I Have A Moral Dilemma, and I Need Your Help

Okay, here's the deal. It seems that some of my colleagues on board have been talking about how much they dislike playing with me with other friends/people around the ship. This has gotten back to me. From what I can tell, this mostly relates to my volume as a drummer. This person I talked to said that, so I can have good relations with my colleagues, I should make the sacrifice and play quieter.

I am a decently loud drummer. I'm the first one to admit it, and I'm the first one to suffer from it, because I SIT BEHIND THE DARN SET!!! However, I am using, at most, 70% of my volume and power because I want to be conscientious of my colleagues in the band. I would love to play quieter to help these guys out. However….

Volume is a direct effect of energy and intensity/timbre. I play with energy. Always have, always will. When I am playing, I do not think about what it sounds like where I am. I think about what it sounds like to the audience. I have found, in my experience, that drummers who focus on playing too quietly, because it hurts their ears or whatever, lose the energy and intensity that drives a show like the ones we are doing. That energy, in turn, affects the performances of singers and dancers, and the audience's general attitude toward the show. Long story short, I sacrifice my own (and yes, the player's around me) comfort to give the audience a better show. I always have, and I probably always will, because the show as a whole will always be bigger than what I alone am doing.

I also believe in compromise. That being said, compromise generally takes both sides of an argument sacrificing to reach said compromise. From where I am sitting on this issue, my colleagues are asking me to not do my job to the best of my ability so they can do theirs. Now, to me, that does not seem fair. Am I not entitled to doing what I do best? I was hired for a reason. Granted, the guy who hired me isn't here. But on my demo reel, I have footage of my playing very aggressively, and quite loudly, which, if it were a company policy (for drummers to play quietly) would have disqualified me from getting the job. And yet, HERE I AM. Why was I hired if my aggressively style of playing was going to be a problem?

I've had others (whose opinion, quite frankly, I value more) tell me that my volume levels are fine (namely, our male singer and my boss, the bandmaster). In fact, I have been told that I am nothing compared to drummers they have had in the past. But I don't know how much longer I can deal with this. I am most likely not doing another contract, but these people can still give others in the industry good or bad reports about me.

So here's the final question. Do I play how I have always played and stick to what I do best? Or, do I take one for the team and play quiet, energy-bereft drums until I never have to see these people again?

Your objective commentary would be very much appreciated on this matter. Thank you.

Stephen Cane, Paul Fredericks, and the last little while

Two videos this time. The first is from about two weeks ago. Piano player named Stephen Cane. This one is mostly for my father, who introduced me to Billy Joel's Root Beer Rag, and thank goodness he did, because I would've had no idea what I was doing if he hadn't. The second is from last night. A British singer named Paul Fredericks. Apparently he recorded this song, Winchester Cathedral, with The New Vaudeville Band Back in the 70's, and it was a big hit. Like, Sinatra recorded it. Never heard of it, and it is certainly unique, so I thought I'd throw it up here for you.

It's been awhile since I posted, because life on a cruise ship is, well, fairly monotonous and boring. We've made it to the Caribbean and will be here for the remainder of my contract. I'm really looking forward to going to Trinidad, because I have friends living there working, so I'll get to see some familiar faces. A good half of the ports are simply gorgeous right when you step off the ship. The other half drop you off in an industrial zone, forcing you to taxi to anywhere that might be tourist friendly. Blech.

The good news is that I found the congregation of the Church in St. Vincent. No matter what church you belong to, if you are religious, it is really helpful to go to church any Sunday you are in port. It rejuvenated me and made me feel better about my whole predicament.

My roommate and I found some common ground in the baseball playoffs: we both hate the Yankees. Sadly, his Dodgers lost to my Phillies last night (Phillies=any team that's playing the Dodgers). Here's to the Phillies winning the world series again!!

I've made friends with the Cruise Staff. Those are the people who do all the activities on board. Sad thing is that they work very long days, so we don't hang much, but their job is very social, so I can go say hi while they are working. Some nights I go up to the night club and hang out with the DJ. He's a funny kid.

I don't think this life is for me, though. I miss my family, I miss my privacy, and I miss being around people who aren't so dang negative about everything. If that is indicative of the whole music industry, I think I'm going into business…

That's all I can think to post now. More to come…

Week One

Week One: The Pacific Coast and the Panama Canal

I’ll start with a recap of touristy stuff, since Princess basically pays their musicians to be tourists, then I’ll go into some of the actual work related stuff.

I am NOT A FAN of this leg of cruising. I am NOT A FAN of being harassed about taxis, hats, local art, massages, “massages”, weed, ganja, marijuana, pretty girls, tips, or handouts. And that was just in Acapulco. I didn’t even get off in Huatalco cuz I didn’t want to deal with it. I’ve heard two conflicting viewpoints about the Caribbean: one says it’s worse than Mexico, one says that it’s much better…we’ll see I guess.

Port of the Pacific Coast award goes to Puntarenas, Costa Rica. Though they had a blazing failure in the ability-to-get-American-dollars-out-of-an-ATM-so-I-can-buy-more-internet-time department, the people were AMAZING. I was not harassed once. My favorite thing about traveling is going to foreign countries and watching locals be locals. That’s what it was in Costa Rica. I walked along the beach and watch Costa Ricans be Costa Ricans. It was great. So welcome to the top 3, Puntarenas (1 &2 being Rottenberg, Germany and Launceston, Tasmania, Australia).

