Good Use Of Drone Button

[richard]

Hello folks

 

My Bb/F Jeffries has the drone button playing Bb/Bb. I could use some advice in learning how to make good use of it. I play mostly Irish music and am open to all types of music.

 

I know this subject has been brought up before but I haven't seen referenced to

particular recordings and players (outside J. Kirpatrick), that I could listen to and pick up ideas of how the drone button is used traditionally and/or by individuals who have an interesting approach.

 

Thanks,

 

Richard

Edited December 19, 2005 by richard

[Samantha]

I think "drone" button is a misnomer, myself, and think of this button as merely providing alternative fingerings and/or a note that is not otherwise available in a certain bellows direction. I have a C/C thumb button on my C/G and can't remember what the thumb button is on my Bb/F except that it is two different notes.

I find the pull C a useful note to have for some harmonies to tunes. There is one tune where I use it as a sort of drone, in that I play thumb-button C push and pull to harmonise with a short phrase, but you can clearly hear the change of direction in the "held" note - I don't mind that.

I am quite fond of using a drone note to harmonise my tunes, i.e. the pull A on the C row left hand and the push A in the accidental row, left hand, but these are always re-articulated, too.

Samantha

[keeper]

I have never heard the drone used on any anglo performance so I decided to post a tune in the Recorded Links Page just for that purpose. 'Leap Over the Garter' is three repeated verses: one with drone, one with drone plus one harmonic note, one with drone plus full chords. I am not happy with the performance, which is a bit jumpy, but this is partly due to the necessity of holding the drone throughout under my left thumb, upsetting my normal 'balance.' It has taught me that to hold the left thumb along the side of the box is a little bit lazy so I now try to keep it above the buttons, ready to use, even when the piece has no casll for it.

[Robin Madge]

I use the drone quite a bit for song accompaniment, both on my C/G and G/D boxes. I just prefer it that way for some songs and I don't know why! It can even be used to raise the "tension" of what would usually be called a dischord in passing, playing Richard Thompson's "house of cards" for example where the fingering has moved to the D row from the G row.

I also use it for some tunes, adding it in after the first ime through etc. On some I will provide a "two button drone" of another note for one time through and the key-note drone on the next.

 

Robin Madge

[Brian Peters]

It can even be used to raise the "tension" of what would usually be called a dischord in passing (snip)

I also use it for some tunes, adding it in after the first ime through etc. On some I will provide a "two button drone" of another note for one time through and the key-note drone on the next.

 

A previous thread has referred to the late Peter Bellamy's use of the drone buttons for song accompaniment, and raising the tension was exactly what he did with it. Robin's also right to suggest that the drone doesn't necessarily have to be in the key of the melody. The dominant (e.g. G in the key of C) can work well, and I once used the C drone on my anglo for a D minor melody, though only as a song intro.

 

The easiest thing (taking a C/G anglo as an example) is to take any tune that you can already play in C on the right hand, especially an older tune like Horses Bransle, and simply substitute the C drone for the usual left-hand chords. Things get even more interesting if you hold the drone and add some of the left hand buttons for the normal chords, so for instance you might be holding a C drone together with a G chord, accentuating the harmonic dissonance. I've recorded a few things using this tactic, though be warned it is tiring on the thumb, especially if the drone button has a poor action. I remember sticking a bit of school eraser onto the drone button to give my thumb some respite during one fraught, thousand-take recording session.

 

The other interesting effect you can get is by purposely fingering the notes so as to use the bellows as much as possible, getting a very rhythmic drone effect (I think John Kirkpatrick called this "wagga wagga" on the button box), that gives an effect a bit like a hurdy-gurdy.

Brian

[m3838]

would be nice to 'listen' to abovementioned examples. The way Keeper did.

I think much time is spent talking about various styles, but not much is demonstrated.

Can you post a fragment of your performance?

Thanks.

[Brian Peters]

would be nice to 'listen' to abovementioned examples. The way Keeper did.

I think much time is spent talking about various styles, but not much is demonstrated.

Can you post a fragment of your performance?

 

Whoops, sorry for just talking and not providing free online lessons. I've every respect for contributors who take the time and trouble to post sound clips or photos, but I'm afraid I'm not about to do that in the week before Christmas - maybe in the New Year. In the meantime, you could always buy the CD - or read what's been described here and work it out for yourself.

