Vern Smith wrote:
If differences of cover design are imperceptible to the audience,
why bother.
The idea of music is to provoke subjectivism in the audience. Why
remove it from the performer?
The player is a listener too. If there is a way to deny the player
knowledge of what kind of covers he is playing, I predict that he
would not be able to to distinguish among covers of different
designs.
Why would we want to do that? When I go to listen to someone like,
say, Phil Wiggins play, I like the fact that Phil selects his
harmonicas based on how he wants people to hear him. Whether that's
attributable to the cover shapes or the comb material or the size of
Phil's enormous hands is immaterial to me, the listener, but it might
be material - whether perceived or real - to Phil as a performer.
Likewise, when I go hear Phil Gazelle, I like the fact that Phil
selects his harmonicas based on how he wants people to hear him.
Whether that's attributable to the cover shapes or the comb material
or the precision of Phil's intonation and placement of his microphone
is immaterial to me, the listener, but it might be material - whether
perceived or real - to Phil as a performer.
Rather than trying to prove that it's all an illusion, why not just
allow the illusions to guide performers to bring their audience to
subjectivity?
Wrapped in warm wood,
-tim
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