The picture above is of some boats called tenders. It’s a life boat-like craft we keep on the ship if we are porting somewhere that is too shallow for normal porting, as was the case in Panama, just before the canal. Take my advice: if you don’t need to go ashore in one of these ports, DON’T!!! Tendering is not the most horrible experience of my life, but it is close. Hot, sweaty, slow, and not worth it. Not to mention, Panama also failed in the ability-to-acquire-cash department. The one ATM at the pier was out of service. I ended up having to take a taxi into Panama City to get an ATM…yeeeeahh. The good news was that I found the Church building in Panama City.

The Panama Canal, to those of us with short attention spans, is mostly boring. But if you take the time to just look at the darn thing, and remember that it was constructed before most heavy machinery was even invented, it is an amazing piece of engineering. I was on deck for the entirety of the Pedro Miguel lock. It is very cool. Plus the feeling of going up on a cruise ship is something else.

Alright, about the job. The good news is that I get to play drums again. And it’s quite challenging. And the music, for the most part, is pretty fun to play. My weeks are split into 3 different kinds of gigs.
1. Production shows
2. Guest Entertainers
3. Dance Sets
Production shows are like show choir on steroids. We’ve got 10 dancers (6 girls, 4 boys) and 2 singers. We playing along with pre-recorded vocals and some orchestration that we don’t have (strings and stuff) Hooray for click track! These shows consist mostly of songs our demographic will connect with. Piano Man is a revue of songs by the great (?) pop piano men: Billy Joel, Neil Sedaka, Barry Manilow, Liberace, and Elton John. It’s my favorite show to play. Tribute is just that: Tributes to The Beatles, The Beach Boys, The Rat Pack, and Pop Divas (Whitney, Madonna, Diana Ross, and Cher). Good show, but the Rat Pack sequence goes on forever!!! Moments to Remember, which I listeneing to right now, since it goes up tomorrow, is like a jazz/swing history show, starting at late 20’s Dixieland and ending with the 90’s swing revolution. HEAVY DRUMS SHOW!!! LOTS OF SOLOS!!!! Scary….

Guest entertainers are our singers, instrumentalists, jugglers, whatever. We pick these cats up in one of our ports. We get their music at most a day in advance, at least 3 hours before. We have an hour rehearsal with the performer, then we do shows for 2 days, usually. Most often, their charts are very difficult to read, and the performer is also very…shall we say, “instructive” about what they want? This is the time when my colleagues in the orchestra are at their most cynical. More on that later.

If the dancers are doing a tracked show in the theatre, we are most likely in the aft lounge doing dance sets before a comedian or other secondary act. These are stripped down big band charts for dancing. Straight up sight reading. I have over 100 charts in my dance book. Whoo hoo!!
The biggest problem I’m having is with the overall attitude of my colleagues. I’ve never met such cynical people in my life. ABOUT EVERYTHING!!! If there is something to complain about (sound, charts, etc.), they will. From where I’m sitting, yeah, stuff’s gonna go wrong, music’s gonna suck, whatever. But you’re here, you’re getting paid, you work no more than 4 HOURS A DAY!!!, and you get to drink yourself to death at the end of the night, SO JUST CHILL OUT AND DEAL WITH IT!!! Not to mention, being the rookie drummer that I am, I get my fair share of complaints. Mostly about my loudness. THEY ARE DRUMS FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!!!! I’m playing at 50% power the majority of the time, and they still complain about the volume. It’s frustrating because I can’t flex my full abilities at times because I have to look out for people’s ears. I wonder if they even realize that I eat the majority of the sound, too. It’s my job. We’re trying to get some plexiglass to appease them, but who knows when that will happen. *sigh* My bandmaster reassures me that I’m doing fine, so that’s a good thing, right?

Its hard being the odd-man out. I’m pretty much a loner because I don’t go out to the crew bar every night. The guitarist doesn’t drink either, but he likes his alone time. It’s hard. I’m not really connecting with anyone yet, despite my efforts. Long story short, I don’t have an official opinion on the job yet. I hope to have one after a month on board. But if I had to make the decision now, I would not come back for another contract. The money and the travel aren’t worth being away from my family.

For those of you that are now worried about me, don’t fret. I’m hanging in there. It’s all a part of adjusting to a new life style. Hopefully I’ll have more happy stuff to talk about in my next post.

-Beats

So this is a video clip of my first realy show on the ship. It was with Joni Butler, a singer from South Carolina. GREAT VOICE....that you can't here on this video because, well, I was filming me. :-) She thought that I was, quote, azn "awesome drummer," and would like to work with me again. She will be on tour next year in a Liza/Bette/Babs tribute show...long story short, she has my card. Enjoy the video!

-Beats

Welcome

Hello. My friends call me Beats.

I will be starting a 4-month contract with Princess Cruise Lines tomorrow morning as a drummer in their show band.

As I started researching this gig, I found very little information on what cruise ship work/life is actually like, so I decided to write this blog. To:

1. Keep my friends and family up to date on my goings on and whereabouts.
2. To inform anyone who is interested what it is like to work on a cruise ship.

More info as it happens.
-Beats