first real gig

Hello all,

It's been quite a while since I've been to this site, and maybe you've all forgotten me.  I'm very busy now with work, and I'm also back in school to train as a music therapist.  But I'm pleased to report that I had my first real theremin gig last month at a small jazz club here in Cleveland, playing a couple of pieces with as a "guest artist" with a guitar/flute duo.  It was very well-received.  I invited folks up on stage at the intermission to try the theremin -- got about 20 people up there.  Who knows when I'll play next, but I'm really glad I did.

Cheers,

Luna (Beth)

I did something similar. Everyone wants to try it when they see it.

I wonder if the theremin would be a good instrument for music therapy or not.

What does your school say? Perhaps they have not even thought about using it.

I've always thought it would be a great instrument for ear training.

Nice! Keep it up. I still hope to play a real gig (I'm stuck at home with my theremini practicing). I wonder where I could show off my instrument.

Maywood!

IMNSHO the theremin is not appropriate for music therapy. 

It is great as a musical toy, an afternoon of sonic fun and discovery, especially for kids, but as a genuine tool for “therapy” (which means HEALING) it doesn’t work. I used to think that the theremin would be ideal in a therapeutic/musical context but that was back when I was madly in love with the instrument and blind to its flaws and limitations.

Below is a link to a picture of me after pitching the theremin to a convention of physiotherapists in Montreal back in 1998. At the time, I thought the theremin would be the perfect instrument for healing of different sorts and I did a number of enthusiastic presentations to professionals.

I won’t bore everyone with the gory details, but the general consensus among qualified people was that there was a frustration factor with the theremin that precluded its effectiveness as a healing tool. Yes, it is probably the easiest musical instrument on which to make a noise, but it is the most difficult of instruments on which to produce the kind of harmonious and acoustically satisfying sound that is essential for the production of the kind of calm serenity and harmony needed for healing. 

The theremin, as fans of SciFi and suspense films know, is disturbing! There are all sorts of other musical instruments, both acoustic and electronic, that can supply genuinely therapeutic sounds that are easy to play and that are capable of polyphony as well.  

http://www.peterpringle.com/pppix/aftercon2.jpeg

Hmm. Yea, that makes sense in terms of a therapy that lets someone create pleasing sounds. I can see that it may well create a very frustrating environment if the intent is to use it in a musically therapeutic manner, though music therapy includes a wide variety of things - some of which have nothing to do with creating aesthetically pleasurable sounds. 

But lets say we take a digital theremin that we can program and have a set of pre-canned melodies (Dexter are you here?). It's possible to create an instrument geared for music therapy. It could for example:

Track the users gestures and only play notes of the melody when the player passed a pitch threshold corresponding to a pitch in the melody. This is not playing in a quantized state. I'm saying only notes of the programmed melody will play when the user passes the pitch threshold associated to notes of that particular melody. All jumps can be played this way with no notes in between as we are only playing notes of the melody. Now you could have a couple modes. In one mode only the notes of the melody will play in the right order so you need to move your hand to the right spot to get a note to play and no other notes will play until you sequentially move your hand in the right position. Another mode may be to play notes in the melody but possibly leave out those not played if the user's hand positions are wrong. Kind of a musical game in some ways to make you move your hand in a certain progression. Different melodies might be geared to let the user gain progressively more use of their arm or hand motion.

So someone with a severe injury trying to regain motion could use this - helping physical therapy for hand and arm injuries. It also could be useful for certain cognitive problems where someone would not be able to play an instrument but waving a hand may well be very easy to do.

Just a thought to jot down here so I don't lose it.

Yes, Rich is thinking along the same lines I was in terms of theremin use in music therapy -- not as an "aesthetic" experience. For example, you may be trying to increase range of motion in a limb -- you could position the theremin so that the patient is getting sound when the limb is extended to the desired degree. That could be more fun than traditional pt, and therefore motivating.  Or you could use it for fine or gross motor skills (I'm not thinking of precision playing.)  Or coordinating left/right hand activity.  Or teaching loud/soft, high/ low.  It could also be used as a "contingency" (reward) in a cognitive-behavioral approach, if you have clients who enjoy it.

I am just a beginning therapy student, so I'm sure my ideas about this will evolve and improve.  

If you want to use the theremin simply as a sonic perimeter indicator - there are many other devices that can do that far more efficiently and reliably. The problem with the theremin for that particular purpose is that it is not stable. You can tune your instrument any way you like but as all thereminists know, after a few minutes you will have to retune because the position you started out with will have shifted.

This is not practical in a clinical setting.