Category Archives: Techniques

Part 3 gives a new meaning to “using your head.” When your practice includes involving your whole body, you’ll see positive results. It’s fun, effective, and silly — but no one’s watching… give this a try.  

Remember that all songs exist within the context of the key they’re written in – let’s use the entire range of notes in the scale and “meld” it with the melody to give your mind and body still another way to develop muscle memory and refine your sense of pitch.  

This is the first in a series that asks “What Does a Theremin Sound Like?” We’ll study techniques for the volume hand that lend character to every pitch you play.  

Here is an unusual addition to the techniques of using a flat hand or the snap of a hinged wrist over the volume loop: the downstroke. It’s very effective for repeating notes. So, instead of a downward movement being used solely to lower or silence the volume, the same move when executed at the “threshold,” [...]

The conclusion of the first vibrato series; you can begin to bridge the gap between vibrato as a purely mechanical technique and its more intimate role as one of your own unique means of self expression.  

If you’re just starting out on the theremin; here’s a look at the two most common and effective techniques for working over the volume loop.  

Using a random sequence of notes, you’ll face more challenges on the way to refining both sense of pitch and pitch locations in the theremin’s control space.  

For the thereminist’s purposes, being in the center of a pitch means being at the correct frequency, neither sharp nor flat. It means matching the desired pitch, particularly in the context of a melody. To train the ear, it’s good to play “around” the frequency, allowing yourself to experience and process all of the tonal [...]

As you get more comfortable with producing vibrato, use this short tutorial as a guideline to help you to actively choose different rates from very wide to very narrow. This is the last step before our first experiments with using vibrato as a true means of expression.  

If it’s your goal to play melodic pieces on the theremin, the refinement of your sense of pitch is an ongoing endeavor. We’ll go from basic to progressively more complex. Without having “absolute” or “perfect pitch,” exercises like this help tune our ears.