Theremin (An instrument you play by not touching it)

[Music] [Music] I put it to another dimension there hey everybody I am so excited to be filming today because we're gonna be learning about one of the most interesting instruments that I know of the theremin I was introduced to the theremin at a music store and the person behind the counter said it's an instrument you play by not touching it my 12 year old head just exploded it's like so what you like throw things at it from across the room or something today we have an absolute master of the theremin with us and this is karolina Ike he's gonna show us the ropes yeah where do we even start with a theremin if you you know a little bit about the history of electronic music you might have heard of the theremin as it's one of the first IKEA musical instruments I heard that it was the first that was like this big machine there before so I tend to say it's one of the first yeah like funny but it's yeah it's it's pretty much to rest from my experience trying to play it this is an extremely difficult instrument to master you need a lot of self-control yeah not only the instrument is the instrument but you the body your body is combined with the cerumen that means that you need to know your body very well and every little movement changes the sound and the pitch that's maybe what makes it hard I like to think that it's as hard to play as any other instrument the theremin now is almost a hundred years old and that's kind of a short time for an instrument which is really different from any other instrument yeah yeah needed a long time to develop a playing technique I found it extremely difficult and the theremin typically consists of two antennas and we have this upright antenna and this loop antenna there are other options there's more than just because I've only seen the two um sometimes there's theremins very which have only one antenna and it only has one then how do you do while you it's alright I have seen the one antenna version they usually sold it's like toy like a sound effect because it gets that like Jake would know what is it what's the era of horror movies 59 yeah can we get that sound real quick [Music] yeah yeah sounds like The Twilight Zone yeah so we can change the pitch with the right hand if we go closer to this upright antenna then the pitch gets higher and basically everything which surrounds the theremin changes the pitch and that's difficult sometimes because if somebody moves around here yeah yeah you'll notice mess that's just so you better make it a band you need to have your personal space you need your space and it's a very good excuse you can shield the field for example putting music stand here metal objects and all conductive materials influence the field more because we change capacitance water or metal but that's what will change the capacitance like maybe hold a note that doesn't know that yeah whoa yeah and I'm not I'm pretty far away from it yeah so you really need your space yeah I really need my space but so on this side is fine because on this side we do the volume yeah when I go further way here the volume gets louder and because of the shape of the loop shape the antenna reacts differently so it's more up and down into the side doesn't really matter okay so even if I'd like fun rockin Wow okay I'll stay still yeah thank you on mine as well you can also change the pitch there say wear a c-note is is always changing we have different knobs here on the instrument and it looks a bit different on different instrument but by what's always the same as the pitch knob and the volume knob the pitch knob changes the pitch field and I adjust the field to my surrounding into my body so and and by the field you mean how far it extends or what notes are in that how far it extends so let's say this is the whole range yeah it's the lowest if you have a sub bass in the hall you can really make yeah makes a hard shake so I used the pitch knob to change the field so that I can set it to my surrounding and to my body and I check where the lowest notice and there's a point where we don't hear sound at all because yeah that's called zero beat it basically want the lowest note at my body so I will adjust the fear so that the whole range is in front of me and does that change depending on other factors or what environment you're in or it changes like if we would move away one camera it would change and then really need to adjust it yeah Wow so it's it's picking up I mean it might be stuff we don't hear but it's how far does the range go theoretically endless but then of course there are you know things in the way so we'll stop the field when you start to practice you need to set up everything then too and so having like an exact muscle memory of where say a C is is just right out the window unless you're always playing in the same room so no you want to adjust it oh you trust it so it's so it's every time the same so that you know my C is here okay and then what are the other knobs do we can change some Tom Bruce let me yeah this spooky one I Paul spooky [Music] I love the spooky setting that's probably what most people know the theremin for well I hope that's changes yeah yeah let me show you a different setting yeah [Music] [Music] it's it's like having a viola almost with an infinite bow yeah [Music] [Laughter] [Music] I have this one I got a while ago it just has wave four yes so you can come choose