Claude Gordon and Tone

Blue Devil · Posted: Sun Sep 22, 2002 7:54 pm Post subject:

Is it safe to post something in here yet??!!?? Hopefully all is quiet on the battlefront...

I was wondering what Claude taught his students regarding developing a student's tone. In everything that I have read (and seen, via his video), I haven't seen Claude reference tone at all. Did he take the same approach as he did with range - i.e. don't worry about it, it will develop with the rest of the "machine" through systematic practice, or, was there other advice that he used to give?

Thanks for everybody's (including John's) continued involvement in this forum admist all of the circumstances.

Mike Trzesniak

[ This Message was edited by: Blue Devil on 2002-09-22 22:55 ]

John Mohan · Posted: Tue Sep 24, 2002 3:06 am Post subject:

Yes, Claude's approach to tone was pretty much, "let it develop".

As he said to me, "What good is it going to do for a teacher to yell at his student and say, 'you gotta clean up that tone'?" What is a student going to do to instantly fix his tone or make it better?

Proper practice and development (while thinking about playing as nicely as you can while practicing) develops a good clear tone, given time.

Sincerely,

John Mohan