Cruise Ship Music and Singing

My wife and I just got back from a 4 day cruise in the Bahamas and we had a wonderful time. There was  soooo much food available that I'm sure we both gained some extra pounds.  One of the most interesting aspects of the cruise was the music.  Every day and every night there was some sort of live music playing from the solo piano player playing Pop hits, the white mans Reggie Band (consisting of Afro-centric musicians), and the easier listening Latin band called Soundwaves.  Out of all the bands, the Sounedwaves was the most interesting to listen to and watch.  Being a musician myself, (as if you didn't know) I was able to tell when mistakes were made, especially by the body language of the musicians.  Over all, Soundwaves were a very professional band who showed their chops when needed.  They were also tight and were able to follow each other on songs which were not in their regular catalogue.  In one case, they played Hotel California with the bass player playing all the guitar licks on his bass.  Pretty cool.  What also made the band interesting was that their drummer was the only white guy in the band and was much older then the others.  One got the feeling that perhaps he didn't normally play with the band, which was correct as he had been drafted in for the cruise at the last minute.  Nevertheless, hearing them play, you would never have thought that he had just joined.
I know that cruise ship bands sometimes get a bad rap for the type of watered down music they play, but the musicianship can be incredibly high as much of the playing can be improvised within a song.  It may be a challenge to be able to sight read music, but it can be equally challenging to play when you don't really know a song and don't have the charts.

It seems my vocals have returned to a rested and singable state.  Before leaving for the cruise, I decided to lay down some vocals to two songs, and they sounded great.  Upon returning from the cruise, I redid a few parts and added some backing vocals to one of the songs, which sound great.  So it seems my voice is back in shape.  I will still visit the doctors however to make sure my vocal chords are physically OK.

Wilton

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