One man band, head cook and bottle washer ....

[Paul Bush]

Hi guys , so here`s the thing way back when I was 18-19 ( forty years ago)  I was in a band and i was the only person writing the songs ( i started writing songs at the age of twelve ..not good) left the band and stopped for many years  and started playing again comercially  about 20 years ago and since finding  bandlab Ive found a creative stream and started writing  again  its so much fun, but doing everything on my own is sometimes well...... lonely,  I think back to the days when I´d turn up at the rehersal room with a riff or an idea,  show the riff / chord sequence or the complete song to the band they would then run with it and I´d write the lyrics on the hoof stopping them here and there adding changes etc not having to worry about bass lines, drums or guitar solo  it was so much fun and the melodies and text came from no where and never seemed contrived,..... quickly scribbling on a piece of paper before i forgot what I just sung  , so here i sit an a saturday evening with a bottle of red wine penning my next song looking aroud in my lovely little home studio before the song id written I´m already conemplating the bass line and Oh god the drum  programming and i think wouldnt it be great to be in a band........just a thought ........ oh well back to the wine have a nice saturday ...cheers 

Edited August 28, 2021 by Paul Bush

[Shane_B.]

My wife travels for work. On Monday they sent her to Hawaii for 4 weeks. I've had the house all to myself. Daw right in front of me. I fire it up every night and I'm like ... meh. I don't have the energy. So I just watch youtube a few minutes and go to bed.

Honestly, it's 4pm here. I could go to bed now.

[paulo]

On the one hand we have a guy who is bored of making music on his own.....

 

On the other hand we have a guy who is uninspired with making music on his own.......

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Notes_Norton]

Mrs. Notes and I are in a duo together.

I make all the backing tracks myself from scratch (I play sax, flute, wind synth, bass, drums, guitars, keyboards and voice).

It's nice not having to depend on other musicians to make a living. You know the kind, those who show up late, take long breaks, miss rehearsals, are more interested in getting laid than making music, get high on the gig, etc.

On the other hand, since I play all the parts myself, I miss the input from other musicians who have different ideas about what to play than I do. In other words, no surprises in the backing 'band'.

But we worked steadily from 1985 until COVID, we paid off the mortgage, we are debt free, and even though small groups aren't as glamorous, we take home more money per person.

Ya gotta do what ya gotta do.

Insights and incites by Notes

[Shane_B.]

54 minutes ago, Notes_Norton said:

Mrs. Notes and I are in a duo together.

I make all the backing tracks myself from scratch (I play sax, flute, wind synth, bass, drums, guitars, keyboards and voice.

I've been thinking of doing this as a solo act. Winery's, mom and pop places, hell even farmers markets around here have 1 man acts. I don't ever want to go back to the bar scene.

It's one of the reasons I want to get one of those Fender Acoustisonic modelling guitars. They are designed to plug in DI or a PA. All I would need is a modest PA system. I'd work in my keyboard as well but I'm far better on guitar.

Every time I sit down to start the process of getting started it's so overwhelming I just shut down and walk away.

[Notes_Norton]

I use a pedal with amp modeling included. Digitech RP-355. They don't make that model anymore. But guitar isn't my primary instrument, sax/wind-synth is. What I play on the guitar is limited, but I play well within my limits.

When I was young, playing the singles bars, the 'old timers' told me that once I left the bars and started playing country clubs, I'd never want to go back to the bars. They were right.

Mrs. Notes and I play yacht clubs, country clubs, retirement developments (a huge market here in South Florida), condominiums, private parties, and during the season, once a week in an outdoor, waterfront restaurant in the dead time between lunch & dinner (12 years and running, we draw a nice crowd, and it's a good place for prospective clients to hear us).

There is never a dead Thursday night were a couple of salesmen would rather watch TV and the manager scowls at the band. It's always a party and there is an enthusiastic crowd. No bar fights. 3 hour gigs - 4 is usually max. Two of these a week pays as much as 5 nights in a bar.

Mrs. Notes and I enjoy playing music together, and we both have strong 'work' ethics. We play what they want to hear, we watch the audience and do our best to play the right songs at the right time, we skip breaks when the room is jamming (often paid back by going home early), and until COVID we worked steadily.

As much as I would sometimes like to be back in a bigger band, where I all I have to be concerned with is my sax and vocal parts -- no making backing tracks - no lugging PA gear - being surprised by and working with live musicians - and so on - unless things change drastically, I'll never go back to that.

Notes

PS (self-serving plug) If you want to work with Backing Tracks - PG Music's Band-in-a-Box is a good tool and I sell a lot of aftermarket style and song collections for BiaB

[Paul Bush]

On 8/29/2021 at 1:28 PM, paulo said:

On the one hand we have a guy who is bored of making music on his own.....

