Learning to be consistent??

Hi I,m quite new to the theremin; I got 'inspired' to learn from seeing the U switch ad on TV (I'm in the UK) I've known about the theremin like 'forever', but really didn't know you could play music on it - I assumed they were for making sound effects.
Anyway my issue is, how do you become consistent in playing a tune? I can play note perfect one day, then it goes after I've been playing for hours - its weird, like I've gone backwards.
I know music, I play other instruments. I know how theremins work (I got an amateur radio license) I know to set it up to play an octave from closed hand to open. But for all that I can't figure out why I can't rely on it being consistent?
Like I'm trying to learn to play 'Norwegian Wood' by the Beatles, this is one tune that is very difficult as the notes jump nearly an octave, and my fingers don't consistently go back to the same position - its really irritating because I like the song, and no one has played this on the theremin as far as I know.

Lee

Every time you prepare to play the theremin you will be dealing with all kinds of inconsistencies, but your playing position and the theremin's electronics are big hitters.  And even ruling out things like hangovers you will also just have off days where nothing clicks, and if you play other instruments you will have experienced that.  The difference with the theremin is that keyboards and guitars are much more forgiving of slight positional errors, and in fact every other type of physically-touched continuous-pitch instrument provides at least some references that the theremin does not.

To approach some level of consistency on the theremin you need to be able to work on the your physiological "control loop" that uses muscle memory (this is the open-loop part) to jump to approximate pitch, and then augment that by using your sense of pitch recognition along with minor finger corrections to seamlessly put you precisely on pitch (and this is the closed-loop part). I use the term "precisely" loosely here; this is a theremin after all.  If you are familiar with how optical or magnetic drives can precisely position their heads so rapidly you will understand that this is also how the human body should work. In a drive an arm that carries an optical or magnetic head is rapidly moved into an approximate position by open loop control and from that point the optical or magnetic head itself senses the relative track position and makes fine positional adjustments to minimize error. Your arm and the muscle memory in your hand puts you in the approximate position, but from there it's up to your brain to sense the error and rapidly adjust your fingers to null it.  

Practice interval jumps relentlessly to train yourself to jump to the vicinity of the correct note rapidly, but understand that because of the variables involved muscle memory can only get you so close.  Your pitch recognition and correction loop must be fast to correct the remaining errors, and this involves lots of practice - not just playing practice, but pitch recognition practice (these can be one and the same).  I find that it works well to practice interval jumps by following a keyboard recording, or simply play along with other music that has the melody that you want to learn (not suppressed as with karaoke tracks).  Things that can sound just fine without a reference can sound pretty bad when played alongside one, but having the reference does force you to sharpen your skills.

Lee said: "I know how theremins work (I got an amateur radio license)"

Like me this could be dangerous. WD6EDZ, noticed I am listed in the 1982 Call Book, the address is when I watched people surf from my Apt. window.

The most important thing that makes a theremin musically playable is ideal Pitch Field Linearity. Otherwise they are mostly good at sound effects.

Don't think you mentioned your theremin model but the EtherWave Standard & Plus are the only two available analog theremins I am aware of that meet this musical requirement. Don't learn this the hard way as any precision you develop on most other models will not be transferable to a better model, you will be starting all over again. Look at what the better performers are using on YouTube. Yes a rare few can play music on anything, even spoons.

Christopher

Hi,
Yes, I forgot to mention I've only been 'playing' the theremin for a few months. And yes I do have the Etherwave plus, which is brilliant, and just received the ESPE01 pitch extension, so am going to attempt to fit it soon!!
G1FCG got it back in 83, I don't TX anymore and have forgotten most of what I learned.

Lee 

Every time you prepare to play the theremin you will be dealing with all kinds of inconsistencies, but your playing position and the theremin's electronics are big hitters.  And even ruling out things like hangovers you will also just have off days where nothing clicks, and if you play other instruments you will have experienced that.  The difference with the theremin is that keyboards and guitars are much more forgiving of slight positional errors, and in fact every other type of physically-touched continuous-pitch instrument provides at least some references that the theremin does not.To approach some level of consistency on the theremin you need to be able to work on the your physiological "control loop" that uses muscle memory (this is the open-loop part) to jump to approximate pitch, and then augment that by using your sense of pitch recognition along with minor finger corrections to seamlessly put you precisely on pitch (and this is the closed-loop part). I use the term "precisely" loosely here; this is a theremin after all.  If you are familiar with how optical or magnetic drives can precisely position their heads so rapidly you will understand that this is also how the human body should work. In a drive an arm that carries an optical or magnetic head is rapidly moved into an approximate position by open loop control and from that point the optical or magnetic head itself senses the relative track position and makes fine positional adjustments to minimize error. Your arm and the muscle memory in your hand puts you in the approximate position, but from there it's up to your brain to sense the error and rapidly adjust your fingers to null it.   Practice interval jumps relentlessly to train yourself to jump to the vicinity of the correct note rapidly, but understand that because of the variables involved muscle memory can only get you so close.  Your pitch recognition and correction loop must be fast to correct the remaining errors, and this involves lots of practice - not just playing practice, but pitch recognition practice (these can be one and the same).  I find that it works well to practice interval jumps by following a keyboard recording, or simply play along with other music that has the melody that you want to learn (not suppressed as with karaoke tracks).  Things that can sound just fine without a reference can sound pretty bad when played alongside one, but having the reference does force you to sharpen your skills.

Thanks for the reply,
After my mate decoded this who is a computer engineer: I'm talking about 'playing the theremin' I don't know anything about computer discs at all - it means nothing at all to me.

"I'm talking about 'playing the theremin' I don't know anything about computer discs at all - it means nothing at all to me." - Lee Harries

Yeah, I guess I assumed that with the ham license you might have an interest in electronics and catch the analogy, although the explanation is admittedly sort of out there.  But playing the theremin, or at least the part of it involving the mechanics of hitting notes makes you as the player part of a feedback loop.  You are listening for pitch errors as you play and trying to correct for them as quickly as possible.  Any musician playing a continuous-pitch instrument is doing the same thing.  Keyboards and fretted instruments can be played at some level using only muscle memory, but fretless instruments or slide guitar are a lot like the theremin - everyone hears your errors if they get out.

It still can be said that if you want consistency in your playing you will probably need to hone both your arm/hand muscle memory (for both pitch and volume sides) and pitch/interval sensing skills.

Lee Harries- Are you where you want to be now? Sorry, about the underline; can't cancel it! Grrr ... You want to update your progress on the theremin? 

I could have created a separate discussion on the exact same topic, but thought maybe it'd be interesting to hear from our original poster, if we still presently have Lee here. I'd been away awhile myself.

Being a musician too, I related to Lee's frustration - when he stated how it felt like his theremin progress was going backwards after playing satisfactory, note for note, the prior day! I'm going to start working on 'sections' of the songs till I get them down. Had been going through whole pieces and because of "the inconsistencies" discussed above, my conclusion is that (for me), I think it's more difficult to get the self-assured muscle memory, ESPECIALLY, if you are working on multiple songs.