For tone improvement exercises, which method do you think is best - Wye's Practice Book 1 (Tone) or Moyse's "De La Sonorite"? I would love to hear opinions from anyone who has used either or both of these tone exercise books.

Thanks!!

Personally I prefer the Wye book. He bases a lot of his exercises on the ones from De La Sonorite, so you get the benefit of the Moyse along with many other exercises, and tons of informative text. It's really a terrific book.

both are good, as are other methods, try to broaden your horizons when it comes to tone and technical studies, the more you have to choose from and rotate, the less bored you will be in your practice, also, make up your own tone exercises

I was thinking about this question, and I think that perhaps we have the wrong idea when it comes to tone exercises. We play these to work on tone, but shouldn't everything (scales, etudes, repertoire, etc...) be a tone exercise? I can't think of a single thing that would not benefit from a conscious attention to tone. Yes, it's good to have exercises dedicated specifically to improving your sound, but I think many people stop paying as much attention to their sound after they've played through whatever exercises they've chosen for that day.

I personally do not have a preference between either one of them. I think Trevor Wye's book is better for begginers and it explains things better. Also I think the exercise in the back of the Moyse De La Sonorite where it is the triplets and it works on large intervals is an excellent exercise for embouchure flexibility.

everything IS a tone exercise, slow tone exercises are also finger exercisese

too many separate everything into categories, its all inter-related

>>everything IS a tone exercise<<

I need to put that on a banner and post it in my studio!

Joe B

>>Yes, it's good to have exercises dedicated specifically to improving your sound, but I think many people stop paying as much attention to their sound after they've played through whatever exercises they've chosen for that day.
<<

I do agree. However, I think it's the same as an athlete practicing a certain move. Repeating it over and over, and thinking about it, make it eventually become more natural and automatic.

That said, I do think you're right--you can't keep each skill in its own little box. It needs to migrate into other areas of the practice session.

I've been working with the Wye book for the past week or so. I have to admit that my regular playing is now annoying to me--I am starting to hear everything that's wrong. I suppose that's a good thing, but it's a bit disgruntling.

that's right Joe

also, try not to approach any exercise as an exercise, I truly believe there are artistic answers to technical problems, if you play an "exercise" like a piece of music, it is a lot more fun to play

assign a name to your next tone exercise, and when you play scales instead of calling them scales, call them "running up and down stairs"