Struggling With A Descriptive Term

A well-know term that quickly and accurately describes my music act has been bothering me. It's a term that rolls off the tongue beautifully and has been around for perhaps a century. The term is "one-man band."

What bothers me is that "one-man band" is not inclusive. Yet I hate the sound of "one-person band," because that sounds forced to my ears.

As I wrote this post, the term "one-up band" popped into my head. When I checked the meaning of "one-up" it said "having an advantage over someone." So that meaning isn't suitable. I was thinking of a situation in baseball of someone being "up to the plate" or in video games, player 1-up. I like the phonetic sound of "one-up band."

Any other solutions or comments?

New Life To Old Originals

I'm now preparing a one-hour feature set for next Tuesday. Along with some of my favourite covers, I will play a mini-set of original songs. One song is relatively new and unrecorded, save for a video I shot last year.

The remaining tunes are from my 2002 album Interaction, reimagined for the solo loop pedal concept that I've been developing since 2015. Not all of my older songs translate very well when reduced, but I managed to get three songs ready for next week's feature. I'm excited to be in phase two of my career plan (see this post for explanation).

I've been trying to continually have one future gig in my calendar, and I've been fortunate to succeed with that goal this year. I've even managed to break out of Peterborough by playing the Trail Mix Festival in Uxbridge and a fundraiser gig in Richmond Hill next month. I feel I'm doing something right as long as I keep plugging.

Transitions

My career is in a state of flux. I now have a full night of covers after tweaking and adding tunes over the summer. There is still more refining to do for sure, but my show is more or less in my back pocket.

No more gigs for a while, save for one next weekend at Trail Mix 2018. It will be an opportunity to present some of my original music as well as the covers I play. I plan to give away my CDs at this festival with a PWYC tip jar concept. I need to declutter, as I have plenty of CDs that I have been holding onto for too long. I will also try out my new banner, which should be good advertising for people walking by. It will be my first foray out of my home area.

I will be renovating my studio in January, and I'm already thinking about moving my stuff into storage in December. I'm trying to declutter now, but that is difficult because I use pretty much everything I own. I think my main strategy will be looking for better and more attractive storage options.

I am craving the renovation now as my studio is looking tired and worn. I have an energetic and grounding colour scheme in mind, inspired by a local Thai restaurant that has Feng Shui decor. The painter is lined up and the carpeting is chosen. The rest is up to me. I'd like to figure out how to hide cables that are running everywhere too. The hydro outlet locations are never convenient.

Creativity Strikes At Unexpected Times

It's a quiet time for me with nothing on the horizon until the end of July. I've noticed many of my musician friends have been quite busy. I said aloud, "everyone is gigging but me."

My mind went to the jazz standard "It Could Happen To You" and I found I could replace that title with "Everyone Is Gigging But Me." So, I wrote new lyrics to the song and sang them in a video in my Insider Facebook Group to test it with listeners.

I'd appreciate feedback, positive and negative.

Incremental Discovery Tonight

Practicing music is a little like doing science. You must experiment, repeat, experiment, repeat...until something goes right and a breakthrough is made, even if it is miniscule. Every realization makes a performer better. Sometimes, the breakthrough happens when not searching for it.

I've had a long-standing problem positioning my headset microphone, and the problem was compounded by the use of a flute. If the microphone was not in a good position, the flute would hit the microphone or be too loud, causing a performance difficulty. Also I had issues with a popping sound made by the consonant "P" and "S" (a phenomenon called sibilance). I have a gig on Friday, so tonight, I thought I should practice with the microphone. The solution revealed itself to me.

I first tried to place the microphone above my lips but I discovered the sibilance was worse there. I moved the microphone farther from my face but the signal decreased. Finally, I tried placing the microphone below my lips and eureka! The sibilance disappeared, and the microphone still picked up the flute without interfering with it. I may have to increase some gain to compensate but I hope the issue is resolved now.

One less distraction from equipment means more attention to the performance. Hopefully this adjustment will do the trick on Friday!

Getting Back At It After Three Weeks

April was a crazy-busy month between my own lesson studio, giving lessons at two high schools, coaching saxophone at a community band, and being on a committee for organizing a mini-jazz festival honouring International Jazz Day. My own contribution to the festival was organizing a jazz combo workshop. Between all of that, I had no time or energy for practicing or doing anything concerning my solo act. I was stressed because I was worried I would be set back from being out of shape and not prepared for my next gig on May 11.

Well, I just finished my first serious practice session in about a month, and I was surprised that it went quite well. I think the long diversion actually helped to cement the songs in my head.

I believe another thing that helped was my effort to seek out better nutrition starting about two weeks ago. I found I had gained some weight over the winter, was feeling tired throughout the day, needing afternoon naps. I weighed more than I had ever before, so I resolved to get back to my normal. I am close to my normal weight again with a few more pounds to go. I replaced breakfast with a healthy shake that has lots of good stuff in it and I cut down on carbs and sugar (I can post the recipe if anyone wants it). My sugar intake was already low, but because manufacturers and restaurants put sugar in just about everything, I was even more vigilant. Lately, I have had more energy and I don't need to nap anymore. I rest up, but I don't fall asleep.

So my schedule has lightened up a lot now that the jazz festival is over . My time teaching lessons at the high schools is finished, and my coaching contract ends in two weeks. I won't be renewing either one next year so I have time for performance work. I have also decided not to play slow pitch this summer to free up my Sundays. My studio seems to have a good footing with enough students. Next year, I will be restricting lesson times between the hours of 3 and 8 pm weekdays. That should give me good blocks of time to work and take care of day-to-day things.

Now that I have some balance back, I hope to perform more and improve my act. I feel good going forward.

Entering Phase Two of The Plan

Phase One

At the beginning of 2015, I started my retooling effort to become a soloist. I quit all my steady bands as a saxophonist, including my own jazz band The Sean Hully Jazz Group. I needed to focus my energies to undergo training that would take a great investment of time and money. It was in 2015 that I bought my Boomerang 3 loop pedal to be the centre of my journey. My concept was to incorporate most of my instrumental skills into one musical entity.

I put the saxophone aside in favour of the guitar to memorize some favourite cover songs and to create interesting accompaniments. Where appropriate, I learned to insert saxophone, flute, or guitar leads using live looping. From that effort, I recognized how physically coordinated I needed to be, and how well I had to know the songs to perform without mental struggle.

I took voice lessons in the summer of 2017 to improve vocally. The lessons helped a lot, but I am still not quite where I'd like to be. However, I am more comfortable singing now.

My breakthrough happened last month, when I was suddenly booked for a weekend at Maplefest, followed by a local pub debut the next weekend. The pub gig went well, and was booked three more times, once in April, May, and June.

I now feel more confident playing solo in this style, as people seemed accepting of what I was doing. It is certainly a different concept, and I have been complemented on the variety of my repertoire. My repertoire will be adjusted over time I am sure.


Phase Two

Now that I can fill a three-hour cover gig,  I can go out and get working! I can turn my attention to adapting my original music to the solo concept, as ultimately, I want to play original music live.  I need to record another album too. I want to record in my own studio, but that is big learning curve to put out a great sounding album. I've been so focused on being a musician that I haven't had time to invest in learning about my gear. My album Interaction was recorded and engineered by professionals, but I'm not sure if I can risk that kind of money this time around.

I'm happy that I am finally moving forward with my performance career. I feel more in control now than I ever have. I hope I can bring more people onboard as opportunities arise.