Frequently-Asked Questions

Watching Us

  • They not only welcome, but encouraged!

    We will try out upmost to make sure directions and instructions to reach the venue are clear to both students and non-students alike. If after a gig, you feel that our instructions were not clear enough, please let us know so we can do better in the future!

Joining Us

  • We’re still figuring out the exact details of our algorithm, but at a high we are designing it to ensure that a mixture of abilities is included in each section with the average ability level chosen to match the difficulty of the pieces we are playing. By taking this quasi-random approach, we can make sure that each gig has stronger players to support and mentor less-experienced players.

    Once we have a working and tested algorithm, we will be sharing this openly so there is complete transparency on how we build the bands.

  • For any instrument other than the guitar, the answer is a definite yes. You don’t need to be an incredible sight-reader, but you will need to be at a level where you can read the charts after a few run-throughs. Unless you have an incredible procedural, it is likely there will be too much music and too little time to simply memorise the pieces.

    For guitarists, as long as you know how to read chord charts, you can roughly get by with the most minimal level of music reading ability. Most big band pieces will only have a few phrases with explicit notation and only rarely do charts have full guitar melodies written out. If you can’t read these select pieces/phrases using sheet music on the night, that is fine, but it will be your responsibility to convert them to tablature or memorise them.

  • Big Band Roulette is primarily intended for students of the University of Cambridge but this is not a hard-and-fast rule. If you are roughly of student age, you are welcome to sign up and play with us, just the same as anyone else.

Playing with Us

  • Certainly! If you don’t have one (or even any) of your instruments in Cambridge you will have the exact same odds of being selected for the band as someone who does. If you are chosen to play an instrument you don’t have with you, let us know ASAP and we can arrange to borrow one on your behalf.

  • We are more than happy to provide any of the following equipment for rhythm section players:

    • Drum kit (inc. breakables)

    • Percussion

    • Guitar/bass amplifiers

    • Guitar pedal board (tailored for the set list)

    • Piano/keyboard

    • Double bass

    • Traditional/modern jazz archtops

    If you would rather use any of your own equipment then that is completely fine too. We will be in touch with any rhythm section members to ask for their preferences once they are selected for a gig.

  • Not in the slightest. We are more than happy to swap solos between instruments so that those who want to solo can and those who don’t can focus purely on playing.

Booking Us

  • Big Band Roulette is a strictly not-for-profit project. For that reason we generally shy away from playing at events that we are purely hired for, instead favouring novel collaborations.

    If you have a unique event that would be fun for our musicians to play at or would allow us to construct an interesting setlist, we might be up for playing. Examples of such events could be:

    • A music festival or event with a unique theme (e.g. pride, Latino, etc.) that would allow us to build an interesting setlist.

    • A dance competition or social event that would be enhanced by a live band.

    • An event involving playing big band music in a weird place, such as on a moving bus.

    One exception to this rule is that we don’t take on additional Christmas- or Valentine’s-themed concerts as we have enough interest to run these ourselves.