 What are pitch, timbre, and loudness? Pitch is a dimension along which tones can be ordered according to apparent “height”. The pitch of fingernails scratching a blackboard generally is higher than that of thumping a washtub. Loudness can be glossed as the volume, intensity, or quantity of sound. A jet plane makes louder sounds than a model plane. Timbre is more difficult to describe. Timbre is a quality in which sounds that share pitch and loudness might differ. So, a violin, a cello, and a piano all playing the same note differ in timbre. Sometimes timbre is called “tone color”.