One-man band
Encyclopedia
A one-man band is a musician
who plays a number of musical instruments simultaneously using their hands, feet, limbs, and various mechanical contraptions. The simplest type of "one-man band" — a singer accompanying themselves on acoustic guitar and harmonica
mounted in a metal "harp rack" below the mouth — is often used by buskers. More complicated setups may include wind instrument
s strapped around the neck, a large bass drum
mounted on the musician's back with a beater which is connected to a foot pedal, cymbal
s strapped between the knees or triggered by a pedal mechanism, tambourine
s and maracas tied to the limbs, and a stringed instrument strapped over the shoulders (e.g., a banjo
, ukulele
or guitar
). Since the development of Musical Instrument Digital Interface
(MIDI) in the 1980s, musicians have also incorporated chest-mounted MIDI drum pads, foot-mounted electronic drum
triggers, and electronic pedal keyboards into their set-ups.
. The pipe was a simple three-holed flute
that could be played with one hand; the tabor is more commonly known today as a snare drum
. This type of playing can still be heard in parts of rural France
, in England
and among the Basques
and Catalans
. An Elizabethan-era woodcut shows a clown playing the pipe and tabor. An 1820s watercolour painting shows a one-man band with a rhythm-making stick, panpipes around his neck and a bass drum and tambourine beside him. Henry Mayhew
's history of London street life in the 1840s and 1850s described a blind street performer bells on a rail, hammers violin accordions
Guitarist Jim Garner
played guitar with his hands and triangle with his feet, and Will Blankenship of the Blankenship Family of North Carolina played harmonica, autoharp and triangle shows in the 1930s. In the 1940s, entertainer and clown Benny Dougal used a crude "stump fiddle" (a single string stretched on a stick) with a footpedal-operated pair of cymbals. Blues singers such as "Daddy Stovepipe" (Johnny Watson) would sing, play guitar, and stomp their feet for rhythm, or used a foot pedal to play bass drum or cymbal.
One of the earliest modern exponents of multiple instruments was Jesse Fuller
. Fuller developed a foot-operated bass which he called the 'footdella', which had six bass strings which were struck by hammers. In "one-man-band" shows, Fuller would use his "footdella", a footpedal-operated sock, a homemade neck harness (for a harmonica, kazoo and microphone), and a 12-string guitar. Fate Norris, of the Skillet Lickers
, a hillbilly string band of the 1920s and early 1930s developed a geared mechanical contraption with footpedals that enabled him to play guitar, bells, bass fiddle, fiddle, autoharp and mouth harp.
Joe Barrick, who was born in Oklahoma in 1922, wanted a way of accompanying himself on fiddle, so he built a contraption with a guitar neck on a board with footpedals to operate the notes. Subsequent versions of this 'piatar' also had bass guitar and banjo necks and a snare drum which are played by foot-operated hammers. To change notes on the guitar-family instruments, a foot treadle operates a mechanical fretting device. Two notable one-man blues
bands active in Memphis
in the 1950s were Doctor Ross
and Joe Hill Louis
, playing guitar, harmonica and bass drum/high-hat.
The simple guitar
and harmonica
combination (as used by such musicians as Tex Williams
, Anton Newcombe
, Jimmy Reed
, Bob Dylan
, Neil Young
, and Ray Dorset
of Mungo Jerry
) is so common now that it is rarely considered to be a one-man band. British-born Don Partridge
made the classic one man band outfit (bass drum on the back, guitar and harmonica) famous in the streets of Europe
, and was probably the first ever busker to enter the Top Ten of the UK Singles Chart
, with his hit singles
"Rosie" and "Blue Eyes" in 1968. Modern one-man bands include such performers as Hasil Adkins
and Sterling Magee, better known as "Mister Satan," from Satan and Adam
.
used to describe a performer who plays every instrument on a recorded song one at a time, and then mixes them together in a multitrack studio
. While this approach to recording is more common in electronica genres such as techno
and acid house
than traditional rock music, some rock performers such as Stevie Wonder
, Prince
, Lenny Kravitz
, Paul McCartney
, Emitt Rhodes
, Todd Rundgren
, Roy Wood
and Les Fradkin
have made records in which they play every instrument. Other examples of a one-man band in the recording studio are Dave Grohl
for the first studio album by the Foo Fighters
, Trent Reznor
for Nine Inch Nails
, Varg Vikernes
for Burzum
and Billy Corgan
for Smashing Pumpkins since 2009. Nash the Slash
not only plays all instruments on his recordings, but has been giving solo concerts since 1975, using synchronized drum machines and synthesizers as he plays either an electric violin or electric mandolin.
