My master’s project was all about teaching intonation to beginning string players, and as part of that I read a lot of books and interviewed a lot of teachers about their best practices. Over and over I heard the same solution: use drones. If you want your students to play in tune, you should use drone tones in your classes.
Interestingly, while many teachers advocate for using drone tones to improve intonation, the research doesn’t show any significant improvement in intonation when students use drones. All the studies that I found were short term, however, and the results would probably be different with a long term study.
In any case, drones are a tool that teachers can use to help improve intonation with their students. As with any tool, there are pros and cons. Drones are wonderful for giving students a reference pitch and for teaching students to maintain a tonal center. Drones can help students start hearing intervals and listening to intonation harmonically. There are also dozens of ways to use drones in a music class, which makes them one of the most versatile tools that we can use in teaching students about intonation.
On the flip side, drone tones won’t help a bit if students don’t know why or what to listen for. I’ve used drones with my students for years, but I didn’t always explain why. One year I asked my students if they liked playing with the drone. I was surprised and shocked by some of their answers.
- “I don’t like it because it’s just kind of annoying.”
- “I like it because it drowns me out and I don’t have to listen to myself play.”
- “I like it because it covers up my intonation problems.”
Um, what? Obviously I was doing something wrong. We made some adjustments and after a few weeks, my students understood why we use drones and how to use them in their private practice. If you are planning to start using drones in your classes, here are my suggestions.
Before using drones for any reason, explain to your students why you’re doing it. Give them something specific to listen for as they play with the drone. Just having a drone on won’t magically make them play more in tune.
Explain why you are using a specific drone pitch. Teach them how to figure out what key the music is in, and how to determine tonic and other important notes in the scale. Try playing the same selection or exercise with different drone pitches and talk about how it felt/sounded different. Eventually, allow the students to choose the drone pitch for the selection that you are playing and have them explain why they chose that pitch.
Make sure to play the drone pitch at the correct volume. Too loud and the students won’t be able to hear themselves. Too soft and they won’t be able to hear the drone.
Once you’ve prepped your students to use a drone and you have it all set up correctly, here are some of my favorite ways to use drones in my classes.
Stop, Drop, Replay
The exercise: Set the drone for a specific pitch that you want to have students match. This could be a note that is frequently out of tune in a piece, or a note in a new finger pattern, or a note the students have to shift to. Have them play the note with the drone, hold it for a few seconds to make sure it’s in tune, then drop their hands and try again. This exercise is even more effective if you have them work up to the pitch, either by playing a scale or a short passage.
Why I like it: Pitch matching is the easiest way for students to use a drone, and it gives them a reference pitch for some of those tricky notes in a piece or exercise. (See my post on pitch matching for more ideas.) The repetition helps them build kinesthetic awareness and learn the hand shape needed to play in tune. I love using this with shifting exercises or in a piece with accidentals or key signatures that my students have trouble with.
Improv Practice
The exercise: Choose a scale or finger pattern to use and set a drone for the tonic of the scale. Play a short melodic idea and have the students repeat it back. After doing this a few times, give the students 30-60 seconds to come up with their own musical ideas. Take turns listening to each student’s ideas and playing it back.
Why I like it: There is so much to learn and talk about in this exercise! Not only does it reinforce finger patterns, but you can also discuss what makes a good melody, consonant versus dissonant intervals, how to use dissonance in a melody to create tension and resolution, and so much more! The drone gives the students a sense of “home base” and provides instant harmony to their improvised melodies.
Singing/Playing Intervals
The exercise: Play a drone pitch. Demonstrate how to sing a certain interval against the drone (half step, whole step, P5, etc.) and have the students sing the interval. Change the drone to a different pitch and have them try to sing the interval again. Repeat as needed. This can also be done by playing the pitches instead of singing them, or playing them immediately after singing them.
Why I like it: Teaching students to hear intervals is crucial to good intonation. Singing the intervals helps students start to audiate them before playing them.
Scale Ladders
The exercise: In this exercise, the students play their own drone tones! Divide the class in half and tell them what scale to play. Half of the class will hold out the tonic note as a drone while the other half of the class plays up one octave of the scale. When they reach the top octave, they hold out the tonic note while the other half of the class starts playing up the scale. Repeat the process on the way down.
Why I like it: Instant harmony! This exercise makes scales more interesting and fun to play, and it encourages the students to listen closer to the intervals within the scale. They also get to hear the intervals with a lower drone and a higher drone.
Other tips for using drones in class:
- Are you working with one section while everyone else is sitting around? Have them play drone tones on the tonic or whatever other note might be most helpful for the section you’re working with.
- Use open strings as drones! Anytime students play a note that matches an open string, they can use the open string as a drone to make sure they’re in tune. You can also have them play a short passage as double stops with an open string to test out intonation as well.
- Use drones in pieces, not just exercises! Drones are great for scales and exercises, but don’t stop there. Teach students how to use drones when they practice a piece of music, too. Talk about how to figure out what key the piece is in and what notes you could use as a drone.
- Experiment with different drone pitches. Most of the time we use the tonic and dominant pitches as drones, but we could use other pitches as well. You might want to drone a specific note that is always out of tune, or a note that gets played over and over again. Different drone pitches will make the passage sound and feel different. Experiment and talk about it with your students.