Music GCSE
Tone colour
What Tone colour means in Music GCSE, as defined for Pearson Edexcel.
Definition of Tone colour
Check what you remember
Read the wording for your board, then hide it and explain Tone colour in your own words. Rough notes are fine. This is a self-check, with no mark or grade.
Reference: Pearson Edexcel
The particular quality of sound that lets you tell one instrument or voice from another, even at the same pitch and dynamic.
Topics that use Tone colour
- Appendix 3: Musical vocabulary - Sonority and texture (Pearson Edexcel GCSE)
Related terms
- Accompaniment and harmony
- Basso continuo
- Changes of sonority
- Figured bass realisation
- Homophonic
- Imitation and contrapuntal writing
- Listening and identification
- Monophonic
Using Tone colour in the exam
Check the command word and mark scheme for your exact question. After comparing your explanation with the reference, use the term in an answer on the linked topic. This practice does not predict an exam mark.
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