Rod has spoken. My task for this week is…..
“LEARN HOW TO PLAY THE THEREMIN”
So Rod has tasked me this week with learning how to play the Theremin. Why? Nobody knows what drives Rod to set the tasks he does. He moves in mouseterious ways. And for those of you scratching your head wondering what on earth a theremin is – I guarantee its a sound you are familiar with, even if you don’t know what the instrument looks like or how it works. Click on this video below and I’ll prove it to you…..
See – I told you that you’d be familiar with that spooky sound, right? The other best known example is the Beach Boys’ “Good Vibrations” – and that’s about it for the catalog of Well Known Theremin tunes.
So yes – I shall be spending this week, courtesy of Rod, waggling my fingers at my (very stylish) Moog Theremini that I just so happened to buy a couple of months ago (ahem) and trying to get something that sounds even vaguely musical out of it by the end of the week. Here’s my Theremini, all unboxed and ready to go.
This is going to be an interesting challenge. The Theremini is notoriously difficult to play (even though our friend Katica above makes it look sooooo simple) and – as you can see from the video, you never actually touch the instrument – its all controlled by the position of your hands in space, relative to the theremin. Now I am blessed with a pretty good ear for pitch (most of you probably know I’m a singer) but I can’t read music and am not particularly educated in How Instruments Work. It’s like my car – I just turn it on, get in and drive it. So I’m going to have to spend a bit of time learning about the underlying principles of what I’m doing, if I’m to really understand how to get this thing to work.
So here’s my plan for the week:
day 1: learn all about my instrument, the MOOG Theremini: read the manual, watch some online videos, make sure its calibrated properly & that I know what each button or knob is or does
day 2: learn about the history of the theremin – apparently there is a terrific documentary about the inventor, Leon Theremin, that is fascinating to watch.
day 3-4: dive in and make some noise! (I apologize to my husband in advance – this is going to be like living through the world’s worst – and longest – violin concert)
day 5: It’s showtime! I will record and post up my best efforts – not sure what I’ll try to play for you all yet, so stay *ahem* tuned
Any additional suggestions to add to my learning curriculum for the week, feel free to add them in. And keep those suggestions for Rod coming – just drop ’em into the comments below!!
OK – lets go….
