Tone colour

What is tone colour?

If you make a list of all the instruments or sound sources in a piece of music, you are describing the tone colour of the music. You can also describe each instrument's family, what the instrument is made from, how it is being played, and the timbre of each instrument. 

Some instruments can be played in many different ways, which connects tone colour to the concept of expressive techniques. For example, the double bass can be played with a bow (arco) or plucked with a finger tip (pizzicato). These two expressive techniques of playing the double bass result in very different tone colours.

Connections to other concepts

Tone colour is effected by other concepts of music. As a flute plays higher, its tone colour may sound more shrill, which relates to the concept of pitch. When a speaker is too loud it creates a distorted tone colour, created by the change in dynamic or volume.

If the musician plays in a particularly unusual or creative way, it is termed an extended technique. Examples include singing while blowing into a trumpet to create multiphonics, and playing a vibraphone with a cello bow. Composers of film music sometimes explore new sounds and tone colours by experimenting with extended techniques.

The term tone colour is sometimes used interchangeably with the word timbre when describing the quality of sound.