KEYS
DRONING ON AND ON - PADS AND KEYS | David Pfaltzgraff
I had the opportunity to play keys at church recently , for the first time in a while . I was asked to play 2nd or ‘ aux ’ keys to support someone playing primarily piano parts . My original plan was to play all of my pads one hundred percent live , I figured that with no need to play piano voicings , I could handle it all as needed .
As I got into my prep , though , I realized some opportunities to do things a bit more strategically than that and ended up using a mix of pads generated by the ambient pad player I use , called ‘ Tonic ’ inside of Sunday Keys , and pads I was playing in real-time .
The service ended up going great , the band was locked in , and I walked away with a few takeaways that will stick with me the next time I ’ m working on how I ’ ll ‘ glue ’ the band together with ambience .
I thought this would be the perfect time to share a couple of the things I learned , but first we ’ ve got to talk about the origins of ‘ drone pads ’ in the first place .
DRONE , DRONE , DRONE A drone pad , from a music theory standpoint , is pretty darn simple . You take some combination of notes in the scale for whatever key you ’ re in , you trigger them somehow , and they just keep sustaining for as long as you need them to . The sounds used are usually spacey , ambient , and with some reverb and long release times they tend to smush together .
The notes chosen can vary , but most of the time it ’ s some combination of the one and five , with the occasional two , three , and four tossed in there for a bit of momentary tension . If you ’ re feeling really crazy , you might slip in the minor six . The most common combo to this day , though , is still just the one and the five .
Over the last ten to fifteen years , drone pads have become so widely used in worship music that it ’ s almost a given there ’ s one running in the background of any modern worship song .
The point is that these drones act as a bit of textural ‘ glue ’ and thicken up the ‘ wall of sound ’ vibe that ’ s been popular in modern worship music for a good while now . This technique was skillfully borrowed from numerous bands outside of worship music , with clear influences from Coldplay , U2 , and Brian Eno ’ s solo work dating back over forty years .
STATE OF AMBIENCE Today there are a lot of ready-made options for drone pads out there . A decade ago , the most common approach was to build or acquire a pre-recorded audio file , often ten minutes or longer in length and play it back through your sound system , but there are now more dynamic options available as well that allow you to sculpt and generate your drone pads with more intention and flexibility .
I use a system that falls into the latter category and as I was preparing for that recent worship service , I spent a few minutes per song thinking about the overall character of the song . For each one I made some simple choices to use different tonal elements that would help add a bit of definition to the tune . For example , we ended the service with Agnes Dei , which has a very sacred , grand feel . For that song I chose to layer the sound of an organ drenched in reverb along with a standard warm pad sound , to add a subtle , cathedral-like quality to the ambience . This sat in the background throughout the song , never getting in the way of what the band was doing but setting an intentional atmosphere that served the song well . We also played ‘ Who Else Is Worthy ’, and for that tune I chose a high , shimmery ambience that would stay out of the way of the blocky piano chords that carry the song ’ s lower moments .
I could have chosen a single drone pad sound and let it run through the entire setlist , sure , and it would ’ ve likely done a passable job of ensuring there was no dead air in the set ’ s low moments , but my big takeaway as I was preparing , and then as I saw the service play out while on the platform , was that it ’ s better to think of your drone pads as not just ‘ filling space ’ but as also ‘ setting space ’.
The drone pad can be used in more interesting ways , to be a first hint at where a song or arrangement is going , to provide a consistent
bed of energy for the band to build on , and yes , also to ensure your transitions have the time and coverage they need to flow .
Whatever approach you take to ambient pads now , my encouragement to you would be to not treat them as a given , nor as an afterthought . It might only require a minute or two of thought and effort to meaningfully heighten their effectiveness for your next service .
David Pfaltzgraff Founder and Lead Sound Designer at SundaySounds . com , a site that resources worship keys players and guitarists around the world . David currently resides in Des Moines , IA with his wife and two boys . He enjoys volunteering in his church ’ s worship ministry , old synthesizers , and a good super-hero movie .
SundaySounds . com
76 March 2025 Subscribe for Free ...