More Learning from Hearing 
Timbre and Timber!
What is timbre? According to the dictionary, it is the characteristic quality of the sound produced by a particular instrument or voice – also known as tone color. Why is it worth exploring? Because it’s part of the world around us, and awareness of timbre can encourage a child to explore the physics of sound as well as becoming aware of one of the important elements of music.
Here is a short vignette between Tony, a Kindergarten child of five and his father, Luis, who teaches music and chorus at the local school. It is 6:00 PM, and Tony is watching TV in the Living Room. Luis enters, holding a shoe box.
Luis: C’mon, Tony, I have something to show you.
Tony: Dad, I just want to watch this program.
Luis: I made this for you yesterday. He holds up a covered shoe box.
Tony: It’s a joke, right Dad? It’s just a shoe box.
Luis: Shaking the box. What do you think is in there?
Tony: Open it, Dad.
Luis: Not until you turn off the TV. Tony turns it off. Luis opens the box and reveals a sheet covering several objects.
Tony: No fair! I turned off the TV.
Luis: Let me teach you the game. You close your eyes, and I’m going to drop something on the floor and you tell me what it sounds like.
Tony: After that, can I turn the TV back on?
Luis: OK. Ready to listen?
Tony: With a sigh. Go ahead.
Luis: He quickly drops a pencil on the floor, and then a small ball. OK – what did you hear?
Tony: He opens his eyes. A pencil and a ball. Big deal.
Luis: Wait a minute. Tell me how they sounded?
Tony: The pencil sounded kind of woody, and I heard the ball bounce a little.
Luis: See the pen in there? Drop the pen and then the pencil. Tony does so.
Tony: They sound almost the same, only the pen’s not woody.
Luis: Because it’s made of plastic. But they both sound almost the same because they have a similar shape. Now you pick two and I’ll close my eyes. Tony takes a dime and a safety pin out of the box and drops them on the floor. Luis opens his eyes. I heard the dime kind of bounce, but almost nothing from the safety pin. But in a way, they did sound alike. You know why?
Tony: Because I picked good ones!
Luis: Giving him a hug. Of course! The reason is that they’re both made of metal. Let’s try it on the tile in the bathroom. You carry the pencil and the pen, I’ll take the box.
They move to the bathroom and repeat the experiment.
Tony: Why does it sound different in here?
Luis: Because the sound comes from what you drop, and what it drops on. The tile makes a different sound than the wood in the Living Room.
Tony: But they still sound almost the same.
Luis: Because the pen and the pencil are still the same shape. If I take out the ball and drop it and then the pencil, is it almost the same? He does so.
Tony: No. That’s neat, Dad.
Luis: Everything has its own sound because of the shape and what you drop it on. Now listen to this. He takes out two identical spoons from the box and drops them one by one on the tile. What did you hear?
Tony: They’re the same. That’s because they are the same shape?
Luis: You got it! You know what we call this interaction between the sound of an object and what it falls on? It’s called “Timbre.” That’s French. But here, a lot of people pronounce it “Timber” – the word the worker yells out when he’s cutting down a big tree in the woods.
Tony: Right Dad, but that’s only when you’re using wooden pencils.
Luis: Laughing That’s a good one. I’ll clean this up. Why don’t you check in the kitchen and see if dinner’s ready?
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© Lise Liepmann 2011; All rights reserved
Credit Photographers: Boy, Digital Photos, Arvind Balaraman. Pencil, Digital Photos, Salvatore Vuono
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Please contact me at liseand@aol.com.
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Image by David Castillo Dominici,
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