your own sounds on this one you have five presets and then you can choose your own sounds as well what's your main sound that you use this is the one I really use it like almost always and especially with classical music like classical even guitar you know it really makes as well do you know somewhere over the rainbow oh this would be like yeah the sound I usually use you also have a really an interesting pedal set up and they a reverb is that pretty crucial to the theremin is that always on the delay I know it's not always fun but I like I'd like to use it just because sara is a monophonic instrument so after a while it can get a bit boring like way adds a bit of death [Music] [Applause] and then I have a harmonizer which makes the monophonic instrument of horrifying instrument very cool really like you know that our violin players cello players they have to practice so much to play a perfect octave yeah yeah [Music] so with all the knobs on there essentially it's all just adjusting the tone then we have three different registers we have the little register we have to change Tom Burris these ones just adjust it's also for the tour just more fine-tuning what is the technique to knowing where the where the notes are how to get a how's that Paul step or know it's everywhere yeah right you can find out here yeah so when I play precise notes I limit myself to one line to one invisible string that goes from the antenna right straight to my body so on this line with all notes we need yeah how I find the notes is that I will measure the air with my hand I use one length of a hand as a measurement they call this position one and when I stretch out my hand I have a length of a hand in this position 8 and I won't go but I want to hear within these two positions is an octave oh all octave Justin Justin this just in one hand well if that's not the case I have to need to tune the theremin the lowest us at your body and then ideally you already get the octave yeah and if not you just make little changes and it should be you know the octave should be fitting in your hand and then this way I can play all the octaves in the whole range little change needed here yeah this is how I measure all the whole range and then once I've done that I can play a scale by just moving my fingers and without moving my arm to not mess up my measurement yeah what you do when you learn the theremin is you learn these it's 13 positions for every note when I invented this method method my goal was listen the standard I'm really happy to see that many people use this method now my idea was that I do not have to hear note in order to play it in tune I know I got the right note just because I know my position up until now I would have thought that that just wouldn't be possible on this instrument yeah so you go from 8 and then 5 from 8 to 5 you use only your fingers yeah and then from 5 to 1 you use the wrist and the vagus you just learn step by step so if you're in D major if I if I change the key then I change the position and then you just have that muscle memory for all the notes I hadn't so that's how you have so much control of it there are people who use a tuner so you can you know see your note and that that's very convenient since the other are useful for now I just you know you might note very quietly before I play and then I know which I'm starting on I used the monitor only with the theremin like not I don't have any other instrument in my monitor yeah when you play the guitar you get some feedback from the guitar yeah but I don't get any resume so I need yeah I need the monitory it's it's the instrument I'm gonna try to jam get a good jam in before and then I'll try to figure it out [Laughter] [Music] [Laughter] [Music] [Music] I always mess up the last note how long have you been playing theremin professionally 15 years 18 years when I invented my own technique and that was that was about 16 that from now on it yeah good more yeah do you tour a lot since we reached out to you it was kind of like oh you know I'll be here here here in here although Harold yeah so I'm basically on tour all the time and I play my solo things like the theremin and voice looping stuff I play classical music mainly with some pianists or with Orchestra what was this invented then so the theremin was invented in in Russia but there are Thurman communities around the world so you know in Japan we have a big crowd playing war Thurmond and Chile there's a festival of being organized every year where can people find weird yeah I guess you're used to playing insurance where you don't even touch them well I think we're in the same boat here this the third fret on the highest string what one finger here yeah yep and then strum everything except for these two lower ones everybody know normal sponsor for this video we're gonna wait until we got one to put this out since these are a bit more expensive but I was just too excited about this video to wait until we got a sponsor so I wanted to take this time to say thanks to the people on patreon they're the reason why we can do stuff like this without always totally relying on sponsorships so yeah thanks so much to them if you would like to be a patron it is right here and you can see all these videos before they come out for a dollar a month and then there's other tiers like commentary and stuff it's like it's kind of like buying the DVD extras and then on our side of things that