Ever heard guitarists, bassists, and producers ramble about tone? If you’ve ever seen a guitarist’s pedalboard you know it’s a great deal to them. So, what’s tone mean to singers?
Tone refers to timbre, which is how we perceive what a sound sounds like. To control your tone as a singer you must use the appropriate technique. You can also fine-tune your ear to understand what tone is if you try to undertake music production as one of your skills although it should be noted that music production’s ability to alter tone does not alleviate the need for singers to control it.
We need to understand what tone is and how it works so we can get to the part of how we can control it. Knowing multiple techniques will allow you not just to control your tone but to become a great singer as well.
Timbre
To understand ‘tone’ in singing is to understand timbre.
Timbre is the quality of a sound. We may even classify it as random adjectives and even verbs. For example, make it more ‘boomy’, make it sound ‘lazy’.
Every sound has a timbre whether you may be able to describe it or not.
Why We All Sound Different
That’s the reason we all sound so different.
Two people do not have the same voice even if they are related. Even if they are both speaking the same language and dialect.
Your voice’s timbre is unique to you. It’s what differentiates you from the rest of the people. You can alter it to some degree (more on that later), but your speaking voice is yours.
In some sense. Timbre is who you are, sonically.
Music Production
Timbre is highly spoken in adjectives in music production. It’s the manipulation of tones and sounds that leads to having audio files have a different feel to them.
Mixing music is essentially making the distinctions between sounds. When someone uses an equalizer on an audio file they are messing with how it sounds and timbre as said earlier is how something sounds.
Even sampling, which I’m sure you’ve heard of already, is capturing different sounding sounds so that you may use it later as an audio file. If you think about it, it’s recognizing what kind of sounds sound good with other sounds.
We’re essentially looking and listening to timbre at all times.
A fun exercise is to imagine your own voice and then alter it in your head. Make it go high like when someone inhales helium and then make it go really low.
Quite amazing.
What You Can Control
We’ve just understood how we define all sounds.
Tone is another way of saying what something sounds like.
So, what can we control? That’s a very important question.
You must’ve heard some people sing from their nose and are termed to have some ‘nasally’ voice and some people sing from their throat, which depending on what you’re trying to do and achieve with your singing will be found to be acceptable or not.
But what controls it?
Technique.
It’s so powerful that the correct use of technique can change your tone (or timbre) in singing completely. The fastest way to experience this is to speak or sing while pinching your nostrils.
Technique, not a very good example but it is one.
But, if you were to learn to use the correct technique you could do a lot with it. Especially if you sing nasally or throaty, the fastest way to fix those problems is by fixing your technique.
I spoke about knowing what you want to achieve, in modern-day singing, singing from your nose or your throat isn’t really a good thing per se. So learning the correct technique becomes even more important.
All of singing is knowing which technique to use and to use it on a level that is masterful.
Technique Controls Tone
If you have to take away anything from this article take this, technique controls tone.
To the point that if you can employ a correct technique, you can sound like anything you want to. On this page right here, there is a course for rock singing. They teach you a technique in which you can distort your voice so you get that rock and roll effect in it while being 100% safe.
That’s the power of technique.
Word of Caution
Make sure that when you are practicing that you don’t practice the wrong techniques. Because once they are turned into habits you’d have to work twice as much when you could’ve just gotten it right in the first place.
A good practice session includes you preparing what you have to practice and one of the best ways that I think that you can get better at singing is through online courses.
Yes, they teach you the right techniques so you never learn a bad technique.
Other Instruments
Okay, think about it.
Techniques are everywhere. If you look at how a guitar starts to sound different when someone strums, taps, and even makes use of the guitar’s body as a percussion instrument.
Technique is just as present as timbre.
Something About Music Production
I mentioned earlier that in music production timbre is something we end up messing with almost all the time.
EQ, compression, saturation, and every other FX in music production that is applied to an audio file affects its timbre.
However, music production, being as good as it is, will not cure you of bad singing. Or it shouldn’t be used as a way to. So, if you’re in the mindset that music production can cure your lack of ability to master a technique, you’re wrong.
The only cure for mastering technique is practicing. Even if it is just 30 minutes a day.
If you don’t sing well, it doesn’t matter how good your engineer is, you should’ve put in a better performance.
Professional Ethics
So, you shouldn’t be a professional burden on someone else. Instead, look hard at what you’ve been doing wrong and why you aren’t able to sing.
The answers are all there. My version of that answer lies in knowing and believing that online courses work.
You have to put in the time to become good at what you do. Please don’t rely on technologies, no matter how good they may be for your lack of singing. Be better than the rest who can be a real pain to work with.
Knowing about timbre and music production will only help you, especially in the studio. Make the best of it.
Why Technique is Important
Technique isn’t optional anymore.
It allows you to go beyond timbre. It shows how good you are. How truly good you are. A good singer almost always applies more than one technique while they’re singing.
And I am so glad that you’re thinking about tone. Because now that you are made aware of how technique can affect your tone you will be able to manipulate it to the point of bending it to your will.
Or, at least practice as such.
Because without a good and proper technique, you’re not going to get very far in music.
All of playing and performing music is technique.
Don’t Get Lost
But hold on. Don’t let this distract you.
Tone, timbre, and everything else can become very mind-numbing quite fast. It’s good to know but don’t let it ruin things for you.
Now you’ve read about it and understood what it is, I suggest looking at singing and music as a whole with tone (or timbre) being a part of it and not just one element that you ought to get focused on too much.
I wrote earlier that singers employ various techniques at the same time. How can you possibly aim to achieve that if you’re stuck on just one thing?
Things like these are good to be aware of so you can make a better decision but that’s it. Beyond this, it’s an open debate, even in music production, there really is no better or worse tone.
If the mixing engineer was going for a ‘dull’ mood in their mix then that’s that, it’s achieved its purpose. Quite straightforward isn’t it?
So, that’s why I talked so much about technique, master it and your tone will be in check as well.
This knowledge is supposed to be liberating you to do things rather than holding you back to a certain type of mindset. So, you know everything that you could possibly know about it.
Why Pros Don’t Talk About It
Ever noticed professionals talk about tone and timbre?
Rarely.
Proving my point that overthinking about it really won’t lead you anywhere.
Do you know why?
Because as long as you have your technique under control you will end up sounding good. That’s why.
Professional singers have their technique on point, so much so that it’s almost second nature for them. So it makes no sense to talk about timbre or tone.
So, my suggestion?
Focus on getting better. Maybe pick up music theory, maybe some music production. But, try to get better at singing.
Practice hard.