[i]* using headphones seems much easier than an amp for me (even if it's only one ear!)[/i]
Yes and no - take care:
The plus of a headphone is that you hear the result of your fingering quite immediately and may bring pitch correction. So you will be automatically be trained on this short response/delay time of this cybernetic loop.
The minus is that when you happen to play with an amp and without headphones, the delay in hearing your proper pitch inaccuracy and correcting it until you hear what you expect is much longer. So your playing will tend to be off-key until your brain has been trained to react in an adequate manner to this longer acoustic delay.
From an absolute theoretical and academic view of things one should consider to play with an amp for the audience AND with headphones for individual just-in-time feedback. But most thereminists do not want to perform with a headphone on their ears, especially when they play with a "living" accompaniment. So another solution had to be found: In Clara Rockmore's time one placed the speaker behind the players head, so that he got the sound first and would be able to correct it before the audience got it. A moderner setup would be to have a monitor speaker in a small distance from the player and radiating towards him and another PA speaker for the public.
Sorry for my florid English, but it's hard for me to explain technical things in this language which I do not really master.
Yes and no - take care:
The plus of a headphone is that you hear the result of your fingering quite immediately and may bring pitch correction. So you will be automatically be trained on this short response/delay time of this cybernetic loop.
The minus is that when you happen to play with an amp and without headphones, the delay in hearing your proper pitch inaccuracy and correcting it until you hear what you expect is much longer. So your playing will tend to be off-key until your brain has been trained to react in an adequate manner to this longer acoustic delay.
From an absolute theoretical and academic view of things one should consider to play with an amp for the audience AND with headphones for individual just-in-time feedback. But most thereminists do not want to perform with a headphone on their ears, especially when they play with a "living" accompaniment. So another solution had to be found: In Clara Rockmore's time one placed the speaker behind the players head, so that he got the sound first and would be able to correct it before the audience got it. A moderner setup would be to have a monitor speaker in a small distance from the player and radiating towards him and another PA speaker for the public.
Sorry for my florid English, but it's hard for me to explain technical things in this language which I do not really master.
