Comments on: On composing, and Lev Thermin’s theremin here in my office, man

By: mig

mig — Sat, 10 Feb 2007 16:21:13 +0000

re: trumpet – they do have those mute things you can stick in the end; how much quieter does that make it?

kirsten – were they rehearsing or had they been kicked off a bus? actually, that’s a good question, isn’t it — where to practice when you have a loud instrument. my cello teacher has told me stories about, as a child, practicing at one end of his family’s apartment one day, then clear over at the other end the next day, to avoid pissing off the same neighbor two days in a row. and a tin whistle teacher once told me her family used to make her practice in the attic – and she was a national champion.

By: Kirsten Marie

Kirsten Marie — Sat, 10 Feb 2007 12:20:42 +0000

I once saw a bagpipe-band (I wonder what the correct term is) rehearsing beside a motorway.

By: novala

novala — Sat, 10 Feb 2007 12:07:15 +0000

A friend of mine played the trumpet. He had a mini trumpet. When he wanted to practice he drove somewhere into the woods. (Don’t know if he practiced in winter)

By: Horst

Horst — Sat, 10 Feb 2007 02:43:53 +0000

Yes, that would be really cool.

No, at the moment I’m mostly trying to get a straight tone out of it… if I ever feel comfortable enough with it that I decide to take lessons, I’ll have to find some space where I can practice seriously, I suppose.

The trumpet is only borrowed.

By: novala

novala — Sat, 10 Feb 2007 02:06:44 +0000

Horst – do you practice at home?

By: mig

mig — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 16:36:30 +0000

what would be really cool is if we lived in the same apartment building and could practice at the same time.

By: Horst

Horst — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 16:32:56 +0000

Funny thing, synchronicity.
Seems like you got the theremin you had been talking about and I got the trumpet I had been talking about on the same day.

By: Bauke

Bauke — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 13:32:32 +0000

That is so cool. I’d love to play around with a theremin sometime.

Also: Not just cowbell… MORE COWBELL!

By: mig

mig — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 01:03:57 +0000

thank you for the link, brian. the owner of the theremin recommended the rockmore book and i was going to look for it tomorrow.

kirsten marie: i have very low tonal demands, believe me. but so far, i have not been able to come up with anything that sounds like any song i know, just crashing UFO soundtrack stuff. i keep hearing the voice of vincent price in my head saying, “and so, in time, mig realized the theremin wasn’t going to be any easier than the cello, and went quite, quite mad.” i can’t even get the old star trek theme, you know? but i didn’t expect to, after only an hour. what is throwing me is figuring out how the “notes” work – are they equidistant, like on a piano, across the range, or do they get closer together as you move up the scale, like on a bowed instrument or a guitar? also, i’m not completely crazy about the sound of the thing, but that could easily have to do with the headphones i’m using to hear it.
side note: cats are not impressed by theremin music played out of headphones*. at least not by me.

*note to cat lovers: i didn’t put the headphones on the cat’s head, i just took them off my own head and cranked up the volume until you could hear it a little.

By: Kirsten Marie

Kirsten Marie — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 00:45:03 +0000

Oh! Congratulations! The theremin is one of the coolest instruments ever, and it’s really easy to play, if you keep the tonal demands really low. Enjoy.

By: Brian

Brian — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 20:40:07 +0000

I missed this post yesterday. It is inestimably cool that you have Theremin's own device. It's like having Clara Rockmore in your living room. Maybe you should download her book on how to play it: http://www.electrotheremin.com/claramethod.html

By: pam

pam — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 19:51:50 +0000

Last fall while I was still in Austria, I tried to record the cowbells while standing on my balcony. It didn’t really work with my dumb recorder.

Here in Seattle, there’s a cowbell hanging on my front door. Home security.

By: mig

mig — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 19:19:28 +0000

That’s cool, thanks.
I just wanted to say that during my lunchtime stroll to get headphones it occurred to me: ten harps, cello and COWBELL.
Genius.

By: pam

pam — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 06:10:07 +0000

This is one of those wierd coincidental things... I was on the bus the other day, heading downtown, listening to this story about the history of the theramin... It's on this page: http://www.thirdcoastfestival.org/resound_2006_april.asp under The Music Show.

By: Guanaco

Guanaco — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 01:21:14 +0000

I’ll lend you my headphones if you’ll let me try the Theramin. :)