Zachary,
> But the tube resonates as well! Don't you feel it in your hands as you
> play? Surely even the technicians must say that the way a tube resonates
> will depend on the material it's made out of.
Without question. But we're talking about two different kinds of resonance.
What you feel in your hands is radial resonance while what you hear with
your ears is longitudinal resonance. The question concerning shaks has to do
with how much radial resonance affects longitudinal resonance. No one seems
to know--it's not clear. It's certainly not a big factor, but is it an
important factor?
The two camps, let's call them Materialists and the Geometers, come at this
from different angles. The Materialists tend to be the musicians and the
Geometers, the builders. For the Materialists sound is a subjective
experience and for the Geometers it's objective. Geometers are searching for
some kind of perfect sound and often they hampered by their lack of musical
ability. So they ask the Materialists who reply, "If it isn't bamboo and
bamboo of a certain species, it doesn't sound good."
> When I play, the shakuhachi totally vibrates. It becomes alive. Not only
> the column of air but the fibers of the bamboo itself are resonating. It's a
> very palpable sensation in the hands.
If Geometers were a little smarter they'd give Materialists what they
want--radial resonance. They know how to build that in and it doesn't depend
much on material, it's just geometry. There seems to be a Materialist
correlation between how a flute feels in the hands and the experience of
it's sound. Geometers want to go on sound alone. For the Geometer radial
resonance is more of a nuisance, an artifact. If anything it gets in the way
of the search for the perfect sound.
Anyway, if you like hand vibration it can be built and built so your hands
will be tingling an hour afterwards.
Nelson
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