Timbre
“Is this a trombone or a marimba?”
There are thousands of instruments in the world. Even though it would be a career in and of itself to know all of them, I try to learn and teach as many of them as I can. Being able to tell the difference between a cello and a violin or a trumpet and a tuba has to do with timbre. Timbre is the character or quality of a musical sound, or voice, as distinct from its pitch and intensity. Here is a simple way that I work on this with a group of dance students: