Midsomer murders

Hello Everybody!

After one year of absence, I'm here again! I've worked too much and I moved to a new apartment, so I had no time left for practicing.

However I've studied a lot in the last two months and I started playing the tune from "midsomer murders".

I know, the quality of the recording is not the best (iphone), but I'd love to have your feedback. Please have mercy of me!!! :)

https://soundcloud.com/italian_thereminist/midsomer-murders

See you soon!

I had to stop listening after one minute. The theme is recognizable, but you are playing it one octave too low, and it's unfortunately most of the time off key. Especially when playing quick notes in bigger intervals than a third, your aerial fingering seems to be rather approximative. Over all, you playing sounds rather sluggish and misses the buoyancy of Celia Sheen's or Lydia Kavina's recordings. Did you look at these on YouTube? They are very inspiring.

I'd suggest that you take a few lessons with Carolina Eyck (she gives them over Skype, too) to learn and to train correct and stable finger positions, and how to quickly switch between them, which is a indispensable prerequisite for precision playing.

From a non-musician and non-thereminist -

"Please have mercy of me!!! :)"

As Thierry said, its off-key quite a lot! ;-) ... But I was able to listen to the whole piece without getting a toothache.. perhaps because it was an octave lower... I find off-key more painful in the higher registers!

A lot better than I have ever managed -  you were playing both pitch and volume! Something I have never managed!

So, to me, the crucial question is this - cannot be kind here, and mercy doesnt come into the picture IMO, only reality does..

Did you think your playing was acceptably in tune?  If you honestly answer "yes" then, IMO, your 'ear' is not sufficiently 'tuned' for you to achieve precision playing or anything approaching this - you may be able (I really dont know) to learn and re-train your pitch awareness.. but at present IMO you have an impairment that all the technique in the world will not overcome, simply because you wont recognize when you are off-key to an unacceptable degree.

If however you are (painfully or near painfully) aware that you are badly off key, then I think you may have a hope of mastering the instrument through the kind of training Thierry suggests.. Apart from pitch, I hear nothing that couldn't be overcome with practice and training.. And if you can hear that you are off key, this can be corrected with practice and training.

If you think you are on-key (or close enough) and enjoy what you play, that's fine! I have heard much worse - but I wouldn't want to listen to anything "worse" - just as I wouldnt want to listen to any recordings I have made of myself "playing" ;-) (in fact, I only have one that I haven't deleted, and I keep this only because its my sole record of the sound from a theremin I built - you wouldn't get me to post it though - certainly not with my name on it ;-) ... What I suppose I am saying is that if you are comfortable with the pitch side of your performance, perhaps think about keeping theremining as a private hobby unless you can find a way to recognize and hear these errors - you cannot correct something you dont hear!

I admire your bravery, particularly if you can hear how off-key you are..

Mercy is a rare commodity!

Fred

Hello everybody!

Sorry for the delay in my reply, I had some complicated days!

Trying to answer to all of your comments, I have to say that I consider myself as a beginner and that due to work reasons I struggle to find the time to study continuously. It may happens for example that I have one weekend to study, than 1 month of terrible working rhythm and no possibility of playing the theremin.

I've a musical background as a classical piano player (I got a diploma and worked a bit in the field) and I've been playing for like 24 years.

To answer Fred's comment, of course I am aware that I was really off key, but how is it possible to improve if you don't have any mean of having feedback from more experienced players?

I grew up in the environment of the conservatory, where public audition were quite common: when I used to go to my lessons, they where public: people of the school could come in and listen in order to improve themselves by listening to other people mistakes.

So I consider the forum as a possibility of having feedback and advice. Obviously the best thing is to have face to face lessons: last year I had the possibility of having one week of full immersion with Lydia and it was one of the best experiences of my life!

However I will continue studying and trying to improve my playing!

Thank you again for your feedback,

Have a nice day!

"of course I am aware that I was really off key"

Please don't feel offended by Fred's suggestion that you may be a little tone deaf. Without remembering that you mentioned your classical background about eight months ago it is a possibility, and it is a condition that does seem to affect a good many "youtube thereminists."

"To answer Fred's comment, of course I am aware that I was really off key, but how is it possible to improve if you don't have any mean of having feedback from more experienced players?"

Then all I can say is that you have been really brave to present your performance, and I admire you greatly for this!

As I said on my opening line, I am not a thereminist or a "musician", so my comments dont have any kind of "merit" in this regard. I dont remember the details of everyone who posts here, so did not know about (or remember) your credentials. (and on-line credentials dont tend to impress or influence me much anyway)

My reply was split into two 'groups' - which comments might apply to you depended entirely on the honest answer to the question "Did you think your playing was acceptably in tune? ". As you have answered "of course I am aware that I was really off key" the only comments I made which may relate to you (remembering that I am utterly unqualified to give any comments at all ;-) were:

"I think you may have a hope of mastering the instrument through the kind of training Thierry suggests.. Apart from pitch, I hear nothing that couldn't be overcome with practice and training.. And if you can hear that you are off key, this can be corrected with practice and training."

