Tone Color

Varieties in tone color at the piano are produced by different kinds of touch, unequal distribution of power both in tones struck simultaneously and successively, differences in the moment of attack and release of tones, differences in the degrees of legato and staccato in sustaining tones, different uses of the pedals, and in other ways too subtle to discuss at this point. Still, in coloring the tone quality of piano playing comes largely through repeated experimentation at the keyboard, listening intently to the results of different ways of laying the same passage and contrasting passages. Careful observation of the playing of others and of the effects which they produce is a most helpful practice.

Above all, tone coloring is the result of aesthetic imagination, which conceives an effect and strives to realize it. The teacher should strive to stimulate his pupils to expressive playing through coloring the tone quality of their performance in accordance with the spirit of the music. The use of songs in the early study of piano playing is a great help in this work. The songs express mood. The children may first sing them so that the mood is reflected in the vocal tone quality. Then they can strive to color the playing with the same tone quality. Such imaginative coloring of the tone serves as the best background for the later more technical approach to the subject through varieties of touch, dynamics, phrasing, and pedaling.

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