Matching Tone Colors

There are several ways to meld tone colors. Here are two.

Awhile back, I had the opportunity to play with my old stand partner from college. Both of our natural tone colors had changed, but our tones melded together so we sounded as one, within seconds.

There are several ways to meld your tone colors. Here are two.

The Natural Way

It takes a few months. As you play with a group, you will all eventually come to a consensus on tone color. It requires everyone to do a good job of listening to each other, so sometimes it can take longer than a few months.

On a side note, this is why it’s important for you to play duets with your teacher. Your tone color ends up automatically matching hers during the duets and you learn a lot about tone by matching her.

Matching Tone Color On Purpose

First chair has priority on dictating tone color. She shouldn’t have to say anything, everyone else should try to match her. She also has the right to change the tone color based on the song.

Let’s say the first chair’s natural tone color is sunshine yellow and yours is blue velvet. You can use this method to change yours to sunshine yellow. It might not be the same exact sunshine yellow, but it will be close enough.

Another Idea

One time I went to the Omaha Symphony and the flutes were doing a lovely soli. They had perfect intonation and matched each others’ tone color perfectly. They sounded like one person.

The next time through the melody, the clarinets joined in. The flutes changed their tone color to allow for the clarinets. Rather than flutes and clarinets playing together, they were “team woodwind.”

I knew exactly how they did it, it had just never occured to me to blend in that way. It was powerful.

This is a somewhat advanced skill, but it’s important to understand and be able to implement. I hope these ideas help.

Author: Tarah

I started playing flute in 1988 and piano in 1991. In 1996, my high school chose me to teach flute and piano to a partner grade school. I was chosen for a similar program in college. Tarah Schoell has always loved sharing her music and guiding others to learn new things. Because of this, she went to college to be a music teacher and has a B.S. in Elementary Education with a Concentrate in Music from Martin Luther College in New Ulm, MN. Tarah uses her music education degree to teach from her flute and piano studio, play in various professional and community ensembles, and run a blog on practice techniques at thequarternotes.com. She is active in the Omaha Music Teacher’s Association because she likes to support her fellow music teachers and use the monthly continuing education opportunities.

14 thoughts on “Matching Tone Colors”

  1. This is a great tip particularly to those new to the blogosphere. Short but very accurate information… Many thanks for sharing this one. A must read article!

  2. I?d have to contact you here. Which is not something I typically do! I enjoy reviewing an article that will certainly make people think. Additionally, thanks for permitting me to comment!

  3. I’m the co-founder of JustCBD brand (justcbdstore.com) and I am currently planning to broaden my wholesale side of business. I really hope that anybody at targetdomain is able to provide some guidance 🙂 I thought that the most ideal way to do this would be to connect to vape companies and cbd stores. I was really hoping if anyone could suggest a trustworthy web-site where I can buy CBD Shops Mailing List I am currently checking out creativebeartech.com, theeliquidboutique.co.uk and wowitloveithaveit.com. On the fence which one would be the most suitable solution and would appreciate any support on this. Or would it be much simpler for me to scrape my own leads? Ideas?

  4. I am the manager of JustCBD brand (justcbdstore.com) and I’m presently seeking to develop my wholesale side of company. I really hope that anybody at targetdomain is able to provide some guidance . I considered that the most ideal way to do this would be to connect to vape companies and cbd retailers. I was hoping if anyone could suggest a dependable site where I can purchase Vape Shop Database Leads I am currently checking out creativebeartech.com, theeliquidboutique.co.uk and wowitloveithaveit.com. On the fence which one would be the most ideal solution and would appreciate any assistance on this. Or would it be much simpler for me to scrape my own leads? Suggestions?

  5. There are some intriguing points in time in this post yet I don?t recognize if I see all of them facility to heart. There is some legitimacy yet I will certainly take hold viewpoint till I check out it better. Excellent post, many thanks as well as we desire extra! Added to FeedBurner as well

  6. A remarkable share, I just offered this onto an associate who was doing a little evaluation on this. As well as he as a matter of fact bought me breakfast since I found it for him. smile. So let me rephrase that: Thnx for the treat! But yeah Thnkx for spending the moment to review this, I really feel strongly regarding it and enjoy learning more on this subject. Ideally, as you end up being expertise, would you mind updating your blog site with even more information? It is highly useful for me. Big thumb up for this blog post!

  7. I am definitely bookmarking this website and sharing it with my acquaintances. You will be getting plenty of visitors to your website from me!

  8. I just want to mention I’m all new to blogs and absolutely savored this web page. Likely I’m planning to bookmark your website . You amazingly have awesome article content. Thanks a bunch for revealing your website.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *