This is a very interesting question, to which I myself have given a bit of thought.
It is always tempting to 'adjust' to what seems to be 'the market' out there for musicians. For the most part this works, especially if one considers musician to be a 'profession'. I never considered that to be the case, and here's my train of thought...
Possession of musical talent usually empowers one to excel at more than one instrument. Fortunately, it does take time to learn an instrument. If you want to reach a certain level in your performance technique, you could invest an entire lifetime into it. And thats not even counting music theory and composition here. You could equally devote a lifetime to composing music without ever worrying about excelling at performing it.
You can't be as good at doing one thing as someone else with potential equal to yours can be, if you've spent your potential little by little in many different places, while someone else had invested it into one thing.
I would look at the problem deeper to come up with a solution.
Finding musicians is easy. Finding good musicians is harder, but is doable. Finding people you can get along with and stick with for life is the hardest thing about anything that has to do with people working in groups, be it family, company or a band.
And now on the 'one man' projects vs a full-line up band.
With the rapid advance of technology, it became possible to record, produce and distribute records at extremely low upfront investment. Naturally, a question of 'one man' bands comes up.
Let's consider two of them. Band A is a mentioned above 'one man' band. Consisting of one, or, say, two guys who are very good at what they do. What are its chances of being comparable to a four, five-member band B?
In the short run -- fairly decent, but the picture changes over time.
Most start-up bands out there have great ideas about 'what music should be' and often release an interesting album or maybe even two, before they run out of steam. Those with smaller line-up have less issues with infighting and common interest management. Those with larger line-up have less issues with self-motivation, inspiration and performance. In a large project you eventually end up with people getting very specific in their role. And very good at it too. Their produce seldom dwindles over-time, on the contrary, the more time these acts spend together the better their music is!
One man band is a good start to find the people you need, however, due to reasons outlined above, I would not recommend trying to learn all of the instruments, but go with session players instead, to help you get the word out via your music. And look for people who 'click' with you. They are very, very few in numbers.
So here's my advice: stick to your guns. Tough it out. Use the time you've already invested into the instrument you know to your advantage. Learn something new about your instrument. There's always something to learn!
I cannot help it but cringe when I hear people say "Well, I've been playing guitar for blah blah years but everyone plays guitar so I'm playing drums now..." I don't want a drummer like that. And neither should you. Find someone who loves their specific role in music. If one CAN live without playing their instrument, one SHOULD live without playing one.
But more importantly look into yourself and figure out what is your personal strength and what is your weakness? Do you get along with people? Could you be more patient and forgiving sometimes? A little less drinking and talking and more working? Or maybe you just need some more time to find the right people?
Either way, good luck and best of success to you.
Cheers,
Merek
