll be able to get it for less soon.

Check it out.

I’m always on the lookout for gear that either makes it easier or more fun to perform on the road, and I’ve come across a gadget that definitely delivers. TC Electronics has introduced it’s new guitar and bass tuner “PolyTune“. It’s called that because it let’s you strum all of your strings at once and it tells you which ones are out of tune. This is a huge time saver over the older tuners that made you tune the strings one by one. All you do is strum all of your strings at once and the device will display in green the strings that are in tune and in red the strings that needs to be tuned.

You may remember TC Electronics from a previous post on this blog about their Harmony G, a box that adds harmonies based on your voice. This company is coming out with really high quality products that enable you to keep your performances fresh and, now with the PolyTune, makes your life easier.

Check out the video below.

Sax players face a couple of unique challenges on cruise ships such as having to double on flute and clarinet, packing their instruments so that they make it to the ship safely and more. Rob Pratt, a friend, client and saxophone player was nice enough to record a conversation with me about these challenges. Rob had great insights to share about his experiences, insights that might even be of benefit to those that aren’t even looking to be a part of the orchestra.

Enjoy.

You might be on a ship during the christmas holidays and you might be asking yourself if there’s any specific repertoire you might need during those days. Well, the answer is yes, you should definitely be prepared to play some christmas songs and you should definitely have a version of Auld Lang Syne handy for the New Year’s party.

While I don’t think that anyone is going to ask you for specific christmas songs, it would definitely be a good idea to prepare a couple of classics as well as some more modern ones. You may find that some cruise directors ask you to not play too many christmas songs as there may be a large number of non-christian passengers on the ship.

Here is a short list of some of the tunes that some of our cover bands are prepared to play:

Do they know it’s Christmas (Band Aid)
Last Christmas (Wham)
So here it is Merry Christmas (Slade)
All I want for Christmas is you (Mariah Carey)
White Christmas (Nat King Cole)
Fairytale of New York (The Pogues)
Let it snow (Bing Crosby)
Rocking around the Christmas tree (Brenda Lee)
Baby it’s cold outside (Tom Jones)

A quick google search will certainly bring up a lot more songs that are appropriate for the occasion.

All of us at Oceanbound Entertainment Inc. wish you Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year in advance.