Today our band director asked us to help him select which flute plays could enter top band and when it was my turn to say the voting was split half and half or one spot left. I heard both perform and both could play well but one had better finger control on the faster song. The second had tonal color that I believed was pretty good. How do i decided which is better?

My Band Teacher goes by tone, but you deffinataly need to be able to have your fingers and speed of the music meet at the same time.

Tone and technique can be divided into smaller subcategories that may help you decide, and are not the only things to listen for. Tone fits into a larger category (in my mind)...Musicality. How were their choices of inflection, breathing, dynamics, overall style, etc? As for technique, finger speed is not the only thing in question. How was their articulation? How abuot their flexibility? These are all things only you can answer, but in the end, I would choose the more musically inclined player over the more technically advanced player. I feel that there are more than enough flutists who can wiggle their fingers fast, but too few who know how to make music.