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Hey, what happens if you are holding something (like a copper pipe, guitar string, what ever) while playing?

If you didn't guess, no, i don't own a theremin. I play bass. But once i get more money i think i'll get one...

How much about are they?

Well if it's a guitar string, and you're an enthusiastic theremin noise maker, and you decide to use it as a whip in the general direction of a pitch antenna I am told (by the player in question) that you will cause lacerations on your hand when it snakes around the rod and bites you.

I've done a number of public demonstrations of the Theremin. A *lot* of people ask me about metal objects - "what happens if I'm wearing a ring?". The answer is "nothing in particular." People are frequently unsatisfied with this answer - I think they want it to not work, or become magically easy, or shoot bolts of lightning or something. Several people have told me bluntly that they don't believe me, and stood there trying to prove me wrong until I asked them to please move on and give everybody else a turn.

The more specific answer is, if you have something small in your hand it effects the tuning very slightly, and if you have something big enough to wave around it may act as an extension of your arm, just like silverware acts like an extension of your arm toward your dinner plate.

But it doesn't do anything exciting.

...unless it's a Twangulator....

really... that is somewhat dissatisfying, not that i expect bolts of lightning but i would think it would do something like change the sound somewhat.

To the first replier, you are an ass and that is no reason to make others look like asses just for not knowing something.

I love communities that hate everyone that doesn't know about the worthless crap they know so much about. It really makes you feel welcome.

If you are trying to make Theremin(s?) more widely used (which I expect you don't, you love living in this little clique of enthusiasts and look down on those who don't know what a Theremin is don't you?) maybe being an ass is not the best way of going about it hmm?

I think you're misintepreting Gordon's intent, yodapope. It's a fairly simple question that has a fairly simple and boring answer, I think he was just trying to make things more interesting.

Plastic objects do little to affect a theremin, since they have little or no capacitance. Objects made of metal or with high water content will have an effect (provided that the liquid contains free ions, for example, from dissolved salts). This is why a leek can be used as a good theremin baton, but a plastic stick would be a poor one.

Theremin's for playing melodies cost around £150 or more, whilst 'toy' theremins for exclusively sound effects can be bought from ebay from around £15.

Thanks.

And if he was trying to make things interesting he still doesn't need to basically call me an idiot.

And forgive my attitude, it's a horrible excuse but i recently quit smoking... and it makes my very easily annoyed.

Basically what I was meaning to ask was if you have something that is a much higher conductor than the human body would you be able to play the Theremin with much shorter movements. I doubt this is how it works but, if you had to move three inches for a 1/2 step (like a to a#) and you gad a very high conductor would you be able to make that same step in two inches?

I apologise for inadvertently making you feel like an idiot, and I forgive your attitude and your name-calling.

Moving objects held in the hand vary the pitch or volume of the tone. Such as, as Diggy Dog mentions, the twangulator - a steel rule held at one end under the volume antenna, which is twanged or tapped rhythmically, or the frothatrill, a wire propellor attached to an electric motor - (conveniently constructed from a hand held milk frother) - and held in the pitch hand, which causes a trill akin to the warbling singsong voice of Gadget, the mogwai in the film Gremlins. The rapid acceleration of a flexible wire whip, such as a guitar string, cracked proximal to the pitch antenna would doubtless have some effect caused by FM modulation, probably to mush the sound out across the audio spectrum and induce a perceived momentary silence - but I'm not planning to find out for myself - see previous cautionary tale.

And to answer your question, yes, one's total body mass, inclusive of any conductor you are in contact with affects the range of the pitch and volume fields. This is why theremins have adjustable fields - they need to be configured to the individual player, be they large or small.

As an example of the spacing of semitones, the settings recommended by Moog for the etherwave standard put semitones in the playable range about a centimetre apart.



Welcome to Theremin World. :-)

Most theremins that you use to play melodies have a pitch dial, which can be used to make the playing arc (field in which the notes are contained) larger or smaller. This has the effect of making the gaps between the notes larger or smaller.

Incidentally, there was indeed an inventor (whose name evades me, but I'll remember. . Zukov-something-or-other) who made a theremin-type instrument controlled by holding and moving the antenna in mid-air, to the effect that to play it you had to use a baton.