Guitarist is playing a drone...

[honestjohnny]

...what do you guys do? Other than playing the droning note I know I can play any of the scale degrees in the chord he's outlining or some that aren't in the chord, but generally in a rock idiom what would you guys do?

For example: F is the drone. The guitarist simultaneously plays a line that moves from the 4th to the 6th including the flat 5. So (F), B flat, B, D.

[edbutler3]

I'd start out by coming up with a good rhythmic pattern using the F and F octave, then I would start adding occasional notes from the guitar melody, making them fall on rhythmic accents, etc. After a while it might evolve into a full counter-melody using other scale tones outside the guitar melody. But start with the drone tone and think about rhythm first.

[Jeff Martinez]

I would try to write a counter-melody to the vocal part.

[Kael]

Fart around in Eb harmonic minor. That's my initial reaction would be. If someone is laying a drone down, then my gut reaction is to push the music in an "exotic" direction. For most listeners "exotic" and harmonic minor go hand in hand. Of course, if by drone you mean the guitarist is actually playing entire chords on not just a drone note, then note selection will dependent on the chord tones.

Then again someone says drone and I immediately think sruti box.

[Dertygen]

Originally Posted by Kael

Fart around in Eb harmonic minor. That's my initial reaction would be. If someone is laying a drone down, then my gut reaction is to push the music in an "exotic" direction. For most listeners "exotic" and harmonic minor go hand in hand. Of course, if by drone you mean the guitarist is actually playing entire chords on not just a drone note, then note selection will dependent on the chord tones.

Then again someone says drone and I immediately think sruti box.

Eh, terminology help here. What is the reference to 'drone' note?

Also, the 'true' sig quote is: "Ah Kent, you can use statistics to prove anything. Forty percent of all people know that!" -Homer S.

[Kael]

Originally Posted by Dertygen

Eh, terminology help here. What is the reference to 'drone' note?

Also, the 'true' sig quote is: "Ah Kent, you can use statistics to prove anything. Forty percent of all people know that!" -Homer S.

A drone note is one that is played in the background to support other melodic crud. Kinda like a chord getting pedaled, but a single tone as opposed to an entire chord.

Re: quote, say what?

[Dertygen]

Originally Posted by Kael

A drone note is one that is played in the background to support other melodic crud. Kinda like a chord getting pedaled, but a single tone as opposed to an entire chord.

Ah!

Originally Posted by Kael

Re: quote, say what?

Homer Simpson, in the episode, "Homer the Vigilante".

[Kael]

Originally Posted by Dertygen

Ah!


Homer Simpson, in the episode, "Homer the Vigilante".

It reads suspicously like my sig. Perhaps I have a case against the simpsons writers for plagarism....