02 May 2007

Theramin 101, please?

Gallagher, theramins have come up lately in my conversations with Laurie. I did a rudimentary job explaining how they work. Truth is, I don't really get it. Can you give us a little Theramin 101?

My gmail advertisement section listed an online Theramin sale today. Funny.

1 comment:

Hugo Minor said...

Theremins have 2 antennas, and when you put something between the 2 (such as your hands), it distorts the radio wave between them. This distorted sound you hear is the music of the theremin.

One antenna controls volume, and the other controls pitch. So the closer your hand is to the volume antenna, the louder it will be. And the closer your other hand is to the pitch antenna, the higher the pitch. Thus, you have the basics of a working musical instrument.

As you probably know, you never touch the antennas, so it appears as if you conducting to the instrument in the air, and it produces the sound without any contact with you.