Drone
Pick a key and let one steady note hold underneath you. Every scale you play over it suddenly has a home — and your ear starts learning what each note feels like.
Why practice with a drone
A metronome trains your timing; a drone trains your ears. Against a constant root you stop hearing "the third fret" and start hearing "the major third" — the actual character of each note. Singers and Indian classical musicians have trained this way for centuries, and it works just as well on guitar.
Try this
- · Hold the drone on A and play the A major scale slowly — linger on each note.
- · Switch to A minor over the same drone. Hear the ♭3 change everything.
- · Play one note at a time and name the interval before you move on.
Textures
- Deep: Sine waves — grounding bass.
- Warm: Triangle waves — rich mid-range.
- Ethereal: Filtered saws — atmospheric.