Roll Call 2011

Hey folks! Welcome to the New Year! We're looking forward to getting to know all our new members this year. Please feel free to post a welcome message telling us a little about yourself, how you discovered the theremin (or how it found you), and what you hope to accomplish with yours this year.

Welcome!
Jason

Hello all theremin enthusiasts, electronics whizzes, and artists.

I started playing in 2005 on a whim and I took to it like a duck to water. The theremin has opened up the world of music of me. I have performed in public a few times, and it is a habit forming thing.

I constructed a wonderful instrument with the assistance of kind friends and mentors. Gabriella was the name given to my theremin by my bride, Dr. Sheri. Gabriella is the name of the muse from the film Rigoletto, who helps heal the soul of a tortured man by singing to him.

I have met some truly talented and gracious individuals in the theremin community. Among them, Lydia Kavina is an awesome and patient individual who helped me figure out what was wrong with my technique that exacerbated my tennis elbow injury.

I thank our Father in Heaven for bringing music into my life. And I thank my family for putting up with me for all the time I spent practicing and driving them crazy with the squeaks and squeals as well as missed notes.

Happy New Year and love from Sheri and I.

Philip Neidlinger
Richmond Hill, GA

Greetings. I've been interested in theremins ever since I saw a few youtube videos posted demonstrating them. I have been mentioning my interest for a while and now this past Christmas one was given to me as a gift. It is a little Burns B3 and has taken up all of my free time for the past week and a half. I have never had so fun and addictive of an instrument. I'm already to the point of being able to play quite a few songs semi-competently. Hopefully I will have more to share as I continue to learn this wonderful instrument.

Howdy everybody! After years of watching videos on youtube and playing with the local music store floor model, I finally ordered my very own theremin--an Etherwave Plus.

Should be here in a week or so. In the meantime, I'll read as much of the forums as possible [so I don't start asking dumb questions other people have already answered ;) ].

I CAN'T WAIT!!!

Hello Everyone :)

My name is Amethyste and I live in NH. :) I have been singing for years and have 3 CD releases under my belt, while the 4th is forthcoming. I have heard the theremin countless of times in my life and always wanted to learn it - but I was never in the "right" position to do so. Either I was going through a carreer change, relationship or whatever... So this year, I felt in a good place to take up this tremendous instrument. I put the only item on my wishlist for Santa: A Moog etherewave. My wish has been granted!

Now I am practicing and hoping to be proficient within a coupe of year give or take. I have good pitch so this is a help....

I am glad to have found this community - there are a lot of people here that are always glad to help.

:)

Hello, my name's Heather and I've been attracted to the theremin every time I've heard it, but I could never remember what it was called afterwards. It only recently occurred to me that it was possible to own one, and I found Theremin World when I was looking for information about building my own. I've more or less discounted that possibility for now after reading some of the threads on here, since my knowledge of electronics is zilch - that is unless I can get my father to help me, or should I say let me help him - although I am considering the etherwave kit, as my woodworking abilities are considerably better than my electronic ones. It's wonderful to have all this info and poinion in one place.

Hey hi, I'm William from Redmond Washington, another newbie figuring out what to buy. Kinda interested in a project like the PAiA (why the lowercase "i" ?) and also kinda interested in just getting something that works no right out of the box. I have built up electronics from scratch for years at work, and have built up a few tube amps for guitar. I often have to think out if what I want is the activity-of-the-project, or if what I want is just the thing and I should just buy the thing and have it over with.

Many people seem to strongly reccomend the Etherwave, but after listening to a lot of Youtube videos I think I like the sound of the (fairly inexpensive) Burns a lot better. Am I nuts to think this? I snooped around a bit and found no schematics, or discussion of modifications, or any sort of discussion of the guts of the B3. The PAiA and the Moog seem to have plenty. Whats up with that? Is no one noodling with the B3?

I really like the vibrato some folks are playing with. I think a light warble sounds a lot nicer than holding a note stable. And the occaisional woo-woo-wooop! is pretty cool as long as it isn't the only thing you can do. I have had a nice time "shopping" on youtube this last week. There is a lot of "hey, look at my little noisemaker" (woo-woo-wooop-woo-woo-snort-wooooooo) videos, and then you bumble onto some absolute piece of genius someone has created.

Well thar ya go, my ignorant newbie post...

"...ignorant newbie post"? I don't think so!

The great thing about the theremin is that unlike traditional instruments, there is no established way to play it, no "right" or "wrong", and no particular sound or tone that is considered to be the universal "gold standard" for the instrument.

If you like the Burns B3, go with it.

The music that you will ultimately create will appeal to people who like what you like. The more obscure your musical taste, the smaller your audience will be.

Like many newbies, if you stick with the instrument, you will eventually graduate to a more sophisticated theremin and your next choice will be an informed one - but you have to start somewhere.

There is a fairly high dropout rate for the theremin because people who want to play with precision quickly discover that is an extremely difficult task. People who want to play SciFi & noise FX often tire of the instrument after a few weeks because there are other much simpler ways to do the same thing with far greater variety and choice.

Clara Rockmore said that the most important single thing for beginner thereminists is for them to know exactly where they want to go before they start. This will determine the kind of theremin they choose, and the technique they decide on to play the instrument. Most people assume that they don't need a method in order to play because the basic principle is so simple they can just "wing it" and do whatever feels right. That will work fine for some kinds of music, but not if you want to play like Clara.

The theremin is a one-trick pony but that trick, if you can pull it off, is unique in the world of instrumental music.

[i]"I snooped around a bit and found no schematics, or discussion of modifications, or any sort of discussion of the guts of the B3. The PAiA and the Moog seem to have plenty. Whats up with that? Is no one noodling with the B3?" - Willie [/i]

I think the reason is simply that Moog and PAiA schematics are available, but Burns has not published the schematics for the B3.. One would need to 'reverse engineer' the B3 to derive the schematics - and this might be* a lot of work and probably not worth the effort.

*I have never seen the insides of a Burns instrument, so have absolutely no idea about how complex or otherwise it is, or what topology it employs.

Fred.

Thanks for the replies,
I have gone ahead and ordered a B3 deluxe for my first theremin.

Edit: drivel and blather cut and saved for another day and another thread.

Admin, please delete this post.