One-man bands in this context have recently become more commonplace in extreme metal
, especially black metal
, where a number of bands apart from Burzum consist of only one member. Such artists include Nargaroth, Falkenbach
, Arckanum
, Nortt
, Horde
, Zenithrash, and others. While most of these bands do not play live, some such as Nargaroth hire additional musicians for live performances.
"One-woman band" is not used very often in the vernacular, but in the last century as gender inequality has been addressed in the free world, women have increasingly had a presence as musicians in most forms of music. An example of a one-woman band is Merrill Garbus, who performs as tUnE-YaRdS
and plays every instrument on all recordings.
s. A small number of MIDI enthusiasts use custom-made MIDI controllers connected to different parts of their bodies to trigger music on synthesizers. Custom-made MIDI controllers range from wind-operated controllers to small triggers mounted on the arms or feet. At a certain point, the use of body MIDI controllers may come to resemble performance art
, because the musical sounds are triggered by the performer assuming certain poses or dancing.
With the use of 2000s-era digital loop pedals, which can record and then repeat a short musical phrase, performers can play a riff
or groove and then solo over the repeated loop. An example of this technique is Canadian musician Jay Robinson who creates full band arrangements live. (e.g. http://www.youtube.com/jasonr123guitar)
With the rise in popularity of electronic devices, comes innovation with the traditional acoustic 'one man band' instruments. One example is the Farmer Musical Instrument Co! based in the US. Pete Farmer's product line revolves around various acoustic foot-played percussion instruments that allow musicians to play a full range of traditional drum kit sounds, the Foot drum
Deluxe, or tambourine and shaker pedals for tapping out simple beats. With the development of technology and prominence of video sharing sites like You Tube musicians are now able to record each instrument individually and then compile a video as if it were all done in real time. More examples of such videos are:
Musician
A musician is an artist who plays a musical instrument. It may or may not be the person's profession. Musicians can be classified by their roles in performing music and writing music.Also....* A person who makes music a profession....
who plays a number of musical instruments simultaneously using their hands, feet, limbs, and various mechanical contraptions. The simplest type of "one-man band" — a singer accompanying themselves on acoustic guitar and harmonica
Harmonica
The harmonica, also called harp, French harp, blues harp, and mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used primarily in blues and American folk music, jazz, country, and rock and roll. It is played by blowing air into it or drawing air out by placing lips over individual holes or multiple holes...
mounted in a metal "harp rack" below the mouth — is often used by buskers. More complicated setups may include wind instrument
Wind instrument
A wind instrument is a musical instrument that contains some type of resonator , in which a column of air is set into vibration by the player blowing into a mouthpiece set at the end of the resonator. The pitch of the vibration is determined by the length of the tube and by manual modifications of...
s strapped around the neck, a large bass drum
Bass drum
Bass drums are percussion instruments that can vary in size and are used in several musical genres. Three major types of bass drums can be distinguished. The type usually seen or heard in orchestral, ensemble or concert band music is the orchestral, or concert bass drum . It is the largest drum of...
mounted on the musician's back with a beater which is connected to a foot pedal, cymbal
Cymbal
Cymbals are a common percussion instrument. Cymbals consist of thin, normally round plates of various alloys; see cymbal making for a discussion of their manufacture. The greater majority of cymbals are of indefinite pitch, although small disc-shaped cymbals based on ancient designs sound a...
s strapped between the knees or triggered by a pedal mechanism, tambourine
Tambourine
The tambourine or marine is a musical instrument of the percussion family consisting of a frame, often of wood or plastic, with pairs of small metal jingles, called "zils". Classically the term tambourine denotes an instrument with a drumhead, though some variants may not have a head at all....
s and maracas tied to the limbs, and a stringed instrument strapped over the shoulders (e.g., a banjo
Banjo
In the 1830s Sweeney became the first white man to play the banjo on stage. His version of the instrument replaced the gourd with a drum-like sound box and included four full-length strings alongside a short fifth-string. There is no proof, however, that Sweeney invented either innovation. This new...
