Does anyone have any tone exercises I can do?! I've never done any, so don't have a clue where to start!
It's a weka point of mine, since I only have remotely good tone if I practise it for a long time in a piece.

Anything would be useful!
Thanks

Great minds think alike! I need them too!

try playing long tones (seems to be a remedy for anything! lol)

concentrate on the sound you are making and try to make it sound fab.... If you can get the notes around the break (A, Bb, G sharp etc) sound good then you should have a good tone for the other notes. Ones around the break always seem the fuzziest to me! - i guess i should do this with a tuner... i am so out of tune when i play my notes - at least each note is as out of tune as the other! lol.. - must change embouchure!

Are there any like books with exercises in?

I'm an expert on this, it has been drilled into my head over the past few weeks.

Start off with playing scales, which ever one you like, chromatic scales are good for this, (this is also a good way to learn scales) every note lasting for eight crotchets, at tempo 50, make sure you really listen to the tone you're producing and play about with you embouchure etc.

Then, do the same only start off every note very quiet (pp) and become very loud (ff), and then the next note very quiet becoming very loud etc.

Then, do the opposite and start off every note very loud and and gradually become very quiet.

After that, change it so that each note last for 12 crotchets (still at tempo 50) and start off very quiet, become very loud in the middle and then very quiet again for the end.

Then do broken chords (e.g. for C Major, C E G, E G C, G C E etc.) (tempo 50), every note lasting for 1 crotchet, (slurred tongued etc. have a variety), and make every note equal so that no note is more noticable than the others.

Do this as often as possible; every time you practice preferably, and your tone should hopefully start to improve!

Now you all see why I lost my enthusiasm for practice when my teacher told me to work on tone!

QUOTE (Hulk @ May 7 2005, 09:19 PM)

Now you all see why I lost my enthusiasm for practice when my teacher told me to work on tone!

Thanks! I'll try those later today!

I wish my teacher had told me to work on tone and given me exercises! I've just been expected to "do it" as I've learned!

I have a very old textbook (from the 50's I think) by Otto Langley with lots of tone excercises and they aren't too dull. Finding a copy might be quite tricky though!

Long notes are a good idea, but I find the best way to improve tone is to play slow movements that call for good tone and expression. Things like like movement 1 and 3 of Tartini, Adagio of Mozart's concerto and quintet, second of the Brahms F Minor, Bliss Pastoral, and several others.

I always remember that tone comes more from the diaphram than anything else. Remember to breathe from there, not higher up. (please don't say you already know that, you probably do, but remembering to do something is different from knowing about it).

Also, simple things like cleaning the instrument when it gets over condensated, moistening or repositioning the read, or even lining parts of the instrument properly can make a huge difference.

Hope I'm not stating the obvious here. Hope it helps.

Obvious is good, it's on language I can understand!

Thanks, I'll try those things next time I play to see if they make a difference!