Allegedly, I'm getting a theremin.
 

So, I totally forked NZ$900 on a Moog Etherwave Theremin (thats like ~US$500).

Most muso's will have heard of the theremin and/or recognise the sound, but most people give me some of the blankest looks. Naturally, I'm quite excited about my purchase (it doesnt arrive for a month or so yet), so I thought I'd share it with you friendly folk.

Easily the most curious and bizarre instrument I've ever seen, the theremin is played with no physical contact; instead it has two aerials, and you interrupt the electromagnetic field of each aerial with the field of your own body, providing impedance. One aerial controls pitch, the other volume. The sound ranges from strange and alien to soft and silky, I personally think its one of the most beautiful sounds.... it sounds like an opera singer on a very old record.

visit www.thereminworld.com for loads of great links - also search 'theremin' on youtube for interesting results! Thereminworld.com also has an extensive list of modern bands and artists that use or feature theremins, but here's a few:

- in the chorus of Tier, by Rammstein
- the intro of Just So You Know by American Head Charge
- quite a few songs by Portishead, but notably Mysterons
- Greenwood from Radiohead uses something called an Ondes-Martenot, which is not a theremin but sounds almost exactly the same, you can hear it on Motion Picture Soundtrack and The National Anthem.
- Those weird, weird bastards from Add N to X.
- Queens of the Stone Age make quasi-regular use of a theremin, or so I'm told.
- Bill Bailey, british comedian makes pretty good use of his Moog theremin during live shows, he does a lot of music-based material. Once he had two of them (!).

Hope I've got you interested, check out youtube for some interesting performances.

*doesn't want to wait a month*

- Lak

Dude, I TOTALLY want to play the theremin. It's the wackiest instrument ever. I understand the learning curve is pretty steep, though.

I actually heard of a theremin concerto that the world's foremost thereminist commissionsed from a composer... Can't remember the details, but I'd love to hear that.

Enjoy it, hear? Make some recordings and post them for us!

Congrats!

Do you know of any songs that incorporate both a theremin and turntablism? In my head, that combination would absolutely rock, but I've never found an example.

You forgot one of the most famous Theremin solos in the Beach Boys Good Vibrations.

There was a documentary about Theremin that came out about 10 years ago or so... I seem to recall it being very good.

Sure it's weird, but it's naturally expressive, perhaps more than any other instrument, short of a flute, imho.

Lately I can't get enought of the Cake tune, "Palm Of Your Hand", which has a very Theremin-like melody gliding through the background. I love it.

Rock on Lak!

Oh man, theremin is so cool. I saw an indie band once, and opening band, who played theremin, and right now, I can't for the life of me remember the name of the band. It is so odd to see it live, with them just moving their hands around and it making all sorts of crazy sounds. I'll edit and add the band name when I get home later on, I have the CD at home just can't remember. But yea, congrats, hoepfully you'll be able to make good use of it!

that's awesome.

i was hoping to build one someday. i think www.thereminworld.com has some schematics, too.

more bands that have used the instrument include Neutral Milk Hotel and Dr. Samuel J. Hoffman.

PaIA has a cheap one you can build. www.paia.com

The story of Leon Theremin is particularly interesting. He had other instruments similar to what we call the Theremin ...

oh man..........this is an interesting instrument.


*heads off to check all the links*

thanks fellas.........and enjoy Lak.....put her to good use.

The learning curve is quite, quite steep. It helps to have pefect pitch, which I don't have (if I did, maybe I'd be able to sing...?) but I've got pretty good relative pitch. I've never heard of the aformentioned theremin concerto, but I do know that Mr Jonny Greenwood wrote a very interesting peice for an orchestra, lead by two ondes-martenot. Apprently it's very good.

Because of my lack of singing ability, I've been writing some stuff where the theremin takes up the slot left empty by the vocals, should be fun.

It also occured to me today to do some Sigur Ros covers... can you imagine Sleepwalkers with a theremin doing the vocal line? Holy crap, how cool would that be...

Redlemon: Portishead has both theremin and tables, but as for at the same time, I'm not too sure. I don't recall any.

OK, so I figured out the band I saw, they're kinda this electronic thing (and Redlemon, if I remember right they do have turntables!!!) with the Theremin in the front of the mix. They're called IQU and the album is Sun Q. You can check them out at www.iquiqu.com. They're asian, some rather asian sounding beats with the theremin and the electronic beats, pretty cool. I'm sure you can listen to snipets on the internet somewhere!

On one of my previous laptops I was able to download a little program that emulated a Theremin using the slider (finger pad mouse thingy).

Haha, that's so awesome. When I get older and start building up a nice amount of disposable income, I want to start a collection of instruments and the Theremin is right up near the top (it has some stiff competition from the Didgeridoo). Anyway, since there are some suggestions for bands, I recommend listening to The Moog Cookbook. They use Moog syntesizers to cover some popular 90's songs. Though I can't remember if they specifically used the theremin, it's very interesting and funny.

I watched some videos of a person playing one. It's really trippy, and looks like a TON of practice to learn how to play.

Yeah I'm gonna be working hard. Check out this youtube clip of Lydia Kavina playing Clair de Lune. She's the neice of the chap who invented it, so she had a bit of a headstart. She is widely considered the current best-in-the-world.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Xn4TgYkqdi8&search=theremin

And also Jimmy Page on Led Zeppelins Whole Lotta Love

Hurrah, I am now a thereminst-in-training.
My theremin arrived finally, almost two months waiting sucks hard. If you're wondering, its HARD to play, but I can kinda manage intervals and rudimentary scales.
I'll post some pictures or clip or something when there's a little more to see.