THEREMIN LESSON FIVE by Thomas Grillo

[ScottishCommy]

I am rather curious about the B3 series theremins. Are they linear theremins? Also, what exactly was the purpose in creating a non lenear theremin anyway? From what you said they seem to be somewhat more difficult to play.

[ThomasGrillo]

@ScottishCommy The B3 theremins are all non-linear, as are Moog Etherwave theremins, except for the discontinued Etherwave Pro, TVox Tour, and Ethervox.

Linear theremins are considered easier to play because of the even spacing. However, Non-linears are far cheaper to produce, and therefore also more affordable.

Non-linear theremins have improved since this video, especially the B3s. My method also compensates for severe non-linearity.

[kikikattz]

I'm seriously considering buying a moog etherwave standard theremin and I was wondering, do they need an amplifier?If they aren't hooked up to one are they just very quiet or do they make no sound at all?Will one work with a very old amp, but good quality, amp for an electric guitar? Thank you very much for your videos. I suspect they will be very helpful when I get a theremin.

Thanks :)

[ThomasGrillo]

@kikikattz Most theremins require an amp. Some have a built in speaker.

The Moog theremins all use amps. Most amps will work, but for the moogs, you should look for a keyboard rated amp.

I wish you all the best with your theremin. :)

[theDman911]

Are retro ones better than like the fancy newer models and stuff like that?

[ThomasGrillo]

@theDman911 Retro, or vintage theremins are not "better" than newer theremins, because they only have 3 or 4 octaves, and can be a bit tempramental. They are cool because of their historical importance, and appearance.

[tintinnabulationnnn]

Thanks for these videos. I don't own a theremin, but I would love to get one. If I ever do get one, I'm definitely getting your DVD!

[ThomasGrillo]

@tintinnabulationnnn Aesome! I look forward to it, and I wish you all the best with the theremin. :)

[MarkHimley]

how did you make the black bird sounds?! that's crazy!!

haha, i'm only kidding. but i'm really digging the lessons. my interest in the theremin comes from a not so classical and professional sense of playing, ala jimmy page of led zeppelin and claudio sanchez of coheed and cambria. i'm starting to look into learning how to actually play scales and to know what i'm doing and not just experiment and pray for magic. although, it's much more fun that way

[ThomasGrillo]

@MarkHimley ;) Thank you. I certainly wish you all the best with your ventures with the theremin.

[alienfuzzball]

Woops, I meant Etherwave PLUS not PRO, sorry about that. I ended up ordering the normal etherwave and it is on its way! Thank you for these theremin lessons they are really informative and should be helpful! You are an outstanding theraminist!

[ThomasGrillo]

@alienfuzzball Ah, I see. ;) No worries.

Thanks for the kind words. By the way, don't forget about my DVD, Theremin Lessons which is more detailed than these lessons here on youtube. It's available through my site.

[alienfuzzball]

I was about to buy a standard Moog Etherwave, but now I am debating whether the Pro would be better to get in the long run.

[ThomasGrillo]

@alienfuzzball Yes, if you can at all afford it, the Etherwave Pro is certainly a fantastic theremin. It sometimes shows up on ebay for several thousand dollars.

[sun6moon9]

Love your vids! You along side Clare Rockmore are the ones that got me into theremin. And i've seen and met Pamelia too!

I assumed you started a long time ago...but your first theremin was bought in 2006?? Nice playing and evolution! Really nice! Wish you all the best !

[ThomasGrillo]

@sun6moon9 Thank you. I'm glad to hear you got to meet Pamelia. She's a great person. Yeh, I got my first theremin in July of 2006. This coming July marks the end of my 5th year on the theremin. :)

[EGGBURT1234]

how much does a theremin cost?

[ThomasGrillo]

Theremins can cost from as little as less than a couple hundred dollars, to well in the thousands depending on model.

Visit my channel for links to manufacturers, and current prices.

[shivabala9]

I love your playing! Did you get a chance to meet Clara Rockmore? Thanks for the music ! I am inspired !!!!

[ThomasGrillo]

Thank you. :)

No, I never even knew of her existance until I got my first theremin in 2006.

I wish I had been able to meet her. But I did get to meet Pamelia Kurstin, who did meet her. :)

[diegolas666]

Are you planing to come to Argentna, a lot of ppl know you here

[ThomasGrillo]

I do have long term plans to do a world wide tour, but have a lot of things that need to be taken care of before that happens.

Thanks for the kind words.

[bigabefree]

this is what youtube is all about, wonderful, better than shcool, thank you, your kindess is conatagious, i had no idea you tuned therimins! keep on, are you fan of sun ra, and do you know of the theremin moog made that would not respond to sun ras touch? read it in ras autobiography

[ThomasGrillo]

Thank you for the kind words. I'd not heard of this. i'll have to check it ou.

