Roll Call 2011

"Just bought myself my first Theremin and trying to learn to play to use it on my upcomin' album... not as easy as I thought. :-) " - Moist

LOL...Who ever said it was easy? Which one did you get?

"How hard is it to find a really old vintage theremin? Would love to get my hands on one..." - Moist

By "really old vintage theremin", do you by chance mean a 1929 RCA AR-1264 theremin? If you've got the money, they do come up for sale from time to time. Probably not so much in Sweden though.

Are you truly prepared to be the caretaker of a rare 82 year old electronic instrument? They are large and heavy, and the volume response is known to be a bit sluggish. Not to mention that replacement parts are next to impossible to get.

[If you want to start a protracted discussion, it would be best to start a new post.]

LOL, well no-one told me it was gonna be easy and I didn't think it was gonna be easy. :-P But I will take my time to master it some day. Well master enuff to add theremin to my music.

I bought myself a Wavefront Classic and I'm really impressed with it. I've tried the new Moog theremins and they are alright but I also wanted something that looked awesome (as it sounds).

Well I would have the money and place to care for an 1929 RCA AR-1264 theremin but I think I would play on my Wavefront and just make and altar to the master and don't touch it as much. ;)

"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

The finest theremin in the world, the one that looks the best with the best linearity and the best sound, is whatever theremin you say. Everybody is right (which is simply another way of saying nobody is right). God! I wish I had never read Stephen Hawking's latest book, THE GRAND DESIGN!

David :)

I have a wavefront Classic too! That is so neat :) I love it!!!

Hello everyone!!! I'm Leonardo, a nearly 18-year-old high-school student (my birthday is on July 6th), and I live in the zone of Chianti, near Florence...
I've always had a lot of passions: aside from studying foreign languages (like japanese and, obviously, english), I really love studying maths, physics and music.
I started my "path" through music when I was more or less 6 years old: I don't remember well when and where it happened, but I once saw someone playing classic guitar really skillfully and I was charmed by that instrument, so I started playing it. I studied guitar until I was more or less 13 years old... I really liked it and I was a really skillful player (I won some national music contest as solo and I also got to the second place playing with some of my friends). But, between medium school and high school (when I was 13-14 years old), I don't know really why, I suddenly decided to stop playing guitar, and then I started studying piano... I still don't know what made me change musical instrument so abruptly, but, even if sometimes I feel a little bit sad about having stopped studying guitar, I have never regretted having started playing piano... Now, about four years have passed and I still love that instrument...
More or less at the beginning of last year, wandering around the web, I found on YouTube some videos about the theremin by Thomas Grillo, and I really don't know how to say how I felt: I immediately felt a mixture of astonishment and love towards the theremin, I was thunderstruck, flabbergasted, amazed by the instrument and by the way Thomas Grillo plays it. Unfortunately, I soon "forgot" about it because school was becoming harder and harder (you can't think how hard school is in Italy...), and I gradually had less and less spare time...
About two months ago, I "remembered" about the theremin and I finally decided to buy one (I've ordered an Eplus yesterday) and to buy also some material to widen my knowledge about theremins: the book "Theremin: ether music and espionage", the DVDs "Mastering the Theremin" by Lydia Kavina, "Theremin - an elecronic odyssey" and "Clara Rockmore, the World's Greatest Theremin Virtuosa", and two CDs by Clara Rockmore, "The Art of the Theremin" and the "Lost Theremin Album"... If you have some suggestions about some other books, CD or DVD to buy please tell me...
Now I have to find a way to make time pass faster until my Eplus arrives ^^...

Leo

Leonardo,

Ti chiami veramente "Leonardo"! E sei davvero fiorentino! C'era un altro famosissimo fiorentino che si chiamava Leonardo.

The late virtuoso thereminist Clara Rockmore once said that the theremin should never be anyone's first instrument, and insisted that people should first learn the principles of music theory and harmony on the piano. With both guitar and piano already under your belt, it sounds to me like you are totally prepared for your great theremin adventure.

Welcome to Theremin World.