top of page
Writer's pictureSteffi

Life as a cruise ship bandleader/musician

Back at my parents’ home in the UK during the pandemic of 2020, I have a lot of time to think about music. More specifically, I have time to think about what might happen in the future for this industry which is, at the best of times, often underfunded and underappreciated. I have the security of being employed as a semi-permanent musician on board cruise ships for 80% of the year, and the joy of performing in musical productions and wedding gigs with musicians who haven’t forgotten about me when I do return to solid ground. As it is the beginning of June, we still have a few months before we might know if musicians still have a place in the cruise industry, or if they too will decide it is safer to have the ever-trusted and not-quite-so-good backing tracks for the mainstage shows and late night lounge jazz. I have my optimism but I’m also living in the era of Donald Trump as President of the United States and BoJo as our PM. I can believe anything.


So here at my desk in rainy Yorkshire, I’m listening to the album of White Christmas (yes, I am one of those people. However, I’m not craving Christmas, I just ADORE Irving Berlin and these fabulous orchestral arrangements for the Original Broadway Cast Recording) and remembering similar productions we performed whilst on board. I have great memories of working at sea for the last 8 years, and much of this can be accredited to the travelling experiences, the wonderful crew who sailed with me, and sometimes* the repertoire I was able to perform.


*Other cruise ship musicians will tell you we would be so happy to never hear Sway, Sweet Caroline or Memory ever again. But some days exist where we somehow avoid them.


A common cruise on board most cruise lines will be a 7 day voyage with 4 port days and 3 sea days, depending on the itinerary. The repetitive nature of these seasons allows bands to create a solid programme of shows which they will perform each week to brand new guests. This allows them to perfect around 200 songs throughout those seven days.


Having said that, playing the same stuff every week does get monotonous (try saying that to West-End or Broadway musos…) so it’s good for each bandleader to get creative and vary the collection of music, which will mean the whole band learning new songs, or if you’re in the house/theatre band, involves the bandleader arranging new charts to suit the demographic of the incoming cruises.


In this last year when I took the opportunity to be bandleader, I was thrown in at the deep end with very few charts (sheet music) in my library. I quickly got to work creating them through transcription, expanding existing music to suit the band, and purchasing copies from companies and arrangers such as J W Pepper, Big Band Charts and Dave Wolpe. Since I grew up with the likes of Frank Sinatra, Doris Day and Nat King Cole (thank you grandparents), I was already in the mindset of jazz combo charts, which suits the type of guest that comes to watch us. By the end of the first month, I had big band sets, ballroom sets, a Doris Day Tribute, the Glory of Gershwin and Blues Brothers and Friends. I’m also a singer so I was able to expand the repertoire to more than your average showband, but that also means our music is bespoke for trumpet, trombone, piano, guitar, bass and drums. I threw a bit of sax in there every so often to remind people I still play it.


Now having some time to mull over the library of charts I created at short notice, I’m quite happy. Some are very good, some are adequate (time constraints meant I just needed something!) but the variety of genres and features I now have gives me heart that if we do return to the joy of performing in anything resembling before, my band will be able to have some fun on stage. After all, that’s kind of the point for us, and the audience truly knows if we’re enjoying ourselves and it makes a difference to how they interpret our performance. Many times the showband receive comments such as “compliments to a fine orchestra that plays their hearts out”. Musos - don’t forget this!

44 views

Recent Posts

See All

Comments


Steffi Medrano

A warm and witty voice &

a soulful musician

+44 7704 832 658

steffimedranovoice@gmail.com

  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Youtube
bottom of page