Re: TONE

[Ron/datadigr <rdg@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi all:

I'll weigh in on this one...

I think *great tone* is largely subjective, that it involves some
commonalities like resonance and so on, but that--even then, with
the range of techniques and embouchures used or hard-wired into the
various players--that tone will range wildly and that what pleases one
person in "tone" may be horrible to another. I think that the term
"great tone" is too connected to taste to be absolutely defineable,
and that taste is why there is enough for everybody.

Who do I think has great tone (not a complete list):
Carlos del Junco, Lee Oscar, Mitch Weiss, Sugar Blue as examples.

Who do I think does not:
Charlie McCoy, Sonny Terry, Sonny Boy II, Paul Delay and Mark Ford.

And go figure--Paul Delay and Mark Ford, for examples, are two of my
absolute favorite players, and I LOVE their stuff--listen to it
incessantly...but not for tone. And everybody I've named in this
email is really really good at what they do/did.

I don't think great tone can be defined any more accurately than "what
I'd like to sound like, even when I play one note or simple passages".

Have at me :-)

Ron/datadigr