1-man bands: Show of hands

[kerplunk182]

I live-loop at home and i record guitar, bass, keys and midi drums. Considered as one woman band? Teehee.

However, only my brother, dog and i have heard it. Hehehe. The thought of playing alone on stage is pretty intimidating, considering the fact that i've never done any solo performances yet.

Ps: KT Tunstall ownzzzzzz

 

[JaarVis.]

kt tunstall is awesome.

 

[fgl]

I live-loop at home and i record guitar, bass, keys and midi drums. Considered as one woman band? Teehee.

sooooo .....you ARE a female ...hahahahahahaha confirmed liao

 

[PatheinRaindropMoe]

hehe, the thread going into

i play in one person operation module and thats all

how about, how do you make the performance interesting enough to grap the attention of the listening ones?? Music alone that confirmed can grab attention(with no friends or kampong kakisss, ka ki lang kinda nonsense)? Nonsensical theatrics action? Gathering of gear and technology for gearhead?? etc

going back to the original direction,

if there is an opportunity to perform your tracks, on the condition that you go on stage as a one man band, how would YOU do it?

Anyway, just wondering about whether the one man bands here have a certain idea or formula to make their performances interesting given these circumstances.

 

[PatheinRaindropMoe]

anyway, imho and from organiser point of view... idealistically

The gig doesnt end at the moment when the show/series is finished. Encourage recycle, reprocess, reinvent

The following might not apply if the omo performance is of playing covers(no covers allowed) or the standard structured music

Bascially the whole show, individual performer performance, will be recorded digitally

After the gig ended, the selected recorded clips can be put up online for free download(the normal recycling of the gig itself). If theres any future shows, these clips can be used as promo for subsequent gigs.

In additional, the individual tracks(if any) from individual performer from the show itself, will be available for others to download, take it apart, deconstruct it and make it into new sound, mew melody etc

And from performer side, they can take the tracks from the gig itself, rework on it or do the same as the reprocessing part or best, collab with whoever downloaded the stem tracks for the show as side project, one off project kind off.

Anyway, the above just a rough idea and not a concrete idea coz it involve making sound/music free for others to take, reused, abused sonically and not monetary, trashed it sonically, re worked on it(which on personal level, is something that i believe in). If theres any covers, or individual who are particular about copyright issues and artistic rights and stuff, the whole thing wont work.

ohh, back to making the show interesting enough, have a mini little jam of the individual performer at the end of the show. 2 criterias, no covers and all improv stuff which require the individual to listen out for one another, time to make noise, time to hold back and time to let others roar etc within a time frame of 20mins 30sec, no more no less.

 

[Cheez]

Stage theatrics etc depends on the genre and the target audience. Electronic music - definitely, considering the young target audiences who go into visual as much as auditory. Some may not need to go too much into these, where technical skills are involved and music is appreciated as it is. But one thing is the same no matter what - performer stage presence. Playing like a wooden puppet will get the performer nowhere.

 

[Cheez]

For those into light and theatrics esp in a 1-man-band show setting, it seems there's a new software for controlling lighting (ENTTEC DMXIS)- for the performer. It's a VST plugin! Program it beforehand, and you get lighting to sync meticulously with your music. Change your music tempo, and the lighting (because it's a VST) will still sync with your music. Cool! Comes with hardware.

http://www.enttec.com/index.php?main_menu=Products&pn=70570&show=description

You need to watch the video.

 

[fuzzmusick]

If bro THOA, or anybody else make it happen, you'll definitely have my full support on this!

 

[THOA]

^ Thanks, man

And thanks to everyone for your inputs regarding this, especially Pathein and Cheez for their in depth thoughts.

My personal take of a one man band show...

I would imagine that a one-man showcase would be all about audience participation, the use of gadgets, theatrics and the likes. But I would foresee that the show would be set up in such a way that a single performer would really have to make it into an entire event in itself.. a one man band doing a one man show, considering that such a set up is not easy to be put up and taken down. It's not similar in the context of a regular gig where there are several performers performing their own piece. The performer have to basically work hard in capturing the senses of the audience in every way possible. The need for a visual support with that aural presentation becomes even more important.

However, with such heavy reliance on gadgetry and theatrics and audience participation, do you feel that it some how strips away the essence of the music? Would the music really be the focus and attraction of the performance? Imagine having been blown away by the live performance and you are keen to support the act by buying the Cd, only to be disappointed by the core essence of what the music has to offer.

Also, with such a tedious set up to accommodate the visual and aural interest of the audience how would a one-man band transcend himself of herself beyond the staged set up and heavy gadgetry arsenal and penetrate the normal gig going audience? A looper pedal might be the popular choice for most, but... is that all there is?

Btw I like what Bro Cheez said here:

But one thing is the same no matter what - performer stage presence. Playing like a wooden puppet will get the performer nowhere.

 

[PatheinRaindropMoe]

However, with such heavy reliance on gadgetry and theatrics and audience participation, do you feel that it some how strips away the essence of the music?

that will depend on individual take, on the idea of music, imho.

Most of the things which i have mentioned are biased somehow, towards the kind of "music" which i pursue and practise. Where the essense of music is that there is no structure at all. It is a collection of sound, repetitive, clashing, some melody here and there and mostly long boring passage which encourage listener not to listen specifically, but to do/think of other main thing while letting those sound be, in the background. Thus, the need for visual and some liights here if possible

anyway, yeah, for my kinda thingy, if stripped down appraoch, then i think its more fun staring in to blank wall and start hallucinating, hehe.


so, with such a tedious set up to accommodate the visual and aural interest of the audience how would a one-man band transcend himself of herself beyond the staged set up and heavy gadgetry arsenal and penetrate the normal gig going audience? A looper pedal might be the popular choice for most, but... is that all there is?

can only say, choose the right gig to play in or at least proper preshow promo, let others know somehow what to expect from individual perfomer with a true reflection of the act and not big flowery words.

If i were to attend a gig, last thing i wanna, is to listen to some joker(eg, myself), who seem to talk like big, but end up sounding like rubbish.

I believe no one will go to a electro/improv gig trying to find jack johnson style performer and to a metal show to find sparse tripped out minimalistic drone sound.

Conditioning the mindset of whoever, might be interested to check out the gig first

imho

 

[Cheez]

If you go to the Woodsong's Old Time Radio Hour website and download Tommy Emmanuel's web-cast, you'll see that even though it's just one person playing solo, his entire emotion being put into music captures the entire audience. I must have watched those at least 100 times if not more, and I don't get bored! It's a combination of good music and good musicianship (how he plays) that has a certain x-factor to it. I never get bored. My wife wonders why I keep watching it....

 

[the heimlich maneuver]

one man army

hello.i have a "one man band",or rather I AM a one mand band.

www.myspace.com/theredeyeeffectsg

for me,i would rather get sessionists when performing live.
and if you're the sort who wants the spotlight to urself, make ur sessionists wear masks or something,or make them dress up as storm troopers.

 

[THOA]

^ Getting sessionists would be the easy way out. Of course, then it becomes a factor of getting people to do you a favour to do music that they can't take ownership, jamming practices, band chemistry and all the other stuff.

Also, it's never about taking the spotlight for yourself. It's more about presenting your work in the form that you is essentially you. You make the music. You know the story behind it. You know the feeling that needs to be put in. So you are the best person to present it.

Like Pathein said, conditioning the mind of the audience for the gig would help. Sometimes, not just a gig that is meant for a 1-man band performance. If the opportunity presents itself for him or her to present herself in a normal gig, then conditioning of the audience mind becomes all the more important. Better know how to speak, banter, capture attention.