Adding Drones and Double Stops to My Transcriptions

As I have worked to transcribe the tunes I am learning, I have begun to consider whether I should be notating the drones that I use as well, as they do tend to clutter up the measures a bit.

However, learning which strings to drone or double-stop on can be confusing yet this is an essential part of making a fiddle tune sound, well, like a fiddle tune. [NOTE: A double-stop differs from a drone only in the respect that the harmony string is not played open, but rather with a fingered note.] So, to that end, I think from this point forward, I will try to provide two versions of each tune that I transcribe.

Both versions will be available for you to print out. To access the drone versions of each tune, I will provide a link beneath the window displaying the original melody-only version. I again offer my standing disclaimer that I am totally amateur at music theory, transcription and fiddling so although I strive for, I cannot guarantee 100% accuracy. I am a fiddle student, not an instructor. For that reason, if you find something that you feel is inaccurate in any of my transcriptions, please don’t hesitate to tell me. I won’t be offended (well, maybe a little…haha).

If I myself find an error on any of my transcriptions, I do re-post them with the correction(s) (even if significant time has elapsed since the original posting). Therefore, I encourage you to go back and take a look at tunes that you may have printed previously and see if they have been updated, especially if they aren’t sounding, shall we say, copasetic.

As time permits, I will go back and add drone versions to the tunes that I have already notated. Currently, I have already done so for:

• Cluck Old Hen

• Sugar In My Coffee

• Old Molly Hare

The more I learn about drones and double-stops the more I realize that there is still much to learn about chords and music theory if I wish to be a really serious player. As I look into my crystal ball (or should I say, chunk of old rosin), I foresee several blog posts on that subject in my future. Yeay.