Santa was good to me!

Hey Lovely Peeps!

I got my Theremin! A beautiful Moog Etherwave found its way under my tree! I am so ecstatic!
I have viewed a lot of videos ( and ordered Peter Pringle's "how to play the Theremin" DVD ), but I am having the hardest time to tune my theremin.

How many octaves do you usually tune your theremin to? I know it depends on what you are playing, in my case I am only making terrible sounds at the moment lol, so...

I am a vocalist first and i do not know how to name notes, and thought i had pretty good ears and pitch, but wow, the Theremin makes me feel like I know absolutely nothing! :P
I hope this feeling of worthlessness will soon go away lol.

To make matters worse I am left handed, so I'm playing the Theremin with the pitch antenna on the left side rather than on the right? Will the Theremin's tuning be affected by playing backwards?

Thank you in advance for your kind ansswers.

Amethyste

Well, since no one is answering, I guess I'll take a stab at it. (It never stopped me before.)

"How many octaves do you usually tune your theremin to? I know it depends on what you are playing,..." - Amethyste

As you said, "it depends on what you are playing". Only you can determine what that is. One thing I will say it that if you don't need to play down in the basement, you should set the theremin so that you are not standing at the null point (zero beat). Also, with every theremin, there's a high point where it sounds "screechy" no matter what you do.


"...wow, the Theremin makes me feel like I know absolutely nothing! :P
I hope this feeling of worthlessness will soon go away lol." - Amethyste

Soon? We can't make any promises. It's far more important to have patience and determination than unrealistic expectations.


"To make matters worse I am left handed, so I'm playing the Theremin with the pitch antenna on the left side rather than on the right? Will the Theremin's tuning be affected by playing backwards?" - Amethyste

No...not really. You're in good company...Pamelia Kurstin is a lefty as well.

We are all climbing the same mountain. We all have different talents and abilities. We all take a different path to the summit.

Just because some people will never reach the summit, as others may have, does not mean they have not learned something very valuable along the way. It does not mean they have nothing valid to offer.

I offer this advice because I KNOW I'm right, and I understand its value.

Regardless of the fingering technique you are using...

For ease of playing and maximum accuracy, always tune the theremin to the fingering technique!

Disregarding the effects of your body and field linearity for the moment, it is the size of your hand and the size of your finger/knuckle extensions that ultimately determine the ideal "tuning" of the pitch response. THAT is the baseline from which you should work.

This is very important. Do not try to adapt your playing to some arbitrary setting of the null point (zero beat). To do so is an act of futility. This applies more so to traditional melodic playing where note accuracy is critical.