, ukulele
Ukulele
The ukulele, ; from ; it is a subset of the guitar family of instruments, generally with four nylon or gut strings or four courses of strings....
or guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
). Since the development of Musical Instrument Digital Interface
Musical Instrument Digital Interface
MIDI is an industry-standard protocol, first defined in 1982 by Gordon Hall, that enables electronic musical instruments , computers and other electronic equipment to communicate and synchronize with each other...
(MIDI) in the 1980s, musicians have also incorporated chest-mounted MIDI drum pads, foot-mounted electronic drum
Electronic drum
An electronic drum is an electronic synthesizer which mimics an acoustic drum kit.The electronic drum usually consists of a set of pads mounted on a stand in a disposition similar to an acoustic drum kit. The pads are discs with a rubber or cloth-like coating. Each pad has a sensor which generates...
triggers, and electronic pedal keyboards into their set-ups.
Live Instruments
The earliest known records of multiple musical instruments being played at the same time date from the 13th century, and were the pipe and taborTabor (instrument)
Tabor, or tabret, refers to a portable snare drum played with one hand. The word "tabor" is simply an English variant of a Latin-derived word meaning "drum" - cf. tambour , tamburo...
. The pipe was a simple three-holed flute
Flute
The flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. Unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is an aerophone or reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air across an opening...
that could be played with one hand; the tabor is more commonly known today as a snare drum
Snare drum
The snare drum or side drum is a melodic percussion instrument with strands of snares made of curled metal wire, metal cable, plastic cable, or gut cords stretched across the drumhead, typically the bottom. Pipe and tabor and some military snare drums often have a second set of snares on the bottom...
. This type of playing can still be heard in parts of rural France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
and among the Basques
Basque people
The Basques as an ethnic group, primarily inhabit an area traditionally known as the Basque Country , a region that is located around the western end of the Pyrenees on the coast of the Bay of Biscay and straddles parts of north-central Spain and south-western France.The Basques are known in the...
and Catalans
Catalonia
Catalonia is an autonomous community in northeastern Spain, with the official status of a "nationality" of Spain. Catalonia comprises four provinces: Barcelona, Girona, Lleida, and Tarragona. Its capital and largest city is Barcelona. Catalonia covers an area of 32,114 km² and has an...
. An Elizabethan-era woodcut shows a clown playing the pipe and tabor. An 1820s watercolour painting shows a one-man band with a rhythm-making stick, panpipes around his neck and a bass drum and tambourine beside him. Henry Mayhew
Henry Mayhew
Henry Mayhew was an English social researcher, journalist, playwright and advocate of reform. He was one of the two founders of the satirical and humorous magazine Punch, and the magazine's joint-editor, with Mark Lemon, in its early days...
's history of London street life in the 1840s and 1850s described a blind street performer bells on a rail, hammers violin accordions
Guitarist Jim Garner
Jim Garner
Jim Garner is an American politician, who serves as the Kansas Secretary of Labor. Garner was appointed to the post on January 7, 2003 by former Governor Kathleen Sebelius...
played guitar with his hands and triangle with his feet, and Will Blankenship of the Blankenship Family of North Carolina played harmonica, autoharp and triangle shows in the 1930s. In the 1940s, entertainer and clown Benny Dougal used a crude "stump fiddle" (a single string stretched on a stick) with a footpedal-operated pair of cymbals. Blues singers such as "Daddy Stovepipe" (Johnny Watson) would sing, play guitar, and stomp their feet for rhythm, or used a foot pedal to play bass drum or cymbal.
One of the earliest modern exponents of multiple instruments was Jesse Fuller
Jesse Fuller
Jesse Fuller was an American one-man band musician, best known for his song "San Francisco Bay Blues".-Early life:...
. Fuller developed a foot-operated bass which he called the 'footdella', which had six bass strings which were struck by hammers. In "one-man-band" shows, Fuller would use his "footdella", a footpedal-operated sock, a homemade neck harness (for a harmonica, kazoo and microphone), and a 12-string guitar. Fate Norris, of the Skillet Lickers
Skillet Lickers
The Skillet Lickers were an old-time band from Georgia, USA.When Gid Tanner teamed up with blind guitarist Riley Puckett and signed to Columbia in 1924, they created the label's earliest so-called "hillbilly" recording. Gid Tanner formed The Skillet Lickers in 1926. The first line-up was Gid...