[processean242]

youve inspired me to be a thereminist.

ever hered ov luigi russolo?

[ThomasGrillo]

Ah, the futurist painter, and composer. I've only heard a little about this artist.

[processean242]

he invented some kinda wooded box called Intonarumori (noise machines) look it up on wikipedia some interesting stuff for the 1900s

[ThomasGrillo]

Ah, fascinating. I shall do that.

[rtermini]

Great tips tom. thanks very much. Cheers RT

[teckner]

Hello it's me again... (I posted in a previous lesson) I was wondering, does the theremin need to be hooked up to an amp/speaker, or does it have a built in speaker. Also: I am not an owner of a theremin, but i was thinking about making one (I found the schematic online for Clara Rockmore's theremin)but if you know of a very cheap theremin that has a volume antenna (not a minimum theremin) then please tell me.

Thanks,  Teckner

[ThomasGrillo]

Ah, Rockmore's theremin. To build a tube theremin like hers would be a serious undertaking as tubes can be hard to find, and expensive. There are other things about that one that make it a big challenge, like antenna coils, ect.

A good, but cheap theremin is the B3, B3 Deluxe, and B3 Pro at soundslikeburns. (less than $300.)

A serious kit is the PAiA Theremax. I built one, and it's a tough one to get working. It has hundreds of parts.

Moog makes a kit that's easier to build and is good.

[pigsnoot]

Dear Thomas, I must say you are a striking personality and a very dedicated and talented thereminist! I have a EW standard and I find It very difficult to play and get in Tune! How do you tune, what is the "standard" position of the pitch knob?

Thanx!

[ThomasGrillo]

To tune your theremin, stand not more than a hand's width away from the instrument, and slightly to the left of center, with the right food slightly ahead of the left.

Next, raise your hand to shoulder hight with closed fist, and place your hand mid way between your shoulder, and the pitch rod.

Play the note where your hand is, and while doing so, open the remaining 3 fingers as seen, and listen. Ajust pitch knob as needed til you get octave jumps while doing closed to open positions.

[ThomasGrillo]

Idealy, under normal conditions, you should be able to do this with the pitch knob set somewhere between 10, and 2 o'clock positions. This is normal. Changing conditions, different surroundings, ect, will cause you to need to set the knob to different positions to acheive the proper tuning. You're not tuning to a given key, you're tuning to your body's capacitence. Calibration, if you will. Kind of like calibrating the touch screen on a pda, or I-phone, ect. Some times you need internal tuning.

[ThomasGrillo]

Once tuned, you should also be able to bring your hand to your shoulder, and have the instrument be silent, but that's not allways the case, and is not "really" the best way to tune. I tune for the octave jumps, which often places me well within the plus zone, so I'm allways very carefull with the volume loop.

Basically, a lot of players will set the edge of the plus, and zero beat zones to "live" close to the volume loop, or power switch end of the instrument.

[jtroska]

I was just about to pull the trigger and buy a B3 Pro based on your video demonstration of it. But then I didn't because I started reading all about the importance of "linear" theremins. What are some good theremins you would recommend for a beginner to grow with?

BTW: I love how you made that B3 Pro sound like a female opera singer.

[ThomasGrillo]

Again, thanks for the compliments. ;)

Dan Burns has made remarkable progress with improving the linearity of the B3s. From the standpoint of student theremins, I would strongly recommend the B3 deluxe, or B3 Pro. The B3s, Etherwave Standards, and Wavefronts all have prettymuch the same linearity as each other. Only the Etherwave Pro (discontinued) had near perfect linearity.

So, the only remaining question would be which theremin fits the budget, and provides the desired tonal charactor?

[ThomasGrillo]

One of the things I love about the B3s is that they sound very string-like in the low to mid notes, and very vocal-like in the upper notes. That's something Dan's been trying to shoot for for a long time.

The Etherwave Standards have a more brass instrument like tonal charactor when set one way, and can sound "allmost" bright flute-like on other settings.

The Wavefront deffinately has an even brighter loud brassy tone to it.

B3s & EW-Pro = my strings. EW-standard & Wavefront=my brass.

[ThomasGrillo]

I must also add, that my latest lessons 5, and 6 feature a new technique I developped which allows players to overcome non-linearity, so you're quite well covered now, reguardless of which model you select. ;)

[williieee]

First of all many thanks for all the helpful videos!

I own a B3 and want to get a more playable theremin now. If the Etherwave Standart is a nonlinear one too, what do they mean in its describtion by "reliable spacing between notes for sophisticated playability"?