And IMO your "how is it possible to improve if you don't have any mean of having feedback from more experienced players?" is an entirely valid and pertinent question / comment.. Posting your performance is (or should be) a great way to get feedback, but being public is open to misunderstanding or worse... Its going out onto a subjective "sea" and can be blown by some comment based as much on the commentator having had a good or bad day as on any musical merit. 

There was much in your performance that I thought showed potential, and I am really glad that you could hear the pitch 'problems' because this means that realizing your potential can be achieved - It would be sad for someone to be as good as you but unable to get better because they were impaired (and this kind of impairment is real, and many people suffer it to some extent) , but such a person could still derive personal pleasure from the instrument, and it would be a shame IMO for such a person to lose this pleasure through discouragement - but likewise there is no point in directing someone to a path that is too narrow for them.

I wish that I had the potential you have!   I can hear when I am off key, but unless I play incredibly slowly often dont have the ability to even get the first note in tune by the time I should be playing the third note! - its kind of got to the level where I change key when I need to jump an octave quickly, and continue the "tune" in a different key ;-) ... And that's playing a pitch-only... I cannot play anything if i'm messing about with the volume hand!

I was trying to be encouraging to you whatever you "were" LOL ;-) Not because I just wanted to be "nice" but perhaps because there was a lot about your performance that impressed me far more than the majority of you-tube or similar (IMO) theremin rubbish I hear. I cannot quantify why I felt this way, I just did... There are some reasonably renowned "thereminists" whose playing sets my skin crawling, and I would sooner listen to your performance than any of theirs even if their pitch is correct! ;-)

Please forgive my clumsiness if I caused offense..

Fred.

Dear Fred,

Sorry again for the delay! I'm having quite confusing days at work, with even 12-13 hours of working!

However, please trust me I was not offended by your comments, I perfectly understood the meaning of your impressions. Yes, I know that "public" performances can be misunderstood, but as I said before, I have no other means to confront with other theremin players.

I'l follow the comments of all of you and practice a lot on aerial fingering and precision, hoping to attend soon in the future to a masterclass like the one I attended last year. Moreover, I'm not facilitated by the dimension of my hands! When playing the piano a big hand can be useful, but with the theremin... it's another story!

Thank you again for your time and have a nice day!

I think without a video of your performance, to ask for advice is hard for other thereminists to do :) I think that would be more helpful overall, because when we only hear an MP3 sample, what we hear is the results of your process, while as with a video, we can see the process in real time and understand the result. 

Keep on playing and have fun with the instrument, I know it is maddening at times, but really worth it :)

Amey

"When playing the piano a big hand can be useful, but with the theremin... it's another story!"

That is a really interesting comment! - I am big-handed (long thin fingers ideal for keyboard, which is my main instrument) and always thought this should be an advantage with the theremin.. But perhaps you are right - perhaps for the theremin bulkier smaller hands are better..

Its difficult to know - the advantage of bigger hands (as I saw it) was that less arm or body movement is required - I easily cover more than an octave with finger movements alone.. But the flip side to this (which I had not thought of until your comment) is that perhaps smaller hands can give more precise pitch control for the same hand movement.

Real interesting - perhaps another reason for a span control on a theremin, so that one can optimally match the field to ones hand size! (it does, I think, perhaps depend on the span and linearity of the field - which may also go some way to explaining why I find some theremins a lot easier to play than others...... Not sure though - I found the Tvox by far the easiest theremin to play, and believe this has 6 or 7 octave span, and other theremins with 5 octave span more difficult, and every EW (apart from one I am tuning / modding messing about with and is starting to feel "right") almost impossible to play.

Fred.

@Amethyste!

Hi and thank you for your support, I will try harder and harder!!! For the video I definitely have to practice more! :D

@Fred

Also as a pianist, I found some disadvantages in big hands: just think about some "cadenza" or some typically virtuoso music score. Your hand has to be fast and having bigger hands limits the fluidity of the movement. My teacher, that is a very well known pianist, has very small hands and is a virtuoso player specialized in Liszt and Rachmaninov.

Concerning your preferences on theremins, I have to agree: for my hand the best one is the Tvox (I like very much the sound of the EW Pro but I don't feel the same for what concerns hand movements). I had the chance to try also the theremin of the great Barbara, and is definitely the one I like most (I was so moved when playing it!).

Also Lydia, after listening me playing on different theremins, stated that I should think about a Subscope, given  that the Tvox is not easily found :D

I've never tried one and, frankly speaking, I don't have at the moment the necessary funds. So I have to rely on my ether wave standard. If I'll have the possibility I'd like to try a modified ether wave standard.

I know that Amethyste played a Subscope too and she was quite happy with it, am I right?

Thank you for the nice conversation!