Using Theremini Pitch Quantization as a Training Aid

Ever the optimist that I am, after spending (I can almost guarantee) as much time playing the Theremini melodically as anyone out there, I have come to the realization that quantization can in fact be a pedagical tool for learning how to play difficult passages on the analog theremin. As a beginner, I am convinced that playing in a semi-quantized state can improve your technique. 

Now I am not talking about turning the Pitch Correction dial all the way to the right. Playing in a fully quantized state is really more an effect (albeit a useful one if you like to riff on scales - which you can easily do on the Theremini when fully quantized). But you will not be able to jump between notes without unwanted quantization effects. Not at all what you are looking for as a training aid.

But turning that Pitch Correction dial between 8 and 10 O'Clock puts you in a state where you can still get portamento but also a bit of pitch gravitation/correction to the set scale and key occurs. This can let you hit pitches with greater accuracy than you would on the Etherwave especially playing scales, but still maintains a challenge. In fact, it can be quite difficult to play lines in this quantized state without any quantization artifacts coming in to play. If you are too slow you'll hear unwanted pitch motions or motions to pitches you don't want. So in my opionion, it's a great training aid to develop crisp hand movement for note articulation that you can then take to your Etherwave. 

Then again, quantization with some practice lets you play real trills and ornaments (something you could never do on the Etherwave). This makes the Theremini a great instrument for Baroque music where you can use quantization to your benefit and also take advantage of limitations in vibrato and great volume differentiation (which are not used to any great extent in Baroque/Early music and in my opinion are the most challenging aspects of playing the Theremini). Frankly, playing Early music on the theremin with a ton of vibrato to my ears just sounds wrong (though most may not notice or care about this if not musicologically inclined). 

And of course you can slowly dial Pitch Correction back to the point where you are playing in the analog-like pitch field without any quantization and then head over to your Etherwave. For me personally however, the quantized effects of the Theremini are in an of themselves useful for certain types of music in addition to training so I really see the Theremini as an adjunct instrument that I will go to when I want to play a certain kind of music and head over to the Etherwave when I want something else.

How might this semi-quantized sound be used to my advantage? Well, lets say I have a totally diatonic piece that is in one key. I should be able to dial that up on the Theremini and play some things more easily than I would be able to on the Etherwave (and better prepare me to play them on the Etherwave).

Here's a little example of playing in the semi-quantized state. I recorded a little arrangement of a bit of Bach's "Jesu Joy of Man's Desiring". You can hear a few little quantization gotchas (they almost sound like ornaments and I assume I can learn how to actually play them as such). This is a wicked piece to play on the analog theremin. I just don't hear anyone playing it. My goal is to learn how to play this really well on the Etherwave, and I am convinced practicing on the Theremini in quantized mode will help me in that quest (my Etherwave playing I feel has improved because of the time I've spent with the Theremini). I do have to redo that last phrase but I can guarantee I could never play pitches this well at this speed right now on my Etherwave. 

Semi-Quantized Jesu Example

Thanks for posting this track.

Would you be willing to post another version wherein you impart some phrasing/shading to the theremin part?   I don't mean this a criticism but I am curious as to how the Theremini can handle some nuanced dynamics.

Yes. Always an issue for me right now - I need to add more expressive phrasing and dynamics for sure, though as you might expect just getting notes out at this speed is a challenge in and of itself and my main goal at this point in my short playing career is still nailing pitch more than expression (and debunking the constant criticism that you can't play melodies on the Theremini). Of course you still have to articulate all the repeated notes in the piece which makes this very good left hand practice. I would expect this piece would give any professional a big challenge, let alone a beginner. Then again I still have a long way to go expressively on the Etherwave as well. Frankly, to me, with confidence in pitch comes everything else with the theremin or Theremini.

By the way I've also used some wavefolding on the sound here that has a compression-like effect. Perhaps I should remove that as it will allow more dynamic headroom. Also a better example of Theremini nuance will likely be illustrated with a solo performance as I've bumped up levels here as well and there is also a tube saturation plugin used I should ditch (I can't help myself from experimenting with sounds). However, to get the full expressive potential out of the Theremini you not only can use the antennas, but you also can use MIDI controllers in various ways as almost every aspect of the instrument can be MIDI controlled (something I'm now experimenting with). My plan is to actually use a foot pedal for volume control (and hopefully get a much greater dynamic variation) so I can free up my left hand to run an iPad based MIDI controller that can twiddle numerous parameters as I play. I'm sure MIDI can greatly help add expression in various ways. Part of the reason to buy the Theremini is all that digital niceness to experiment with along with its dynamic sonic potential.

But the bottom line is, big proponent of the Theremini that I am, there is no way I am going to make a claim that the Theremini is the expressive equal of the Etherwave in melodic playing. I would almost certainly think Moog would agree with me there (and of course that is not how it is being marketed). So while the constant criticism that "you can't play melodies" on the Theremini is totally unfounded, I unabashedly admit the Theremini is not currently designed to allow the same level of dynamic expression as the Etherwave, nor does it allow as expressive a vibrato (two areas the beginner is likely not overly concerned with at first but also two issues I hope Moog is working on improving for future firmware upgrades).

But the real issue of this thread is that I find that after playing the Theremini in a semi-quantized state for long stretches, nailing pitches on the Etherwave does seem much easier. I'm wondering if any other beginners out there are having a similar experience (likely not, as not many beginners have both instruments like I do).