, a hillbilly string band of the 1920s and early 1930s developed a geared mechanical contraption with footpedals that enabled him to play guitar, bells, bass fiddle, fiddle, autoharp and mouth harp.
Joe Barrick, who was born in Oklahoma in 1922, wanted a way of accompanying himself on fiddle, so he built a contraption with a guitar neck on a board with footpedals to operate the notes. Subsequent versions of this 'piatar' also had bass guitar and banjo necks and a snare drum which are played by foot-operated hammers. To change notes on the guitar-family instruments, a foot treadle operates a mechanical fretting device. Two notable one-man blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
bands active in Memphis
Memphis, Tennessee
Memphis is a city in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of Tennessee, and the county seat of Shelby County. The city is located on the 4th Chickasaw Bluff, south of the confluence of the Wolf and Mississippi rivers....
in the 1950s were Doctor Ross
Doctor Ross
Doctor Ross , aka Doctor Ross, the harmonica boss, was an American blues singer, guitarist, harmonica player and drummer — a one-man band— who was born Charles Isaiah Ross, in Tunica, Mississippi....
and Joe Hill Louis
Joe Hill Louis
Joe Hill Louis , born Lester Hill, was an American singer, guitarist, harmonica player and one-man band...
, playing guitar, harmonica and bass drum/high-hat.
The simple guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
and harmonica
Harmonica
The harmonica, also called harp, French harp, blues harp, and mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used primarily in blues and American folk music, jazz, country, and rock and roll. It is played by blowing air into it or drawing air out by placing lips over individual holes or multiple holes...
combination (as used by such musicians as Tex Williams
Tex Williams
Sollie Paul Williams , known professionally as Tex Williams, was an American Western swing musician from Ramsey, Illinois....
, Anton Newcombe
Anton Newcombe
Anton Alfred Newcombe is a singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and leader of the music group, The Brian Jonestown Massacre.-Music:...
, Jimmy Reed
Jimmy Reed
Mathis James "Jimmy" Reed was an American blues musician and songwriter, notable for bringing his distinctive style of blues to mainstream audiences. Reed was a major player in the field of electric blues, as opposed to the more acoustic-based sound of many of his contemporaries...
, Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
, Neil Young
Neil Young
Neil Percival Young, OC, OM is a Canadian singer-songwriter who is widely regarded as one of the most influential musicians of his generation...
, and Ray Dorset
Ray Dorset
Ray Dorset is an English guitarist, singer, songwriter, and founder of Mungo Jerry...
of Mungo Jerry
Mungo Jerry
Mungo Jerry is an English rock group whose greatest success was in the early 1970s, though they have continued throughout the years with an ever-changing line-up, always fronted by Ray Dorset. They are remembered above all for their hit "In the Summertime". It remains their most successful and most...
) is so common now that it is rarely considered to be a one-man band. British-born Don Partridge
Don Partridge
Donald Eric Partridge was an English singer and songwriter, known as the "king of the buskers". He performed from the early 1960s as a busker and one-man band, and achieved unexpected commercial success in the UK in the late 1960s with the songs "Rosie" and "Blue Eyes".-Life and musical career:Don...
made the classic one man band outfit (bass drum on the back, guitar and harmonica) famous in the streets of Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
, and was probably the first ever busker to enter the Top Ten of the UK Singles Chart
UK Singles Chart
The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ...
, with his hit singles
Single (music)
In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a recording of fewer tracks than an LP or a CD. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats. In most cases, the single is a song that is released separately from an album, but it can still appear...
"Rosie" and "Blue Eyes" in 1968. Modern one-man bands include such performers as Hasil Adkins
Hasil Adkins
Hasil Adkins was an Appalachian country, rock and roll, and blues musician, though he was frequently considered rockabilly and sometimes primitive jazz...
and Sterling Magee, better known as "Mister Satan," from Satan and Adam
Satan and Adam
Satan and Adam, a blues duo consisting of Sterling "Mister Satan" Magee and Adam Gussow , were a fixture on Harlem's sidewalks in the late 1980s and early 1990s...
.
