drone theory

[Midnight_Rider]

hey i was wondering if knows any books or anywhere where i can leanr the theory behind Robby Krieger's or Derek Truck's or anyone's psychedelic drones. I have made or tried to make some of my own but i was wondering if there was an easier way that just playing around for a while and using my ear(which i still plan to do). thanks for the help.

[Shibby]

i'm not sure exactly what you're talking about...but this is how i like to experiement with drones.

I: pick a scale--play it against an open string--change the drone note. For example, CMajor scale. First use C as a Drone..then Try F as a drone, while playing C Major starting from C against it. Or, play the CMajor scale starting from F, against a C drone..ect. You might have to re tune a bit.

Of course, its cooler with more exotic sounding scales. Many, more exotic sounding scales are merely different modes of more common ones. so just experiment. check out this site for some cool scales.

http://jguitar.com/scale?root=C&scal...e&notes=sharps


Music that has a drone, usually only uses one scale against it. For this reason, there isn't really much to say about harmonic theory other than the notes of the scale. This is where you get into a deep study of melody that is very culturaly unique. For instance, in Indian classical music, there are very precise rules about the types of intervals which can be played ascending and descending, which vary with the different Rags (basically, a scale when it played with these rules).

Because drones are used in so many cultures, and in so many contexts i don't think there is a book that just talks about "drone theory."

You might want to check out an Indian classical music book, or maybe get some oud recordings, and try to figure out some of those licks.
And of course, figure out what Krieger and Trucks are doing.


drones are also used in weastern musical traditional. this is often used more to create tension, or a textual affect, rather than being the "home" note. For instance: compare playing ||-7|B-7b5|D-7b5|Aalt:|| with ||-7|B-7b5/A|D-7b5/A|Aalt:||


hope i could help.

[JonR]

Originally Posted by Shibby

drones are also used in weastern musical traditional. this is often used more to create tension, or a textual affect, rather than being the "home" note. For instance: compare playing ||-7|B-7b5|D-7b5|Aalt:|| with ||-7|B-7b5/A|D-7b5/A|Aalt:||

Just thought I'd clarify...
I guess you meant Dm7, not a grinning face (I don't think I've seen a chord symbol like that, tho it might not be a bad idea... )
You typed a colon then a D. A colon and a capital D make that smiley.

Here's what you meant to appear:

||: D-7|B-7b5|D-7b5|Aalt :|| with ||: D-7|B-7b5/A|D-7b5/A|Aalt :||

[JonR]

Originally Posted by Midnight_Rider

hey i was wondering if knows any books or anywhere where i can leanr the theory behind Robby Krieger's or Derek Truck's or anyone's psychedelic drones. I have made or tried to make some of my own but i was wondering if there was an easier way that just playing around for a while and using my ear(which i still plan to do). thanks for the help.

Like Shibby, I'm not exactly sure what you mean. I don't know either player's work that well, and "psychedelic drones" might mean a few thing.
Can you post a youtube example?

As Shibby says, drones are pretty common in music of other cultures. You get it especially in Indian ragas, Scots bagpipe music, and some North African music.
It simply means there is one tonal centre, constantly reinforced, and no chord changes - in fact, not really any chords at all.
Or you could - as he shows above - have a "pedal" bass and different chords over the top, which is common in classical, jazz, and rock. (This may be more like what you mean, although I'm not sure it's a "drone" by strict definition.)

[Johnny3Fingers]

you know, when I hear "drone" I can't help but think of Sun O))) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FycBfIxm2BA

[TeleTristan]

Originally Posted by Johnny3Fingers

you know, when I hear "drone" I can't help but think of Sun O))) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FycBfIxm2BA

they make money doing that? I do that in my studio when no-one else is around... I didn't know "drone" was a style.

[Midnight_Rider]

think like The End by The Doors or most anything of Joyful Noise by dTb. thanks for all the help tho guys

[CDguitar]

By "Drone" do you mean the basic one chord psychedelic excursions.
As in what many jam bands do?

Thought I had a moment here. Am I right?
If so, I can tell you a thing or 10 about it.

Waiting for a "yes"


.

[bingnugget]

A drone is built from the least powerful OR the most powerful tones in any given scale.

Mostly a single scale, or a set of scales limited by rules specific to the culture are used.

There are absolutely no key changes, or if there are, you can sort of consider them to be a Parallel Key structure.

For example, I can play Emin Drone (drones are not harmonized btw, so you can't really use a full chord, but you can use multiple drones successively ascending or descending a triad or diad), and use E double harmonic major, E aeolian, E lydian(augmented 4th gives a minor tonality against a drone), E dorian, E phrygian, etc. etc. Basically if I use a Minor drone progression(unharmonized), I can use just about ANY scale in that tonic drone which contains dominantly a minor 2nd, minor 3rd, and/or minor 6th/7th tonalities (generally). This is just an example, of course, raag rules are vastly different. Ascending is not the same as decending, time of the day is different for many raags, raags are also seasonal, etc. etc. Most performances are improvisations, and as such, drones are also.

There is no theory that I know of, but there are general usage rules particular to the culture they are used in. Melodic comprehension is vastly different than western harmonic system.

Use of the sitar as a drone to the voice is very typical in classical Indian (Hindustani sangeet as well as Karnatik). Drones are not limited to single notes, but once again, must be used as single notes, but you can arpeggiate them... very slowly......s l o w l y . . . .........

Anyway, I've been playing classical indian for close to almost all my life, over 20 years. This is all I know, if I am incorrect, please correct me.