The Drone-Insert Melody Here

A drone is a blank canvas for melody. 

A note or notes are the foundation, literally droning the same pitch, creating a mesmerizing affect. The constancy of the drone is used for meditation and deep relaxation.
Now, where the fun comes in is in the melody that sounds over the drone. A drone won’t commonly be a major or minor chord, it is often one sounding pitch, sometimes played in perfect octaves, and sometimes drones are played as a perfect fifth. I first realized the coolness and openness of musical drones when learning about Indian music, most notably, the Sitar and the Tambura. 

The video below features a Tambura player sounding 3 pitches, C# in a high octave, C# again in a low octave, and G#, a perfect 5^th above C#. (Pitch wise, no different from the all American POWER CHORD!)

The droning strings allow the performer to improvise melody over the drone with his voice. He touches on notes within the typical major scale, but this type of music often dabbles with many accidentals, most notably, a diminished fifth, which is simply a flatted or dropped version of a perfect fifth, also known as the Tri Tone or the Devil’s Note. But that’s a different write up, one which will talk Black Sabbath in detail.

Embedding is disabled for this video, but you can watch it on Youtube here.  

Droning about droning

I was watching Prometheus a few weeks ago, and I found myself enamored with a part of the score that used a drone. So enamored in fact, that I feel the need to tell you about it. 

The track is called “Life,” and the composer is Marc Streitenfield. I think given the title of the piece, the melody over the drone is very appropriate. It seems to encapsulate the mystery and beauty of life. I just got deep on you. Here it is.

(Note, by :41 seconds into the piece, the drone is established as the tension from the first :40 seconds subsides, and the melody appears at :45 seconds. Note, the drone never goes away, even when the melody above it changes.)

Droning in time?

After digging into more works from Streitenfeld, I found a track on the American Gangster Soundtrack called “Frank Lucas” that has this feature, except this example is less of a sustained typical drone, and more a repeating note with a rhythmic function.  

Like a drone, it’s still the same sounding pitch for the entire song, but unlike a drone, it is playing to a steady pulse, making the melody over it more pronounced and structured. You’ll notice that the drone used in “Life” is much more free and flowing, without a steady pulse or beat; I would go as far as to call it rubato. Google it!

Droning at Home

In this video, you will hear a low C acting as a drone on my guitar. I will demonstrate the freedom of melody that comes with the foundational pitch of the drone. You'll find, some notes are more dissonant than others, and I'll also play the main melody from "Life."

At :39 seconds, I purposely walk you through the basic intervals found within a C major scale. (For more on intervals and their qualities please stay tuned, I'm working on that one!)

C to D, (a major second)

C to E (a major third)

C to F (a perfect fourth)

C to G (a perfect fifth)

C to A (a major sixth)

C to B (a major seventh)

And by 1:12 I finally get to C to C (a perfect octave)

Minor Adjustment...

At about 1:46, You'll hear a drastic change in mood, that's because I stopped using the C major scale and started playing notes in the C natural minor and harmonic minor scales. Remember, major is happy, minor is rather dark and sad. We'll talk more about mood in other posts, but I wanted to at least show you a little variety in this video. The last thing I play is the theme from "Life" but in a lower octave than I'd previously played. Happy droning!