Has anyone ever tried this? It came up as I'm fleshing out racial cultures that don't have mentalists. Specifically, dwarves and half-orcs. To me, it makes sense that any culture has musicians, and there's possible bleed-through to spell-linked music. Since neither of these two has Essence or Mentalism under normal rules (and racial stat bonuses discourage that, as well), they would default to channeling.
For the half-orcs, I'm envisioning "battle bards." Metaphsycially, the onset of battle creates a local manifestation of a sort of "war spirit" they can draw power from. Their abilities outside of battle would be very limited.
Any thoughts or experiences?