Roll call!

My name is Charlie, and I am a student in SW England

I am fourteen years old, and I play the piano and sing in a choir. I love the sound of the theremin, and hope to get one (most probably an etherwave) for my fifteenth birthday. I study Ancient Greek and Music, on top of all the compulsory subjects at my school.

As this is the only forum I've found that has living people, it will undoubtedly be useful in what I anticipate will be a rough but hugely rewarding experiment. Thanks for all your help in advance.

Charlie..welcome
Before I became a neurologist I majored in Greek philology and taught Greek for a while. The imbedded history behind the theremin must have some lure to classicists it would seem !

You're quite right, Cortex 007; the wealth of history behind the theremin make it all the more alluring. It's certainly an impressive conversation piece, as well as being one of the most beautiful and ingenious instruments ever invented.

one thing ive noticed, is that every theremin player knows all of its history...this is probably the only instrument like that

I doubt any theremin player knows all the history of the theremin- that's what makes it so interesting. There is always more to learn- but I agree. I doubt many pianists would know the person who invented their instrument, or when it was first played.

I'm Steve Burnett, and I'm in Raleigh NC. I remember encountering the theremin back around 1980 when I saw _The Day The Earth Stood Still_. I finally got my first theremin about 1999 or so, and currently have a Big Briar (Moog) Etherwave signature #241 and a Moog Etherwave Pro #42. (Also have a Hi-Watt Echo-Theremin I don't particularly like). I play with two improvisational groups in the area, Subscape Annex and Phasmatodea.

http://www.subscapeannex.com/

http://www.phasmatodea.net/

Hi all, My name is Oscar and I am from Spain. I have been playing bass guitar for about 12 years or so, in different kinds of music groups.I studied industrial psychology, marketing and communications, and I worked as a webmaster and software translator in a big international company (and many other jobs).


-How did I knew about the existence of the instrument?

2 years ago I saw a local concert in wich they played a theremin for effects, and last summer I was at a Victor Wooten concert where the keyboardist used it too. In this concert I realized I wanted to know more about it, and finally I decided to buy one and learn to play it.
Now I am into the process of learning it, and I am sure I will play it decently in some years.


-My theremin webpages:

Last year It was not much information about the theremin at the internet in spanish. Even, there was no primer in spanish.

So, I decided to create a blog about my experiences about it, in order to save steps for every spanish-talking people who could be starting in a future. (and also in order to stop talking about it to my friends ;-) )
It has been very successful, I have posted more than 70 messages there,and I am very proud of it because everyone talks well about it at the internet, and it has become now the 4th link at a google search of the word "theremin" in spanish.

Later on, I decided to translate to spanish the little Rockmore's handbook - so from that moment it was the first one in spanish.

Now I am into creating the spanish-talking theremin webportal, that is going to have very important collaborations, and by the moment it is available a successful forum in spanish that will be part of it at http://www.thereminhispano.com/forum .

I also asked the crew at meetup.com to create the Theremin section, and I created the Theremin Club at Madrid. Our first meeting will be in 4 days :-)

(This club has attracted atention from a TV journalist, and with a little luck she will make a report about Theremin at a national TV program.)

So, I am doing my best to make the instrument visible to the rest of the people. And to join good thereminists to build a spanish-talking point of reference at the Internet, since there was nothing else like that before.

I am sure this 2005 gonna be the Theremin year at Spain.

Hi, I'm Julian---I live in New York City. I'm a percussionist (orchestra and chamber music) and I've been playing an etherwave for about two years now. Aside from freelance playing, I perform regularly with a chamber group called Fireworks Ensemble (www.fireworks-ensemble.org). I took up playing the theremin because I was really interested in making some sounds that didn't just go "plunk" or "splat". It's been the best experience and I've had a chance to play it in some new music and jazz contexts. I'm also looking to have some compositions comissioned for me in the near future. Oddly enough, I feel a litle out of my league here----everyone seems to be tech, computer or brain surgery heavy! At any rate I'm on the site all the time and always find it interesting to see what people have to say. Great source of information. Keep it up!

Jules, I play percussion too.

Sometimes I play the theremin with my left hand under the volume antenna and make a motion like I am hitting a hand drum. This seems to work better for me to make more stacatto notes.

Have you found yourself doing the same thing?

Just to clarify, I imagine a djembe or a conga set up under the volume loop and then move my hand like I would if I were going to hit it....