just makes our jobs a whole lot easier so thanks so much for that yeah yeah ok back to the video so now you just right yeah one more yes yes yes and then god there's nothing - there's nothing to interact with okay there's this green button in the middle and you put it up and when you race this hand and you get the sound yeah let me come back for ya under my seat here put both feet down because you need stability yeah otherwise change the sound let's see how it reacts to your body yep very good take the note towards you okay we need to compress the field tiny bit to the right okay little bit back to left yeah cuz I wanted to be right here there you go all right oh that's a no I mean it sounds like you're starting up on the motorcycle or something hmm don't try just one note that's a good place to start yeah [Music] yeah let's try to work really if I move even a little bit even if I'm free [Music] don't worry yeah you know free ball playing theremin at all yeah let's try it hey what a deep ID yeah I would do what is that that is your one string away yeah [Music] if I go to a lot of a Bronto it and then yeah that's the common way to come up yeah it's just put a ton of a broto in it it's a DS in there somewhere that way I get a G chord I'll try I'll try to do a melody you [Music] what was it your posture can be whatever with the guitar like the more movement the better if you're on stage like even even if you're bobbing your head yeah yeah Bobby your head doesn't work go like this yeah play that note silence and now change to position one and play oh my god nice that totally works right Wow good yeah yeah let's add a whole chord that's led with the cordis that's Wow yeah all right I got the octave I keep it's it's just like when I was really concentrating on my hand movement I was able to get it but then I mean I find that if I'm concentrating on the sound then I don't this is unlike playing any other instrument I've ever played your body positions is what changes the middle rather than you know and a fretboard I never think like not doing something would mean it would be too loud like if if I'm playing too out on the guitar or drums it's because I'm putting a lot of energy I know it's it's so confusing it's always the opposite and it's so easy to just be take your hand off and then all the sudden it's so loud coming in today I was like okay we're gonna get it to where like if you're playing one chord I can go up a scale that was that was my goal now that seems like an impossible mountain to climb but I think I'm gonna give it a try [Music] they're off a Maria was in there somewhere I recognize it yeah at least played well enough to recognize it you can teach me anymore yeah what else we got C major seventh is my favorite corn these two right there put your first finger on this guy and if you just strum through all the strings yeah man I think it's hard already so I've just never had to think about you know steel while playing wow this shape [Music] that was that's me it was pretty good it start yeah we got one more yeah that's it alright okay maybe two strums of the G two strums of this you just give me like this it's really hard for me to do anything yeah I mean maybe I'll just blink at you yeah well I went a lot of blinks at score changes all right I'm ready [Music] yeah yeah I think we got it probably as good as I'm gonna do what I first did when I got my theremin it was like a patreon perk to shout out to the people on patreon thank you so much and it was once I got to a certain amount I would need to buy a theremin and make a song with it honestly was a lot of me doing this and I had like spots on the ground where I could stand where I could get like a few notes but the first thing I did with it was I plugged it in and just put it on the ground and then put out some food for our cats to see how they would react to it and it was a good time yeah it was hilarious oh cool do your bunnies like it yeah my bunnies can play it with it yours [Music] that is so cool well that's as far as I'm gonna get with a theremin today for more karoliina check out the links in the description for a lot of amazing theremin playing and we'll see you here on the channel soon if you'd like to subscribe also shout out to the people on patreon thank you so much we'll see you soon all right I'm ending on it I'm not a really great performance [Music] no no

Channel: Rob Scallon

Views: 9,987,945

Rating: 4.9607701 out of 5

Keywords: rob scallon, theremin, carolina eyck, theremin master, how to play, classical, theremin metal, theremin and guitar, lesson video, learn to play the theremin, theorbo, hurdy gurdy, performance, lesson, how to, definition, musician, music, instrument, first electric instrument, learning an instrument, live, play, guitar, sound, theremin instrument, theremin cover, theremin music, touch, star trek, clair de lune, spooky, ahs, zelda, ave maria, how it works, clara rockmore, playing, unique

Id: LYSGTkNtazo

Length: 23min 50sec (1430 seconds)

Published: Sat May 18 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/Porkchop-Express42]

Love Rob Scallon

[u/R0DRV]

thanks

[u/justaboxinacage]

I've heard it said the Theremin is the easiest instrument to learn to play and the most difficult instrument to master.

[u/_Neoshade_]

And of course it’s Carolina Eyck - the master of the theramin

[u/EroZ_HeliX]

wow it seems pretty cool, but I imagine it must be hard to use?