- "The one-man band exists, in all its uniqueness and independence, as a most elusive yet persistent musical tradition. As a category of musicianship it transcends cultural and geographic boundaries, spans stylistic limits, and defies conventional notions of technique and instrumentation. Defined simply as a single musician playing more than one instrument at the same time, it is an ensemble limited only by the mechanical capabilities and imaginative inventiveness of its creator, and despite its generally accepted status as an isolated novelty, it is a phenomenon with some identifiable historical continuity."
Studio Recording
The term "one-man band" is also colloquiallyColloquialism
A colloquialism is a word or phrase that is common in everyday, unconstrained conversation rather than in formal speech, academic writing, or paralinguistics. Dictionaries often display colloquial words and phrases with the abbreviation colloq. as an identifier...
used to describe a performer who plays every instrument on a recorded song one at a time, and then mixes them together in a multitrack studio
Recording studio
A recording studio is a facility for sound recording and mixing. Ideally both the recording and monitoring spaces are specially designed by an acoustician to achieve optimum acoustic properties...
. While this approach to recording is more common in electronica genres such as techno
Techno
Techno is a form of electronic dance music that emerged in Detroit, Michigan in the United States during the mid to late 1980s. The first recorded use of the word techno, in reference to a genre of music, was in 1988...
and acid house
Acid house
Acid house is a sub-genre of house music that emphasizes a repetitive, hypnotic and trance-like style, often with samples or spoken lines rather than sung lyrics. Acid house's core electronic squelch sounds were developed around the mid-1980s, particularly by DJs from Chicago who experimented with...
than traditional rock music, some rock performers such as Stevie Wonder
Stevie Wonder
Stevland Hardaway Morris , better known by his stage name Stevie Wonder, is an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer and activist...
, Prince
Prince (musician)
Prince Rogers Nelson , often known simply as Prince, is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and actor. Prince has produced ten platinum albums and thirty Top 40 singles during his career. Prince founded his own recording studio and label; writing, self-producing and playing most, or all, of...
, Lenny Kravitz
Lenny Kravitz
Leonard Albert "Lenny" Kravitz is an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer and arranger, whose "retro" style incorporates elements of rock, soul, R&B, funk, reggae, hard rock, psychedelic, folk and ballads...
, Paul McCartney
Paul McCartney
Sir James Paul McCartney, MBE, Hon RAM, FRCM is an English musician, singer-songwriter and composer. Formerly of The Beatles and Wings , McCartney is listed in Guinness World Records as the "most successful musician and composer in popular music history", with 60 gold discs and sales of 100...
, Emitt Rhodes
Emitt Rhodes
Emitt Lynn Rhodes is an American singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and recording engineer born February 25, 1950 in Decatur, Illinois. When he was five his family moved to Hawthorne, California. Considered by many as "the one man Beatles," his solo recordings of the early 1970s show a clear...
, Todd Rundgren
Todd Rundgren
Todd Harry Rundgren is an American multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and record producer. Hailed in the early stage of his career as a new pop-wunderkind, supported by the certified gold solo double LP Something/Anything? in 1972, Todd Rundgren's career has produced a diverse range of recordings...
, Roy Wood
Roy Wood
Roy Adrian Wood is an English singer-songwriter and musician. He was particularly successful in the 1960s and 1970s as member and co-founder of the bands The Move, Electric Light Orchestra, and Wizzard. As a songwriter, he contributed a number of hits to the repertoire of these bands.-Career:Wood...
and Les Fradkin
Les Fradkin
Les Fradkin is a guitarist, keyboardist, songwriter, composer and record producer. He is best known for being a member of the original cast of the hit Broadway show Beatlemania...
have made records in which they play every instrument. Other examples of a one-man band in the recording studio are Dave Grohl
Dave Grohl
David Eric "Dave" Grohl is an American rock musician, multi-instrumentalist, and singer-songwriter who is the lead vocalist, guitarist, and primary songwriter for Foo Fighters; the former drummer for Nirvana and Scream; and the current drummer for Them Crooked Vultures...
for the first studio album by the Foo Fighters
Foo Fighters
Foo Fighters is an American alternative rock band originally formed in 1994 by Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl as a one-man project following the dissolution of his previous band. The band got its name from the UFOs and various aerial phenomena that were reported by Allied aircraft pilots in World War...
