Guitarists have a saying—“Tone is in your fingers.” A great guitar player doesn’t necessarily need the most expensive equipment to make music. They can somehow get just about any guitar rig to sound pretty good. The sound follows their fingers. That’s where the tone is. But a less experienced player? They could buy the same guitar, the same strings, the same pick and amp and equipment, but they still won’t get the same sound.
Everyone has their own version of tone-in-the-fingers.
The artist might have preferred paints and brushes, but the art is already there in their head and hands.
The great hitter can still wallop the snot out of a softball no matter what bat she’s using.
The conversationalist can chat with just about anyone.
The cut-up is just plain funny no matter who the crowd is.
Mathematicians, debaters, writers, coders—they’ve each got their version of tone. And while equipment or other outside factors might help them bring out their best, their tone is always there. That’s why even their version of average is still pretty good.
Where do you naturally have great tone? What’s your version of the guitarist who can always coax good sound? Whatever your answer, it’s likely a strength that you enjoy, that you could embrace enthusiastically, and that you could present compellingly in some way to colleges.