billy, who's going to be the band leader without no drum machine? And without backing tracks, your rhythm section is going suffer considerably. And most importantly without loops, well - how is it possible to keep it interesting? If it ain't broke, don't fix it billy, for Gods sake - let the ego die!
well ive sorta had a plan awhile. one of the biggest obstacles is the bass player who never shows for rehearsal believes in his abilities belongs to 5 other bands and always screws the song up. the solution is simple two guitars no bass player. or a bass kalimba that you can teach a child or groupie to play. another problem is the crackhead drummer who now resides behind the grocery store and panhandles all day but owns no drums. 5 gallon paint buckets pots and pans etc solves this dilemma (the pawn shop wont take them). which brings us to the pima donna crybaby lead guitarist question. simply play all leads on harp and have two mediocre rhythm guitarist of modest character young aspiring talents who want to learn and dont mind switching back and forth. i know its just a step up from early 20th century jugband but it may do well in the retro establishments
All due respect to all the various kinds of OMB configurations, I like bands. I want to play with an actual rhythm section and at least one other instrument that can take a lead.
It's weird how bands have shrunk over the years. At one point five to seven players was considered a small group; most working bands were at least twelve pieces. In the sixties, it was all quartets and quintets, then came the power trio. Lately we've had that weird guitar and drum duet thing.
What's the deal? Is everyone getting harder to get along with? Or is it something to do with shrinking family size?
The warning on your officially produced music, "Professional musicians on a closed course, do ot try this at home", is there for a reason. Even if you manage to pull this off without being maimed and scarred for life, you may encourage some poor youth to try it, and they may not be so lucky.
If God had intended us to make our own music, he would not have given us MP3 players!
billy, come on - get a grip man...don't ditch the drum machine just yet, it's your life line to anything remotely listenable and the backing tracks are really were it's at,they just are better then any live band can muster up and don't get me started on loopers, shit if you don't use them you'll never be taken seriuosly by any of the real deal heavyduty players...Okay, I admit you have a good plan, but why ruin a goodthing you already have, is it really worth it?
my ex guitar player has a band and complains about the non dedicated bass player. my ex ex guitarist has a full band on riff rumble all living in different countries and theyve never met or played out. theyve been together 10 years. i dont have a drum machine i really like the crack of a real stick. drum machines will never be able to play john lee hooker time. and guitarist who practice with machines get mad when you play out of time or invent it as you go along. a band used to mean something there was a nucleus, a gel time, it was a gang now its just a bunch of self important jerks. used to be a time guys didnt fight on stage over the mics. always big smiles for the audience and duke it out in the parking lot after you got paid. yeah you do a bit lousy the show goes on theyre drunk people ff sakes. self worshiping d heads patting themselves on the back saying good job bi polar add jerks who cant get along with anyone. it used to be a gang it used to mean something. no honor among musicians or theives. im never playing robot music not ever.
What! No robot music - that's a crazy ideal and it will never work...I'm sorry, I know I'm being a bit brutely honest but hey, music is the bottom line and when you try to do it any other way other then robotically -your just axein for trouble!
Timeistight, I think the problem is the cost of gas. You need a bigger vehicle (or more vehicles) to get a bigger band to a show, so it's more expensive to gig with a big band.
@timeistight Time was, while ago, (who was that, goin' out the back door?), economy didn't suck so much, people went to clubs not video games, got out, dressed up, had fun, Bands were Big, Sexy. Can't afford sex now. Coupla' drinks, struggling artists on the little stage. American Idol got the viewers. Somebody wins, then what? Itunes, one at a time. Listen while driving to job at McDonalds. Smile at drive thrus grabbing a burger. Grammy prize winner (who could tell), eats burgers too. Music gone electronic. No more social. Major, minor, Myxolydian, BLUES, whatever, They wanna get Drunk. why? Geek scales.
Lor...I think you just wrote a "song" - See if you can get a melody for it and record it. I'm very serious!!! Maybe try something in the vien of "James Brown" ?
Last Edited by on Mar 31, 2012 12:05 PM
Four years ago, in 2008, I did a YouTube video about my pal Deak Harp, who was doing this harp-powered one-man band thing. As far as I know, he was the only guy doing that sort of thing. Also, Son of Dave was doing his looping thing.
That's it. Two guys. Maybe a couple more around the world.
In 2009, Brandon Bailey got interested, and he gave me a little stomp/thump pedal. By mid-summer I'd gotten my first set of Farmer Foot Drums. I was, as far as I knew, the second harp-powered one-man band.
