Greetings Friends,

Whenever I used to hear the term One Man Band. I used to picture a cartoonish guy strapped up with wierd tin cans and stuff that made noise, trying to get attention from people to give him money.

By definition, a one man band is a person who plays multiple instruments at the same time to present a musical sequence, that should be pleasing to the ear.

The concept started many years ago, far back during the Elizabethan era where apparently her court jester used to play the pipe, and tabor (a percussion instrument) together to please her.

Through many years One Man Bands have been looked down as a joke, why? Maybe that’s how these guys have been presented to us, on television shows, cartoons, and many other forms of media. Maybe it’s how history puts it, how it all started out by court jesters, who’s job was to make people (Mainly the nobles) laugh, maybe that avatar has stuck to the reputation of a One Man Band all these years.

Maybe there are some One Man Bands, who actually do the things I described in the introduction, maybe there are a few jokers out there making noise to put a smile on a grieving face. But I’ve come to realize that there are people who can really play multiple instruments (with prowess), and the end result is truly consonant music for us to enjoy. These geniuses can amaze anyone with their skill and let me not change the rep on these guys, geniuses are usually crazy nut cases. Just like the example I’ve given below.

With technological breakthroughs in music, studio equipment, and software easily available these days, the term One Man Band is also used to describe a performer who plays every instrument on a recorded musical piece one at a time, and then mixes them together in a multitrack.

e.g:- David Meshow (Mechaud) is a musician based in Canada who plays Vocals, Guitars – (Lead, Rhythm, and Bass), Percussion – (Drums, Beat box, Xylophone), Violin, and Keyboard in his band called David Meshow. Here are some videos of his songs that he published on Youtube.

David Meshow: Guitar – (Lead, Rhythm, Bass), Percussion – (Beat boxing, Water Xylophone), and some crazy conducting
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lseRUfGN1Ts]

David Meshow: Guitar – (Lead, Rhythm, Bass), Percussion – (Drums, Xylophone)
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5rcmsxIKDc]