Enough writing. Back to playing.

I think that you may have a point about the quantized pitches and how it transfers to a better performance on a non-quantized theremin.

I think that thereminists (perhaps singers, too) tend to memorize the intonation -- that is, if you become accustomed to hitting a note, say, a little flat that you will "hear" that as the correct pitch and tend to play that same note at the same pitch each time.  With quantization, you "hear" the correct pitch and then, when you play without quantization, you will tend to match the pitch that you have memorized.

One of the things I noticed in your track is that the wrong notes were the result of over-shooting (that is, moving past the target pitch rather than stopping short of it).  To undershoot and then correct to pitch can be done in a musical way (listen to Clara Rockmore's recordings -- the "undershoot-and-correct-to-pitch" is so obiquitous that it is really part of her "sound").  But to over-shoot and correct back is really klutzy -- very hard to cover a mistake that way.

You may be interested in a short video wherein I demonstrate ascending and descending jumps on the theremin -- http://kevinkissinger.com/videos.shtml  -- click on the video that is entitled "jumps on the theremin".   You may find some helpful tips there for dealing with combinations of steps and jumps.

Thanks for the link! Obviously the biggest issue is articulating jumps crisply and accurately and the constant motion of the Bach piece does not give you much room for error or fudging. 

Very interesting observation on the overshoots. Frankly I'm not even analytically hearing that when playing (notes are going by too fast) but I will pay more attention to how my hand motions are letting that happen consistently.

Of course linear diatonic motion is almost a no-brainer on the quantized Theremini. When you first get a theremin, just playing a major scale is nasty business. I think the Theremini can help you map your hand motions to scalar material as it kind of becomes second nature on the Theremini and that may well help program your hand motions.

When you start, just getting used to hearing pitches in tune is a challenge for anyone used to a fixed pitch instrument. People like me used to playing the the piano or guitar or wind instruments have to get used to training the ear to hear in a dynamic pitch field. In retrospect, I now realize that when I started on the Etherwave, the problem was not that I could not play in tune. The problem was that after so many years of playing piano, I could not hear correctly in tune (my ear was totally not used to zeroing in a correct pitch in that dynamic pitch field). It takes time for your ear to adjust to the instrument. 

This is very much like what you are saying. That quantization can I feel help you hear pitches converge to be in tune in that dynamic field and then that will likely help you on the "real thing" if you transfer over.

Well we'll see how it goes. I plan to continue to use the Theremini as a practice aid and then when I move to the Etherwave I'm hoping to see continued progress. Though it's back at Moog right now as I zapped it with winter static. Will be interesting to see what happens when I get it back after playing the Theremini exclusively for a while.

JUST WATCHED YOUR VIDEO - VERY INSTRUCTIVE HOW YOU COMBINE TWO INTERVALIC MOTIONS TO CREATE THE JUMPS. THANKS AGAIN!!! 

Rich

OK maybe not the world's best performance, but at least proof that you can easily play melodies on the Theremini in semi-quantized mode with a bit of practice (no way in the world I could play this so in tune on my Etherwave right now). But I'm hoping it will help me do just that relatively soon as it helps me train my hand positions and ear.

I am totally convinced the Theremini is a great training tool. Yes, not an expressive equal to the Etherwave for melodic playing, but the two can nicely co-exist in our world of theremins.

And Kevin - you are so right it makes a big difference when I try and approach notes from below and not above! thanks so much for that tip.

Jesu - Theremini Version

Hey, that was really fun to listen to -- a good demo of the Theremini in action.

Also, I noticed you are doing a little more with your phrasing and volume compared to your first track.

Is it possible to use finger/knuckle extensions to manage the jumps a little faster?  It takes a bit of practice, of course.  What you want to arrive at is where the "gliding from note to note" becomes an expressive device rather than a constant.  On the large jumps, it is hard to avoid a "gliss", however on the smaller intervals (i.e., the thirds) you might try knuckle extensions (rather than arm motions) and you can mask the gliss.

This is very fun to hear what is possible on the theremini.  Thanks again!

Yes, worked a bit on phrasing and dynamics. And changed some timbres to be a little less grating which helps make things sound more fluid as well. And I get more emotive expression involved when I added the chorale counterpoints and added dynamic presence through the additional doublings.

The volume response of the Theremini is not sufficient to give much differentiation in a relatively loud piece like this, but then you don't need great volume change in Baroque music unless you are playing something that requires terraced dynamics so phrasing becomes a lot more important trying to articulate some of those repeated notes, etc.

Frankly, I have the same issue with the Etherwave - volume goes p-f too fast. Fortunately through MIDI you can get a very nice dynamic response if set a certain way on the Theremini (using a foot pedal to augment the volume antenna response). One of a number of techniques you can employ to get a lot more dynamic variation with the Theremini. 

As for all the little glides. Yep. Practice, practice practice. I'm not really moving my hand for small ascending jumps (it's all fingers). Need to practice more. That's another thing I think the Theremini can help with. Setting the pitch response to the point where there is no portamento between jumps and then setting it finer and work to get rid of the portamento and then set finer. Theoretically it should be a nice training tool for this.

Funny how when I am playing I can't hear a lot of the little inflections yet because getting notes out at this constant speed takes all my concentration right now. I guess that will come with time.