There have always been one-man bands--guys who blew some harp while they were playing guitar. Walter's been doing that for a long time, and there's a long history of other guys doing that. But the sort of thing Deak and I did wasn't being done. Amped harp, percussion, and vocals, and nothing else. Nothing chordal behind the vocals or harp. When you're singing, it's just percussion holding things down, all of it being created in real time.
Something has happened in the last three years. The looping thing has caught on in a big way. This forum seems to have been one of the places that nurtures the movement, but I'm sure there are others.
It sounds from your initial post as though you think things have gone too far with the OMB harp-thing. That's funny! I'm truly amazed and amused. At one point it was cutting edge--what sociologists would call the ascendant, as opposed to the dominant, which was the harp-guy-in-a-band thing.
Now, your post implies, the OMB thing is the dominant.
It isn't, of course. You're wrong if you think that. But it HAS become a sort of freeform movement; it's certainly more popular, more visible, than it was only three short years ago. Looping in particular seems to have caught a lot of people's fancy. Maybe Brandon's debut record helped catch people's interest. Maybe the harp-boxing thing on YouTube. I really don't know.
Anyway, the harp-powered thing I'm doing, WITHOUT looping or other self-recycling tracks, is still rare. "No drum machines, no backing tracks no loops." I'm doing without all that stuff that you're hoping to avoid, too. I would welcome some others to the field. It's lonely out here. No danger of us taking over from the bands.
Last Edited by on Mar 31, 2012 12:55 PM
The first time I really paid attention to the OMB stuff was when I saw Adam Gussow do a 12 p.m. show at Buddy Guy's Legends at the start of the Chicago Blues Festival, I think it was 2010 (the new Legends was having its grand opening). Great show. Adam played a bunch of stuff, from "Good Morning Little Schoolgirl" to "Sunshine Of Your Love". I think the crowd didn't quite know what to make of it, right Adam? But they enjoyed it nevertheless.
nah adam i like what you do. i really like walter he plays slow and steady like florida blues which has been lost here since everyone took up stevie ray impersonating. i really like deak as well and im still trying to figure out his tuning. i play one handed tanpura and dotara bass. i used to play blues one handed with an electric bass play harp drink a beer and smoke all at once. i just miss a gang that bonding im not down on one man bands i really like honkey finger as well. im working on a cookie tin type tanpura tuned dGC . this would a CGdd indian drone in D minor or pluck out a 1,4,5 in G using one C harp. i cant do rack work my neck wont handle it.
there are some simple economics involved with band size, but at the same time people out at the bar want to hear drums and bass and distorted too-loud guitar, and maybe a harp to keep things bluesy. i've been in a duo for a few years now and the dynamic seems to have changed. once upon a time smaller rooms would pay a guy or 2 to come in and play acoustic. then along came drum machines and then rhythm loops, after that dj's. then karaoke. then internet downloads of all the music a kid could want, for nothing. all this has devalued live musicians to the point where a club owner wants to see you bring in 20-40-60 customers or you won't get re-booked there. once upon a time club owners would hire a band for a set price and the crowd was more or less built in but this does not seem to be the case any more. in the 90's in a 5 or 6 piece band we all made about $50-75 a night. these days club owners pay $50-75 for the whole band. clubs used to do 3 acts a night, now it's 2, 1 or none.
not to totally rain on the band idea, i love working with a 4 piece or bigger. it's just that you might want to do it primarily for love, and for the money second. it has been a long time since i broke even or better. we used to travel some and play wherever we ended up. usually for little or no $$. our plan is to do that again after we retire, and just travel and play until we can't any more. maybe live gigs are a good way to sell a cd, why not think about recording once you have your personnel set? ---------- http://www.reverbnation.com/jawboneandjolene
i got 2 hours free at stevie wonders present drummers studio. everyone i know is too busy jamming online, smoking crack, or smoking weed and watching the hitlery channel to do anything let alone their own laundry. CDs what are those? everything is ipods now you cant give brand new cds away on ebay, 8 track tapes are more valuable. yeah home recording the dirty sock box set 3 cdrs in one of my personal dirty socks. had that idea before. like i said its a crazy idea and even an impossibility to find actual blues players.
went to craigs list searched blues this header said blues : Need bass and drummer to play blues and some blues rock, classic rock.This will not be a cover band. Original is my point,diffrent flavor.Singing is a plus, backing would be fine. revjoe777@hotmail.com over 40 is good too! need players.
this means stevie ray and eric clapton not blues. little walter was not the devil sonny boy williamson was.
