Sticky: Roll Call! - 2009! - Part 2!

Hi, I'm Sue from Ashland Oregon. I have had a long career in music as a composer, performer and music producer, at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. I especially love singing jazz, and also tour around playing early music.

Last year, I went to Dublin, Ireland to study music technology and production techniques. Fascinating!

The Theremin seemed like a good way to "plug in", as it were, to all the cool technology I have learned about.

My instrumental background includes bowed strings, plucked strings, woodwinds, and percussion, so I have a lot of gestural knowledge stored in my hands. Looking forward to getting started, but I am in the middle of putting together a Moog EW plus kit. After much consideration, I concluded that the pitch should stay in my left hand, and the attack in my right. No use going against 45 years of string playing!
But this made it necessary to build my own, as Moog doesn't yet make the EW Plus with the antennae reversed. It is hard for me to do the work, but I am looking forward to the results.

I stopped taking up new instruments 17 years ago, and never thought I would fall in love with another instrument.

But I was sooooo wrong.

Hi Sue, and welcome to Theremin World.

The stock advice is that one should play pitch with ones leading hand - the right hand if you are right handed - as intonation benefits from the better fine motor control. All that nimbleness you have acquired from plucking would be underutilised on the volume loop.

Thanks for the amp advice. I tried to hook up my speakers, bit that did not work, as they were quieter than my headphones. I think I am going to start by renting a keyboard amp.

Hi Sue!

If you ever make it back to Dublin, give me a shout. I can't find too many other Thereminists here, and it would be nice to have someone to throw a few ideas around with...

Garvan

Hi Garvan,

I'm coming back to Dublin to finish my degree next fall (2010). By that time, I'm hoping to be pretty good.... :). It would be great to hook up.

In the mean time, very happy to meet you! sc

Hey Gordon,

Thanks for the tip. I'm ambidexterous (though that doesn't help much with spelling, I'm afraid.)

So, given that, my left hand is already wired up for pitch, and right hand for rhythm.

Anyway- we'll see how it all works out. Cheers, sc

Hi all,

My name is Eric, and i live in Victoria, on the West coast of Canada. My musical background is pretty much acoustic traditional and folk music - my "main" instrument is the Irish uilleann pipes, although i play lots of other acoustic instruments with my band Banquo (http://www.banquo.ca). Cool-sounding, obscure, and mostly-obsolete instruments are what really float my boat, which also means i have to build some of them myself. (I built my own hurdy-gurdy, and i continue to make various bagpipes as an avocation.)

I've had the jones for a theremin since i knew there were theremins, and in 2006, i finally bit the bullet and built a PAiA Theremax kit, which seemed like my best/cheapest option for a fully-functional two antenna instrument. Mine is built into an old wooden breadbox, and currently uses 1/4" solid rod antennae, which plug into standard 1/4" phone jacks. Here's a picture of it. (http://www3.telus.net/ereiswig/theremin1.jpg) It works well, and i really like the sound of it, although i'm certainly not an expert player.

It's going to get its performance debut at Banquo's Halloween concert, which i'm pretty excited about. I've been (half) joking for years that one of our songs needs a theremin solo, and they've finally talked me into doing it!

(I've got a couple of questions about performing and getting the most out of the instrument, which i'll post in the correct forums.)

Be seeing you,

eric.

Hey Eric,

Checked out your website, and enjoyed it very much. Are those pipes you make? I'm into early music too. Glad to see you here. Hope your Halloween debut is a smash. Cheers, sc

PS Victoria is a great place. I've played there quite a few times. Really nice.

Welcome All!
ericr--- Sweet ThereMax!
There is a ton of info here at Theremin World, that can help you tweak that Theremin to your heart's content.
Good Luck!
teslatheremin

Hi there fellow theremin enthusiasts!

My name is Rob Holland from Ithaca NY! I recently purchased,finished and assembled a custom Moog Etherwave kit. So far I love it and have even entered a contest that Moog is hosting for Halloween. Check out my submission here It Came From The Pond! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BPnupgBJJA)and check out all the other cool videos. Voting starts Nov 3rd!