waiting for christmas

Good. :-)

The lowest notes are tricky and easy to miss - the field gets very compressed just before it locks onto zero beat.

Now you have to put it away until Christmas!

Oh...did we forget to tell you, you need to let it warm up before playing? :-)

All theremins need to warm up before they start to become stable. As you've discovered, that is about 5 to 10 minutes for a standard Etherwave. Personally, I turn mine on and walk away for at least 15 minutes before trying to seriously play anything.

Even then, the tuning may drift slightly as time goes on (while playing) and minor adjustments may need to be made. This can be due to changes in temperature, humidity, and/or a change in proximity of objects in the playing field. It will need to be turned differently for a large man than for a petite woman, for example.

"People expect to go over to the theremin and IT PLAYS. No! It takes hard work, sensitivity, sensibility....attention to detail. You have to learn it and it's not easy. The music comes from the heart, the mind, and years and years and years of the study of music." Clara Rockmore