 

On the other hand we have a guy who is uninspired with making music on his own.......

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I dont think i said i was bored , I think the point i was making is that  i miss not having a band to bounce idea´s off 

[bitflipper]

Quote

One man band,    head cook and bottle washer ....

Reminded me of a line by Rich Hall...

If you can play guitar and harmonica at the same time like Bob Dylan or Neil Young, you're a genius. Add a pair of cymbals between your knees and people will cross the street to avoid you.
 

[Byron Dickens]

On 8/29/2021 at 8:16 AM, Notes_Norton said:

Mrs. Notes and I are in a duo together.

I make all the backing tracks myself from scratch (I play sax, flute, wind synth, bass, drums, guitars, keyboards and voice).

It's nice not having to depend on other musicians to make a living. You know the kind, those who show up late, take long breaks, miss rehearsals, are more interested in getting laid than making music, get high on the gig, etc.

On the other hand, since I play all the parts myself, I miss the input from other musicians who have different ideas about what to play than I do. In other words, no surprises in the backing 'band'.

But we worked steadily from 1985 until COVID, we paid off the mortgage, we are debt free, and even though small groups aren't as glamorous, we take home more money per person.

Ya gotta do what ya gotta do.

Insights and incites by Notes

Oh, God!

Like getting a text from the bass player 5 minutes before rehearsal saying "I'm not going to make it to practice today. I have a wedding to go to."

 

What? You just found out about this? It came up at the last minute?

[Notes_Norton]

11 hours ago, bdickens said:

Oh, God!

Like getting a text from the bass player 5 minutes before rehearsal saying "I'm not going to make it to practice today. I have a wedding to go to."

 

What? You just found out about this? It came up at the last minute?

Exactly.

Or the drummer who didn't come back from break and was found in a van with a girl, they were both naked and snorting coke.

True story follows ... ... ... ... ... ... ...

The last band Mrs. Notes and I were in together was a 5 piece group.

The bass player quit, and we were out of work for 2 months auditioning new players and teaching the new guy all our songs.

A couple of months later, the drummer quit. We were out of work 1 month, as drummers are easier to work in since they don't have to learn the chords, only the beat and arrangements. That was 1/4 the year spent unemployed.

The new drummer had a small kit, she kept good time, set down good grooves, played tasty fills that enhanced the song, and could even sing back-up harmony.

We got to our first gig. It was at a huge country club. The dining room was packed to see us return, so the management pulled back the accordion pleat 'wall' and asked us to set up in the lounge.

The new drummer said, "God will never forgive me if I play in a bar." (Where did she think we were going to play?) I responded with, "God will have to forgive me for homicide if you don't play in the bar tonight." She got the idea

The next day I bought a keyboard with a sequencer built in and the then future Mrs. Notes and I gave our notice.

I spent a couple of months sequencing backing tracks, then we got a 3-weeks-with-options contract on a Carnival cruise ship. That 3-week contract lasted 3-years until we decided that we had enough of sea life and gave Carnival our notice.

From a financial and stress-free point of view, buying that sequencer was the best thing we ever did.

I am lucky to be able to play drums, bass, guitar, and keys as well as sax, flute and wind synth, so I can make my own backing tracks, in our best key, and in our arrangement (leaving room for the solo hog - that's me - to play some improvisation in the song).

The duo between the missus and me gave us ultimate freedom.

Insights and incites by Notes

[craigb]

Plus you no longer need to give 20% of the pay to someone who only did 5% of the work! ?

[bitflipper]

I'm in a six-piece band. Pay's about the same as for a duo. In 1975.

Thinking of a revised distribution scheme...

• 16.7% base pay
• less 1% for every song you screw up
• less 5% if you don't help set up the PA
• less 5% if you only pack out your own gear and then leave
• less 5% if we can't find you after break's over because you're chatting up the barmaid

[Shane_B.]

Seems I remember money and who did what was always a problem.

There was someone who was friends with someone else in the band whose justification for his friend being on stage and in the group was slapping a tambourine, singing backups in to a mic that was never plugged in, and the two of them would go out weeknights and book band jobs. (nudge nudge wink wink)

Every once in a while without asking he would say he's taking $100 or so out for his friend because they worked so hard booking band jobs. We had a private meeting without them and decided to just pay his friend a percentage so they would always have money, we would always know how much we were getting, and in the end they actually got more money over time than randomly taking some every once in a while. It just felt wrong. We thought everyone would be happier about the situation that way.

Immediately the bookings stopped. They dumped getting bookings on the rest of us and his friend kept taking the money and we had no contacts so it was the beginning of the end. There's more than one lesson here. Never depended on someone's side piece to keep the band going for more than one reason.