The following is a guest post by Kevin Ian Common. If you are interested in guest posting, please contact me!
Greetings! In this second installment, I’ll talk about drones and interesting ways to use them in constructing guitar parts. I will also include some tips, tricks, and quick fixes when it comes to improving your tone.
The concept of using drones–also known as pedal tones–involves using one note and building chords around it. This is a common method of composition, particularly in Art Music (what is generally referred to as Classical Music) and songwriters who use pianos. The possibility of ten fingers on a keyboard offer a great amount of lush chords with complex harmonies. Guitarists who exercise a little savvy can achieve the same thing.
The easiest way to build a pedal tone would involve an open string.
We’ll take the lowest string, E. I’ll give you some basic chord charts, then I’ll examine further to show you how the chords work off each other.
From low to high: E A D G B E
Em (ver 1): 0 7 5 X X X (ver 2): 0 10 9 X X X
These are two versions of Em. Version 1 has The root (E) and 3rd (G). Version 2 has the full harmony with the 5th (B)
Em7: 0 14 12 X X X
The minor 7th (D) makes this chord a minor 7th. There is no 3rd, but you can leave the G string open if you wish. I think it sounds great as-is.
F#m7: 0 9 7 X X X
The minor 7th (E) makes this F#m7.
Am: 0 12 10 X X X
This is a full Am chord with the 5th (E) in the lowest register.
C: 0 15 14 X X X
This is a full C chord with the 3rd (E) in the lowest register.
Dsus2: 0 5 4 X X X
This is D major with the suspended 2nd (E) in the lowest register. You COULD make the argument that it is an Em7add9–root (E) minor 7th (D) 9th (F#), but for the sake of this installment, we’ll take the D name.
Now, take these shapes and perhaps play them in this order:
Em (ver 1) – Dsus2 – F#m7 – Em (ver 2) – C – Em7 – Am – Em (ver 2)
Notice how interesting that sounds? You get a low E droning the entire progression, but you still have a sense of movement in terms of harmony.
To build upon it (those of you with multiple guitars, a bassist, or multi-track capabilities), try this:
1) Take the original progression:
Em (ver 1) – Dsus2 – F#m7 – Em (ver 2) – C – Em7 – Am – Em (ver 2)
2) Now, have a bass play the following notes (changing in the same order as the above progression):
E – D – F# – G – C – B – A – G
The bass follows the progression of the notes you play on the A string. You’ll get interesting harmonies when the notes stray from the droning E.
3) Have a second guitar play these open position chords (once again in the same order as the original progression):
Em – D – F#m – G – C – C/B ( X 2 0 0 1 0) – Am – G
Or, to spice things up, you could do this instead
Emadd9 – Dsus4 – D – G – Cadd9 – Bm – Am – Am7
By keep certain chords static over other moving harmonies, you create a sense of independence between instruments, making it even more interesting.
Moving on, I wanted to talk a little bit about tone. The quest for tone is about as on-going as life itself and also a huge headache as it is totally subjective. Everyone has their own idea of what “ideal tone” is all about. This is merely a set of observations I’ve made in my time in live and local music scenes. Whether or not you decide to try or keep these tips is ultimately up to you. But, like I’ve said before, this column is meant to encourage experimentation. Have fun with it 
Most of these tips are either free or inexpensive.
1) Use your neck pickup.
Obviously this one is impossible if you ONLY have a bridge pickup, but take a break and flip it to the neck pickup. Notice how full and well-rounded your tone sounds already? If anything, use combined pickups if you MUST use the bridge pickup (most strats have 5 way switching which offer great tonal possibilities, and even two-pickup models have a both-pickup position).
2) Scoop your mids if you just, but use restraint.
Ever been to a local show where a metal band is playing? How about listening to them do a sound check and remembering the wonderful crunch of their tone? What happens next? Generally what happens is… once the drums kick-in, you lose the guitars. Even Kirk Hammet has preached the glories of the mids Use just a little, and you will go a long way.
3) Roll off the gain.
Rolling off a little gain yields two very important things: 1) A distortion that reacts better to your picking technique, style, dynamics, etc and 2) Gives you way more definition. Great riffs are one thing… being able to hear each note clearly without a wall of gain behind it makes it far more enjoyable.
Granted, there are elements of shoegaze, hard rock, metal and noise that benefit from tons of gain. I kick on extra gain–sometimes I run ALL THREE of my distortions at once!–at times, but more often than not, I use little to mild distortion as my one-size-fits-all starter tone.
4) Use heavier strings.
Most guitarists I know use 9′s. Try 10′s, or even 9.5′s. You will notice a difference, especially in your clean tones. Heavier strings = heavier tone. I used to use 8′s until I tried out a guitar that was strung with 11′s. It sounded massive, and I never looked back. All of my guitars are set-up and strung with 11′s.
Thanks for taking the time to read!
I’m hoping to make this a regular column, so if anyone has suggestions for future columns, please feel free to comment me or contact me. I have some ideas, but who knows what ideas you may have for me!
- Kevin Ian Common
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Kevin Ian Common is a multi-instrumentalist who has been involved with live music for a little over a decade. He studied music theory and composition at a local university. He has played guitar, bass, and drums for various bands. He is currently the vocalist/guitarist for The Common Men, a post-punk band from Northern California. You can check them out on Myspace, Facebook, or Twitter. Their main page is on Myspace: www.myspace.com/thecommonmen
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