Tone And Listening

There is a lot to be said about the value of listening when it comes to developing a good tone.

This listening is a 2-way street. You have to listen to players who have a good tone, and you have to listen to yourself. This is the hard part.

The sound that you hear behind the horn is vastly different from the sound that is projected into the audience. There is a very easy way to hear how you sound. Tape record your playing and use it as a learning tool. It is normal to not hear your own mistakes as you play. This means that many faults that you could easily fix don’t get addressed.

When you listen to yourself make a real assessment of what things really sound like. Don’t make a huge laundry list because that will discourage you. Just list the top 3 problems. You can’t look at a list of 20 problems and fix anything.

You want to really concentrate on one bad thing at a time. Pick your worst issue and start working on that. 

Look at it this way if I work on something that I do at 80% and make a 2-3 % improvement. Well, that won’t be really noticed. If, however: I start working on a skill that I am 30% at I can make big improvements and that will be huge to my overall playing.

A tape is a harsh and unforgiving judge. Every missed note, faulty articulation, or inaccurate phrase is there for you to study. Everyone should record themselves at least twice a month. Tone And Listening are the most important things that we need to work on. If we don’t really listen to ourselves then nobody else will want to either.

Pops