The pitch preview display -- how it should be

Another example: a room full of beginner fiddlers learning to play a new tune. It's really easy to pick out the difficult part of the tune since their feet, almost to a person,  will start to tap spasmodically to the beat when that part comes along. They can't keep the steady beat and play the difficult passage at the same time.

I agree, There is no sense in excluding useful enhancements if they can be useful.

I have discovered from my own experience that when using a high resolution display of visual pitch indication, (while I am simultaneously monitoring my audio signal with my ears) I am able to become aware of discrepancies in the way my brain perceives my pitch errors, and the visually reflected actuality of the error. The only way this can be achieved is by minimizing the refresh time of the visual indication so that my brain can serially (with high frequency) process the information with higher efficiency. It has nothing to do with multitasking.  I will openly admit that I am horrible with multitasking. This is why I created a tool to help me become aware of the details in my playing that are very difficult pay close attention to, because of the high volume of variables involved with theremin playing.

I can see that a visual pitch display could be useful for rare cases where one is playing a long piece solo, without any other "reference" pitches being heard - as in, no other instruments playing..

Lets say one had a long piece, perhaps 300 notes.. One starts with some reference tone, and has near perfect pitch - so you start playing.. The tune starts on a particular note, and the last note in the tune is (or should be) the same as the starting note..

If one deviates in each note you play by 1 cent (say flat) then the whole tune will drift flat by 3 semitones by the time the last note is played - Even if one has occasional flat, sharp and on-key notes varying (reletively) only by 1 cent or less, one could easily be a semitone out at the end of the piece...

The above is a thought experiment only - I have never done this.. (or at least, not knowingly ;-)  And I do not know how a slowly 'drifting' performance would sound.. I imagine that, what with vibrato to mask any 1 cent drift in sequential notes, the tune would probably sound perfect if no other in-tune instruments were backing it -  But I really dont know - I am tempted to do a slow 3st pitch shift on some long audio piece and see how it sounds..

I am inclined to think that  problems would probably only show themselves if one took a recording to a studio and wanted other musicians to lay down a backing for your piece.

And with the above (probably extremely rare) scenario, audio pitch preview would not help at all, but a visual pitch display would help... I think..

I must just say that the academic discussion regarding multi-tasking is interesting - but I am sure there are huge variations in individuals with regard to their ability to multi-task... For me, audio pitch preview is almost an irrelevance - I am not able to keep pitch if I must multi-task and even control the volume! ;-) .. So most of the time, pitch is far more important to me (I dont intend to ever perform live, so I could just record the theremin, and control the dynamics on another take while playing back this recording) I use my theremin as a one-stick (pitch only) and if I wanted to get serious, I would then play volume only, feed the volume CV into a MIDI control unit, record the MIDI data on a seperate take, and use this to control the dynamics in my DAW.

Fred.

Randy: I have discovered from my own experience that when using a high resolution display of visual pitch indication, (while I am simultaneously monitoring my audio signal with my ears) I am able to become aware of discrepancies in the way my brain perceives my pitch errors, and the visually reflected actuality of the error. 

You are describing EAR TRAINING, and there is no question that an accurate tuning device is very helpful with that. As far as performance is concerned, a thereminist should not need a visual prompter to know if the note is on pitch. 

Randy: When the time between individual serial processes can be reduced, the auditory stimuli, visual stimuli, and feedback from my muscular system can be combined to form digestible packets of information for my brain to create new patterns of response. 

This sounds ominously like something Commander Data would say, or perhaps Seven Of Nine! Have you considered Borg implants? Nanoprobes?

The usefulness of any peripheral aid for playing the theremin can only be judged by the quality of the performance of the player who uses it. Everyone is going to weigh in on the question of pitch preview - whether audio or visual - but the proof will be in the pudding. Even then, just because one player excels at using a visual preview, does not mean that everyone is going to be able to do it with the same ease and efficiency.

"I think it would be wonderful if everybody could play the theremin as well as I do, but they don't. I know that sounds arrogant." Clara Rockmore 

Fred: If one deviates in each note you play by 1 cent (say flat) then the whole tune will drift flat by 3 semitones by the time the last note is played - Even if one has occasional flat, sharp and on-key notes varying (reletively) only by 1 cent or less, one could easily be a semitone out at the end of the piece...

It's call "pitch drift" and everybody does it in "a cappella" performance, except those with perfect pitch. Entire choirs do it, which is the reason why Gregorian chant is sometimes accompanied by a very faint, single note, played on an organ in the background. 

Pop singer Beyonce was recently involved in a musical mini-scandal when she lip sync'd the words to the national anthem at Barak Obama's inauguration. To show she was perfectly capable of singing the song, she gave a press conference a few days later and sang the anthem live, from beginning to end. Her fans were THRILLED. What they were unaware of was that the singer finished the performance in a key one semitone lower than the one she started in.

I would never attempt an unaccompanied theremin (or vocal) performance unless I had a reference tone to keep me on course. The fact that most people wouldn't know I was drifting flat would not matter. I WOULD KNOW!

Ok -

We are agreed that an accurate visual tuning aid could / would be usefull for ear training -

Is this perhaps extendible - Could we say that it could be simultaniously useful for ear and theremin training? That makes sense to me.. ;-)

- And, from a perspective of sales / marketing and for those starting out with their first theremin, they can benefit from all the help they can get - Ear training would be no disadvantage, and early stage help in locating notes on the "unvisual string" as Lydia calls it, probably useful for someone starting.

Beyond the above, it holds no interest for me - If I was ignorantly choosing my first theremin, and had a "with" and "without" visual preview for not much difference in price, I would probably buy the "with" - and it might have been useful for a few weeks.. As an ignorant purchaser, paying more for either visual or audio preview, or neither for cheaper, Audio preview would probably have been my last choice... Now, I could not imagine buying a theremin without audio preview (well, I can - I would just fit it! - but thats an aside ;-).

I would never add visual preview to my theremins - But from a commercial perspective I think I should! I think most people buying a first theremin will think its a good idea - Unless they have researched it and found this thread! ;-)

But its no big deal IMO either way - Most of us are never going to get to the level where our playing is actually worth listening to - regardless of what we do... This is  a subject which might be of real importance to less than 30 people on this planet!

Fred.

All of these visual aids are COMPLETELY futile for people like me, who do not read music. I have no clue what a "G" is, but I sure know when I am off pitch and it annoys the shit out of me.

All of these visual aids are COMPLETELY futile for people like me, who do not read music. I have no clue what a "G" is, but I sure know when I am off pitch and it annoys the shit out of me.

LOVL. That brings it all back to the ground level. If it's the right 'notes' it'll sound fine and if not.................you're Beyonce!

As Randy pointed out, we seem to be talking about two things here.

A visual pitch preview tells you what note you are playing, an audio preview does not.

If you have a reasonably good sense of pitch, an audio preview will let you know when you are playing the right note, but it will not tell you the name of that note (which is something you don't need to know anyway, n'est-ce pas, Amey?).

There is no advantage for any theremin manufacturer in increasing the cost of his instrument by adding a visual preview, when any player who wants one can simply route the pre-volume antenna audio signal to any sort of visual peripheral device he wants. 

A jack with a pre-volume antenna tone, IMNSHO, is essential for any modern theremin.