, Trent Reznor
Trent Reznor
Michael Trent Reznor is an American multi-instrumentalist, composer, record producer, and leader of industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails. Reznor is also a member of How to Destroy Angels alongside his wife, Mariqueen Maandig, and Atticus Ross. He was previously associated with bands Option 30,...
for Nine Inch Nails
Nine Inch Nails
Nine Inch Nails is an American industrial rock project, founded in 1988 by Trent Reznor in Cleveland, Ohio. As its main producer, singer, songwriter, and instrumentalist, Reznor is the only official member of Nine Inch Nails and remains solely responsible for its direction...
, Varg Vikernes
Varg Vikernes
Varg Vikernes is a Norwegian black metal musician, writer, philosopher, religious and political activist, arsonist and convicted murderer.Vikernes was born near Bergen, Norway. In 1991, he founded the one-man music project Burzum, which quickly became popular within the early Norwegian black metal...
for Burzum
Burzum
Burzum is a musical project by Varg Vikernes . It began during 1991 in Bergen, Norway and quickly became prominent within the early Norwegian black metal scene...
and Billy Corgan
Billy Corgan
William Patrick "Billy" Corgan, Jr. is an American singer, songwriter, guitarist and occasional poet best known as the frontman and sole permanent member of The Smashing Pumpkins. Formed by Corgan and guitarist James Iha in Chicago, Illinois in 1987, the band quickly gained steam with the...
for Smashing Pumpkins since 2009. Nash the Slash
Nash the Slash
Nash the Slash is a Canadian musician. Though a multi-instrumentalist, he is known primarily for playing electric violin and mandolin, as well as harmonica, keyboards, glockenspiel, and other instruments .Nash worked as a solo artist beginning in 1975, then founded the progressive rock band FM in...
not only plays all instruments on his recordings, but has been giving solo concerts since 1975, using synchronized drum machines and synthesizers as he plays either an electric violin or electric mandolin.
One-man bands in this context have recently become more commonplace in extreme metal
Extreme metal
Extreme metal is a loosely defined umbrella term for a number of related heavy metal music subgenres that have developed since the early 1980s. The term usually refers to a more abrasive, harsher, underground, non-commercialized style or sound nearly always associated with genres like black metal,...
, especially black metal
Black metal
Black metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. Common traits include fast tempos, shrieked vocals, highly distorted guitars played with tremolo picking, blast beat drumming, raw recording, and unconventional song structure....
, where a number of bands apart from Burzum consist of only one member. Such artists include Nargaroth, Falkenbach
Falkenbach
Falkenbach is a Viking metal group from Germany that is currently signed to Prophecy Productions. The name means "Falconbrook" in German. The one permanent member is Vratyas Vakyas.-History:...
, Arckanum
Arckanum
Arckanum is a Swedish black metal project formed in 1993 by Johan "Shamaatae" Lahger, who is the only constant member. Shamaatae is also an author of occult literature. His first published work titled PANPARADOX was released the 13th of July 2009 and is published by Ixaxaar...
, Nortt
Nortt
Nortt is a Danish one-man black funeral doom metal band formed in 1995. The band's sole member, who similarly goes by the name 'Nortt' , describes his music as "Pure Depressive Black Funeral Doom Metal"...
, Horde
Horde (band)
Horde is the single-album unblack metal project of Australian musician Jayson Sherlock, formerly of Mortification and Paramaecium. In 1994 the only album Hellig Usvart was released on Nuclear Blast. With a session line-up, Horde played live-shows in 2006, Norway, and in 2010 in Finland and Germany...
, Zenithrash, and others. While most of these bands do not play live, some such as Nargaroth hire additional musicians for live performances.
"One-woman band" is not used very often in the vernacular, but in the last century as gender inequality has been addressed in the free world, women have increasingly had a presence as musicians in most forms of music. An example of a one-woman band is Merrill Garbus, who performs as tUnE-YaRdS
Tune-Yards
tUnE-yArDs is the music project of New England native Merrill Garbus. When performing live, Garbus creates drum loops on the spot, and layers these with ukulele, voice, and electric bass...
and plays every instrument on all recordings.
