Maintenance/Repairs

If necessary, go on a short, basic Electronics Course, and save yourself a fortune over the years. You might be eligible for a government-subsidized course if your not working at the moment. Try checking out Night-Classes or your local library for a good deal.

Make Money - Financial and Business Transactions

(Depending on what your earning, you might need the services of a trustworthy accountant who knows the Music-Biz well. Ask around and do a bit of detective work here. I suppose If your making enough money to pay tax on it, you must be doing something right).

I strongly recommend that you immerse yourself or someone in the band does it, in the Music BIZ end of things. This is crucial if you want to succeed just like in any biz. There's a lot of "advice" on the 'Net elsewhere but really good and useful stuff is hard to find. Here's an excellent music business guide from a top music guru to help iron things out.

3 - 2 - or 1?

That is the question ...

3's Company

For our purposes here, a TRIO is the easiest to start with, because the band has many of the above resources at it's disposal. Most musicians already possess their own Musical Gear and Computers. Of course it's 3 mouths to feed, but between the lot of you, your bound to possess most of what's needed, gear and skills-wise.

Here's a classic 3-Piece example that works amazingly well...

• Frontman /Lead and Backing Vocals/ doubling on Guitar if necessary/ Business Affairs/ PC Artwork/ Driving / Roadie
• Electric/ Acoustic Guitarist/Lead and Backing Vox/ Maintenance/ Demo Recording/ Gear Set-Up/ Roadie
• Keyboard Player/ Lead and Backing Vox/ Live Sound & Lights/ Programming/ Gear Set-Up/ Roadie

I played in a line-up very similar to this one and it works very well. We promoted the band and gigs ourselves. We recorded an 8-Track demo in Lanzarote by one time Ozzy (and other big names) Drummer/Writer Mr. Lee Kerslake. It was in a beautiful little studio somewhere in Sunny Arrecife. Hola guys...We sold cassettes and CD's during the Summer season and used it back home in Dublin as part of our Band Package to get loads of gigs. You can easily do this type of thing on your PC.

2's a Crowd

I also played in a 2-Piece in Ireland with the above mentioned Mr. Hoey. We were called The Crybabys. We done the demo you heard at the start of this page, Bittersweet Symphony (the Verve). It was part of our promo kit. We got this big sound when we played it live too! G'wan, G'wan Gerry.

• Once again we split up all duties between us. We both programmed songs and found this to be a huge advantage. The set was sung more or less 50/50 between us.
• Backing tracks were played back live using a Roland Sequencer, a trusty little workhorse.
• We used an advanced lighting system (ha) and a big fluorescent backdrop to help the visual end of things.
• We both agreed we had to work harder performing, without a great frontman running around the stage like a madman. God bless 'em...Especially in the beginning, but it was a challenge we overcame.
• We allowed ourselves the luxury of an Italian/Irish, Driver/Helper called Nino. Ahh, if only they were all as good as 'im...

One-Man-Band

Yes I covered this one too.

I done a few seasons in Spain on me lonesome. The set was 3 hours long. Ouch...The pay was cool but it can be a lonely road sometimes.

Here's a few things I found out to ease the journey -

I recorded all backing tracks (with backing vocals) onto a Mini-Disc, and live, I played Electric or Acoustic guitar along with it. I also had an Alesis SR16 Drum-Machine rigged up, for a bit of variety. The SR16 is just brilliant - top of the list 5 years running in the UK music polls! Mine's sitting here right beside me as I write and it's well earned it's position in the studio and live.

It's great to have a drum machine like this beside you onstage for requests and stuff. Have a few basic patterns ready to go. A few numbers I just sang Accapello and some with the Acoustic Guitar. It's nice to be able to switch around this way. It's more interesting for you and the audience.

I used a Quadraverb Effects-Processor and a few pints to smooth things out.

As you might have guessed by now, I put together a demo CD, and small portfolio containing photo's, info, a list of songs and so on. You can pick up loads of gigs that way.

Here's a quick listen to a tune from my gig-hunting demo CD. It's a David Gray number called... 

 Please Forgive Me Written and Recorded by David Gray ©

... taken from his cool CD - White Ladder

• This demo - David O'Toole
• (Vocals, Acoustic Guitar, Programming, Sampling)

So you can hear that it's quite possible to keep it interesting in a one-man + tech band.

Yes, going it alone can be sometimes hard going, but you get a certain amount of job-satisfaction out of doing it all yourself. It a good opportunity to push your skills to higher levels. Plus, with a small stage set-up it's easy to move it all around. I took this little Unit of One to Mallorca, Australia and Switzerland. And there's no one else to blame if anything goes pear-shaped! Yippee...Is that good or bad?

***

Hope you enjoyed and picked up some useful tips and info in our Make Money - Makin' Music Special...More Gigging Tips and Tricks

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