Tone & Attitude

Sometimes it’s not the voice or the words, but the tone of voice that communicates the most. The same is true of your instrument. Sometimes it’s not the notes or the phrase, as much as the tone of the instrument that communicates the feeling. But this is a lot easier to do with your voice than it is with your instrument. With the voice, it’s an automatic part of being human. You don’t have to think about how you express your emotions. It’s just natural.

But with instruments, the opposite is true. Not only do you have to think about it, you have to actively search for the proper tones. It’s found not only in the way you play your instrument, but also in the construction of the instrument, and the various pieces of equipment your instrument might be plugged in to in order to help generate it’s sound. Depending upon your instrument, you’ll typically have lots of buttons and knobs at your finger tips that all alter your instrument’s sound in some manner.

Add to this the myriad of effects that can be applied to instruments, like the guitar and keyboard, and now the tone possibilities seem overwhelming! Should you add reverb? Delay? Chorus? Phaser? Compression? Obviously the overwhelming number of options you have over your instrument’s sound makes it difficult to hone in on that perfect tone.

But the important aspect of your search for the ultimate tone is not the destination. It’s in the journey. You’ve no doubt heard this cliché before, but maybe not in the context of tone. So why am I saying that the search for tone is more important than finding a good tone? Primarily because I don’t believe there is a single “ultimate tone” for any one player. I think there’s an ultimate tone for a song, but not a player. The player should change their tone in subtle and not-so-subtle ways to make their instrument fit their own style and the particular song as well.

Not only should your tone be different for different songs, but your tone will probably evolve over time. Just as your listening tastes in music evolve over time, so will your tone preferences.

Through the process of searching for your ultimate tone (whatever that currently is for you) you are learning how to manipulate your instrument’s tone. And this is the most important aspect of your tone search: you learning how to manipulate your sound. Your ability to manipulate your sound on a regular basis, is the key for a successful tone search. How can you find your ultimate tone if you don’t continually alter your sound in pursuit of that tone? And along your journey, you will discover new and exciting tones. They may not be your favorite. But once you discover them, you’ll remember. And you will come back to those tones from time to time as you evolve. And this ability to revisit a multitude of tones is more important than finding that one ultimate tone.

It is good to finally find that awesome tone that one desires. After decades of searching, I found the tone I was looking for. But that’s just one tone. If I used that one tone all the time, it’d be like a human speaking with the same emotion all the time, like someone who’s always shouting because they are always angry. That would get on your nerves very quickly. Just like a human uses multiple tones, depending upon exactly what they wish to communicate, so should the song writer. The song writer should use different tones for different emotions, different attitudes. Your ability to dial in a tone to fit the moment, to fit the song, will depend upon your search for your ultimate tone, but not whether you’ve found it yet or not, because during your search you will have experienced several different attitudes from your instrument, several different tones.

The tone of your instrument is like the tone of your voice. Accordingly, your ability to apply the right tone (not the ultimate tone) is like your ability to apply the right attitude when you communicate through language. But just like your language communication skills, with your musical communication skills, it’s the range of tones you draw from, not one certain ultimate tone, that will best serve your song writing skills. And this is why your search for the ultimate tone is more important that you finally discovering your ultimate tone.

[Here are some hints as you search for your ultimate tone: Read the user manuals for all the equipment that your sound runs through, even if you’ve used these devices for years. You’d be surprised at all the information a mind can forget over the years. Use clean equipment, especially strings if you play guitar. New strings can alter your tone quite drastically for the better. Always make sure your instrument is tuned properly. And finally, understand how the characteristics of your equipment affects your tone. For example: does your guitar have humbucking or single coil pickups? Are you using the bridge or neck pickup? Are the pickups passive or active? Is your amp tube or solid state? Are you using a mic? Is the mic dynamic or condenser? Knowledge about your equipment and your effects is your most beneficial tool in your search for that ultimate tone!]


Copyright ©2009 W.A. Blevins