Live Looping
A recently emerging musical tool is the use of recording, delay, and looping devices in live performances of everything from beatboxing to classical violin, in order to create layered looped accompaniment for music later in the song. Using this technology, a simultaneous combination of various instruments and vocals, or one instrument played in different ways, can be created over the course of one musical piece which rivals studio recording.Developments
Since the development of Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) in the 1980s, musicians have also incorporated chest-mounted MIDI drum pads, foot-mounted electronic drum triggers. Some "one man bands" use organ-style pedal keyboards to perform basslineBassline
A bassline is the term used in many styles of popular music, such as jazz, blues, funk, dub and electronic music for the low-pitched instrumental part or line played by a rhythm section instrument such as the electric bass, double bass, tuba or keyboard...
s. A small number of MIDI enthusiasts use custom-made MIDI controllers connected to different parts of their bodies to trigger music on synthesizers. Custom-made MIDI controllers range from wind-operated controllers to small triggers mounted on the arms or feet. At a certain point, the use of body MIDI controllers may come to resemble performance art
Performance art
In art, performance art is a performance presented to an audience, traditionally interdisciplinary. Performance may be either scripted or unscripted, random or carefully orchestrated; spontaneous or otherwise carefully planned with or without audience participation. The performance can be live or...
, because the musical sounds are triggered by the performer assuming certain poses or dancing.
With the use of 2000s-era digital loop pedals, which can record and then repeat a short musical phrase, performers can play a riff
RIFF
The Resource Interchange File Format is a generic file container format for storing data in tagged chunks. It is primarily used to store multimedia such as sound and video, though it may also be used to store any arbitrary data....
or groove and then solo over the repeated loop. An example of this technique is Canadian musician Jay Robinson who creates full band arrangements live. (e.g. http://www.youtube.com/jasonr123guitar)
With the rise in popularity of electronic devices, comes innovation with the traditional acoustic 'one man band' instruments. One example is the Farmer Musical Instrument Co! based in the US. Pete Farmer's product line revolves around various acoustic foot-played percussion instruments that allow musicians to play a full range of traditional drum kit sounds, the Foot drum
Foot drum
For another term, see footed drumA foot drum is any type of drum that is typically played by striking it with the bare foot or pedal and beater combination...
Deluxe, or tambourine and shaker pedals for tapping out simple beats. With the development of technology and prominence of video sharing sites like You Tube musicians are now able to record each instrument individually and then compile a video as if it were all done in real time. More examples of such videos are:
- AlanCRice DragonForce - Through the Fire and Flames Cover (All Instruments)
- David MeShow - Beatbox (One man band improvisation)
- Amazing One-Man-Band Street Performer in Croatia
- Mark Sultan "Shake Real Low" One-Man Band
- Rick Adam as Professor Paddywhack's One Man Band
- David MeShow - Anything
Non-musical meanings
The term is also used in a general sense to refer to a person who runs a business alone, particularly if the operation requires that person to assume multiple different roles, in a manner akin to the way a musical "one man band" performer plays different instruments at the same time. In the world of TV news, it refers to a reporter who also functions as his own camera man via the use of a tripod.External links
- Tongue Tied Twin Swiss Blues Trash Garage Punk One Man Band.
- The Straniero Website of Mark Di Giuseppe, creating over 6 One-man band instrument ensembles and performing them live for over 20 years. Website: http://omb.im and YouTube Channel: OMB
- Marc Dobson Website of Marc Dobson, performing as an all live one man band and a computer aided one man band with backing tracks.
- Good Music Videos: Category: ‘One-man Band with Bass’ - The video blog also has many other *one-man band* categories.
- Website of Vic Ellis of Sussex Including short archive recordings of one man bands.
- A One Man Electric Blues Band Video One Man Plays 5 instruments
- A Jewish One Man Band Featuring Audio and video footage of Live Jewish Music.
- Joe Barrick's One-Man Band The story of Joe Barrick, a one-man band, and the history of the one-man band in general.
- Bernard M. Snyder Website of Bernard M. Snyder, world traveling, street performing one-man band.
- Farmer Foot Percussion Co! Website of Street Busker, Pete Farmer, and his online store of foot percussion instruments for the one man band.
- Tribute to Stevie Wonder One man band Stevie Wonder tribute.
- (http://www.dantheonemanband.com/main.htm) Website for Dan the One Man Band.