And do you have any experience with the subscope voice T3? Seems to be a nice one too and is claimed to be linear.

[ThomasGrillo]

Thanks for the kind words. By "more reliable for sophisticated playability", they mean the notes are spaced far enough apart to make it easier to play. The B3 Deluxe, and B3 Pro theremins now fit into this catagory because the cabinets are long, like the Etherwave Standard, so the newer B3s are now easier to play. Have a look at my B3 Pro, and Theremin Concert on B3 Deluxe vids.

I've not tried the subscope voice t3 yet.

I'll certainly look into it.

[jtroska]

I was just about to pull the trigger and buy a B3 Pro based on your video demonstration of it. I love how you can make it sound like a female opera singer instead of just like bad sci fi movie noise. Of course, I'll probably only be able to conjure up dying whale noises in the beginning! =-)

Anyway, I didn't buy it because I've started reading all about the importance of "linear" theremins. What are some good theremins that you would recommend for a beginner to grow with?

[ThomasGrillo]

Thanks for the compliment. In my first weeks on theremin I sounded like a cat-fight in a sewer pipe. ;)

The B3 deluxe, and B3 Pro are great student level theremins, but I pack a B3 with my gigging theremins just in case, and even use them in gigs, depending on the tone charactor I want for certain works.

[jtroska]

Wow, Thanks for the quick reply! And sorry to ask the same question twice. I guess it takes YouTube a few minutes to display new comments because it didn't show my question, initially, and I assumed it didn't go through the first time.

[ThomasGrillo]

You're more than welcome. And don't worry about re-posting a question. I screen my comments to ensure a family safe environment on my videos. And any reposts make for a good backup in case of accidental removals. ;) I hope the information helps.

By the way, I prefer student theremins to be non-linear as it trains thereminists to deal with changing circomstances on the fly by the time they do upgrade to linear theremins.

[williieee]

First of all many thanks for all the helpful videos!

I own a B3

[lithium68681]

Thanks for making these. There doesn't seem to be any books on playing these. Maybe you should write one.

[ThomasGrillo]

Several books are available in both print, and e-book form.

Freely downloadable free e-books are:

Clara Rockmore's method available at scribd.

Victor Estrada's Theremin Exercises at thereminworlddotcomslashnewsdo­tasp?s=699

(replace "dot" and "slash" with . and /)

Also available at victorestrada.

Printed books for purchase are:

Carolina Eyck's The Art Of Playing The theremin at Moogmusic.

Robert E Saxton's Method For Theremin. (out of print?) may have to search the web for this.

[ThomasGrillo]

I'm in the process of producing a commercially available DVD which may also come with a printed book as well.

[lithium68681]

Thank you, I will soak up as much information as I can in my quest to master this insterment.

[ThomasGrillo]

I wish you all the best in your quest.

[ming57]

why are your antennae black?

[ThomasGrillo]

The Etherwave Standards are a bit prone to churp if you touch the volume antenna while your pitch hand is still in the pitch field. So, I found a solution by placing nylon cable sleeve on the volume antenna.

I also found that putting a sleve on the pitch antenna can make theremins a bit more forgiving when you touch the pitch rod. You don't get such a high jump in pitch on contact. The sleeves also allow for some cool effects. Have a look at my antenna mod demo for more info.

[rupertoso]

vos sos el pibito del theremin?

[91snake]

I've been watching all you're videos and its really interesting to finally see how these work.

I've been trying to get my hands on a theremin for about a year now and no luck, is there a particular website that sells them or something?

[budman6x]

There are lots of Theramins listed on eBay. Both analog and digital, at what seem to be reasonable prices. Good Luck.

[ThomasGrillo]

The following sites sell theremins. zzounds, moogmusic, soundslikeburns, instrumentpro, paia, wavefrount, and others. Moogmusic has a list of online dealers of moog products as well.

[91snake]

Thanks :D

[Thereminstrel]

Thanks; interesting lesson! By experimenting I'd already hit upon the idea of playing the highest octave at a steep angle near to the antenna. For the lower range I've observed that the notes are more tightly compacted when playing horizontal from the base of the antenna, but much more widely spaced playing horizontal from a little below the top of the antenna, thus making the lower range easier to play.

[electriclizardland]

Thank you for your very helpful videos and your dedication to this instrument!

[thecamraman]

Great Job Thomas! Nice to see you back on the tube :)

-Aaron

[BeFrSc]

Very well done Thomas, another great, informative and useful video from you.

[ThomasGrillo]

Thanks for the compliment. ;)

[dimitris108]

Good!!!

So thank you.