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Tone Color Research Paper

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Have you ever heard a flute and an oboe play in an orchestra? They sound extremely different from one another even when they are playing a tone at the same frequency and for the same duration of time. This is called known as tone color, or timbre. “Tone color (timbre) is defined as the quality that distinguishes one musical instrument from another”(Book). Tone color is impacted by different components, but the most common is the material in which the instrument is crafted (Source 1). Some instruments are made of wood or metal, also instruments are made up of several different types of materials which can also affect the tone color. String instruments, such as a guitar and violin, make their musical sounds when the musician either plucks the …show more content…

Musicians who play woodwind instruments produce sounds by either blowing across the edge of a mouth hole (flute), or by blowing on a vibrating reed (clarinet or saxophone). There are two types of reed woodwinds, there are the single reed woodwinds used by the clarinets and there are the double reed woodwinds used by the saxophones. “The vibrations of brass instruments come from the musician’s lips as he or she blows into a cup-or funnel-shaped mouthpiece” (Book). The trombone uses a slide, and when the player pushes the slide in or out, the player can control the length of the note and change the pitch. The rest of the brass instruments, French horn, trumpet, and tuba, use three or four valves to direct the air flow. Mostly all of the percussion instruments are struck by hand, or with sticks or hammers. “Percussion instruments are subdivided into instruments or …show more content…

“The air makes the vocal cords vibrate and the singers’ lungs, throat, mouth, and nose come in to play to produce the desired sound. The pitch of the tone varies with the tension of the vocal cords, the tighter they are, the higher the pitch” (3Book). Vocal classifications for women are soprano, mezzo-soprano, and alto (3Book). The men’s vocal classifications are tenor, baritone, and bass (3Book). Depending on the vocal classification a singer has would determine which ensemble group they would be in. “According to Princeton University, a musical ensemble is ‘a group of two or more musicians who perform instrumental or vocal music’”(Source 2). There are multiple ensemble groups, all of which, expect for singing, come from the five musical instrument families listed in the previous paragraph. Orchestra, band or wind, chorus/choir, jazz band, vocal jazz, soloist, piano soloist, marching band, and pop or rock bands are just a few on the many performing ensemble

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