Brian

[keeper]

The easiest thing (taking a C/G anglo as an example) is to take any tune that you can already play in C on the right hand, especially an older tune like Horses Bransle, and simply substitute the C drone for the usual left-hand chords. Things get even more interesting if you hold the drone and add some of the left hand buttons for the normal chords, so for instance you might be holding a C drone together with a G chord, accentuating the harmonic dissonance.

 

Exactly what I have done in 'Leap Over the Garter' in the Recorded Links page, but then, Brian has actually taught me in a seminar so maybe we are on the same wavelength (although, spookily, we did not discuss this technique)

[stuart estell]

I'm a huge fan of drones in general, and not just on anglo; they have a magical effect of both stabilising a piece harmonically, and providing real harmonic crunch when in conflict with whatever else might be going on.

 

For an attempt at imitating a vaguely bagpipey feel, in the past I've experimented with drones of a 5th on my G/D anglo - holding both the thumb key down for a constant G and swapping fingers for the D next to middle C depending on the direction of the bellows with the index and second fingers. It leaves your third and fourth fingers just about free enough to play a bass line and any additional harmony notes you might need, but takes me a fair amount of concentration.

 

When accompanying songs on my Maccann, which has an overlap of an octave and a half, I quite often hold down drones at the top of the left hand keyboard of either the root note of the key and/or its 5th while playing a bass part in the lower reaches of the instrument and right hand melody/vamp figures. With a drone of a 5th it can be really effective to have a right-hand melody weaving between the drone notes on the opposite side of the instrument. It's also possible to add and relieve tension by adding notes to or subtracting notes from the drone itself...

[richard]

Hello

 

Could someone direct me toward locating the "members recording link page"

 

Thanks,

 

Richard

[Samantha]

Here it is!

Samantha

[JimLucas]

Could someone direct me toward locating the "members recording link page"

Look for any post by Henk van Aalten... or look him up among Members.

He (not C.net) maintains the page, and the link to it is part of his signature.

[geoffwright]

Drones on anglo are very much in evidence in the Irish style, but they are playing the tune across the rows in one direction so a drone or chord can be held down, which is maybe not what most people on this thread are looking to do.

There are loads of examples of Irish players doing this.

[JimLucas]

Drones on anglo are very much in evidence in the Irish style,...

There are loads of examples of Irish players doing this.

Who? Where?

Would you name some recordings and tracks?

 

Also (at least until I can hear for myself), do they hold a drone for an entire tune, or just for pieces of it?

[geoffwright]

My favorite "drone merchants" must be Noel Hill and especially Tim Collins - but listen carefully to any of their cds, you will hear rhythms being tapped out in "pipe regulator chords" and long chords held underneath on most tracks.

[PeterT]

I know this subject has been brought up before but I haven't seen referenced to

particular recordings and players (outside J. Kirpatrick), that I could listen to and pick up ideas of how the drone button is used traditionally and/or by individuals who have an interesting approach.

I know that this an old thread, but I happened to notice someone reading it whilst I was uploading some video clips.

 

By chance, I have just recorded a short video clip of Cadair Idris (Sweet Jenny Jones) played through first time in G, second time in C (with C drone added). It might help to answer Richard's original query.

 

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=y3KbvqIO5Ys

Edited October 12, 2007 by PeterT

[Hooves]

I feel very fortunate to be a duet player, although I have teased players about the droning, on a duet I can drone anything I want, and frequently do.

 

On my C/F button accordion, with a standard 8 bass, I also have a Bb/Bb bass key on the chord side. I haven't really found a great use for it yet, but I'm sure there is or else it wouldn't be there.

 

I see droning (or should I say hear) as the first stab at harmony and accompianment, it really does add quite a bit to the music, and it lots of fun to improvise over a droning note, good for practicing modes too. I wish sometimes though it could be a more continous drone like on bagpipes or the shruti box.

 

 

(on a side note completely unrelated: I kind of wish my button accordion didn't have a base section and just had another treble keyboard, but thats what concertinas are for!)

[groeswenphil]

Y Gwr a'i Farch ( The Man and his Horse) comes from Edward Jones' Musical and Poetic Relicks of the Welsh Bards (1784), where it was given as a dance for five people. A perfect tune for Welsh Bagpipes. It can also be played as a round.

There is a recording of the tune available. Calennig:- Songs and Tunes from Wales GVRCD214. There, it is played on two Anglo Concertinas with the drone button held down. Mick Tems and Pat Smith used to play this as a sort of party piece.

I might have an MP3

 

http://www.btinternet.com/~groeswenphil/gwr/gwr.html

 

Phil