How precise should tuning be?

Hi all,

When I practice with my EPlus, some days I am more perfectionistic with the tuning than others.

I have found that if I carefully apply Thierry's indications of tuning the middle register with the pitch knob and the lower register with my body, I can get five almost linear octaves as he says. I don't know if the EPro gets much more linear than this, as I haven't tried one, but I'm very satisfied with the linearity of the EPlus when tuned in this way, the differences between octaves are very small.

On the other hand, there are days when I don't tune so carefully, maybe because I don't have much time for the theremin and I want to squeeze it out as much as possible, or maybe because it has been a hard day at work and I just feel like playing relaxed and without worrying too much about improving.

The thing is that, when I record myself playing and hear what I have done with a more perfectionistic vs. a more sloppy tuning, I don't notice much of a difference. It seems that if I care less about tuning and have a less linear field, I just end up adapting my hand gestures so the final result is similar; and this has the extra advantage that if the field changes a bit over time it's not a big deal. However, I'm aware that this may be because I'm not good enough for careful tuning to make a big difference. Perhaps for my current level of playing it isn't important to tune very precisely and carefully, but when I keep improving I will hit a roadblock if I don't do it.

So I would like to have the opinions of more experienced players: do you think it is important to tune very meticulously, or that it is OK to be more lenient and do a more coarse-grained tuning, trusting oneself to adapt to slight changes in the field?

No. It is not necessary to tune meticulously. AND DON'T BE GREEDY! You don't need five "almost linear octaves" unless you are playing avant-garde or "aleatoric" music which requires an extended range, and you can afford to sacrifice precision.

Clara Rockmore never played with more than three and a half octaves, and pointed out on many occasions that the reason people had difficulty with the theremin was because they wanted a huge range and ended up with a "squeezed" configuration. You can have excellent linearity (evenness of spacing between the notes) but still have an extremely squeezed configuration. With five octaves of perfect linearity and a playing arc of of roughly 50 cm., you have less than a centimeter between semitones. That is not enough to play with consistent accuracy.

With the theremin, what seduces the audience is the taste and unique artistic expression you can bring to the simplest of pieces. Remember: LESS IS MORE

Thanks, I think you hit the nail on the head. When I tune trying to get the maximum linearity, as a side effect I also tend to get a smallish playing field (I don't seem to be able to get such a good linearity and a wide field at the same time). This is probably why (or part of the reason why) tuning meticulously for linearity doesn't make me play any better.

I will give less importance to linearity and more to having more space between the notes I actually play.

I think you may be confusing "linearity" with "range".

The range of a theremin is the extent of possible variation in pitch from bottom to top (it has nothing to do with linearity).

Linearity refers to the spacing between the notes. It does not refer to the number of notes.

"Configuration" refers to the arrangement, or placement, of the notes within the playing arc, and where they are in relation to one another.

If you "tune" several different makes of theremin to a playing arc of about 50 cm (roughly 20 inches) you will find they are quite different in respect to their configurations.

Here is a comparison chart that might interest you showing the difference in range, linearity and configuration between an RCA, the Ethervox, Etherwave and Etherwave Pro theremins, all tuned to a 20 inch playing arc.

linearity (http://www.peterpringle.com/linearity2.jpeg)

AlKhwarizmi, I just watched the theremin transcription of Schubert's AVE MARIA (week 21) that you posted to YT, and I have a couple of suggestions. Take 'em or leave 'em, as you see fit.

If you are planning on performing publicly on the theremin, you might find that using an audio pitch preview will help with hand placement at the beginning of a piece, and allow you to avoid audible "pitch fishing". It would also give you added confidence and make your playing less tentative.

You appear to be trying to emulate Clara Rockmore's "aerial fingering" technique but rather than fanning the fingers of your pitch hand in graduated extensions, you are opening and shutting your hand as a single unit (the "swinging door" technique). Your 3rd, 4th and 5th fingers are stuck together and are not functioning independently. From the standpoint of Clara's approach to the instrument, this is putting you at a technical disadvantage.

Have you ever played the castanets? If you want to train your fingers to move in concert with one another but independently, the castanets would be a great exercise. They are lots of fun to play, they cost nothing, and you might just get to meet a byooteeful senorita! Here is a good video that shows how the fingers of the right hand (your pitch hand) should function in tandem with one another on the castanets.

castanets (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqUBDQ7MAAI#t=1m27s)

One of the problems with precision theremin playing is that newcomers to the instrument often do not want to learn a new skill. They want to take whatever it is they already know how to do and adapt it to the theremin. We wouldn't do this with a traditional instrument but with the theremin it happens all the time because there is no established technique. Unfortunately, there are very few "transferrable skills" that people can bring to the theremin because there is no other instrument like it.

What happened at the end of AVE MARIA? It just stopped dead!

About linearity vs. range, I understand that linearity refers to the spacing between notes being as equal as possible (regardless of whether it is large or small), but what I meant in the previous posts is that with my theremin (or at least the way I tune it) there seems to be a relation between that and range. I only can make the spacing between notes very uniform if that spacing is small (and therefore if the range of notes covered by my arm is larger). If I move the pitch knob counterclockwise, the spacing between notes increases, but it does so in some octaves more than others, and therefore I lose some linearity. But anyway, I agree with your advice, it makes sense that it's difficult to play accurately if one squeezes a large octave range into a small space, it is clear that linearity alone doesn't help much in this case so it is better to tune for wider spaces between the notes.

The chart you post is very interesting, judging by that the ethervox seems like the most linear theremin, although it has to be difficult to play (at least with that tuning) since there are 5 octaves in the space of 3.5 RCA octaves...

About the suggestions on my video, thank you very much for them, and of course I will take them and not leave them, at least as far as I can :)

It's true that I move my 3rd, 4th and 5th fingers together, and I already had some suspicion that this was not optimal because I noticed that no good thereminists that I have seen on video seem to do it like that. However, there are two reasons why I have kept moving the fingers like that until now. The first reason is that I'm physically not very good at moving those fingers independently, but I'll try to solve this by getting a set of castanets and training as you suggest (it sounds quite fun!). The second reason is that it is quite difficult to see on videos what people are exactly doing with their fingers. Should the intermediate positions (2 and 3) be obtained by extending some fingers and not others, or rather by extending all of them but ones more than others? And which of the fingers should be extended more, is it always the same for each position or rather something that depends on the previous/next note to play?

The pitch preview is something I plan to get when I make up my mind to open the theremin and flip the jumper :)

Every adjustment you make to your theremin influences everything. There is a sort of "domino effect". When you adjust one thing, something else will unexpectedly shift very slightly. It is ALWAYS a quest for the best possible compromise. Even things that are completely beyond your control (temperature, humidity, power fluctuations, etc.) can radically change the parameters of your setup.

In the linearity diagram that I posted, remember that each instrument is tuned so that its entire register is available within a 50 cm. playing arc. I never play the Ethervox with its whole register available within 50 cm. I sacrifice the bottom for better linearity on top. Experimental musicians may require a much larger range and, if they do, they can have it with the Ethervox. It is not possible with an RCA.

The castanets are wonderful fun! In the winter of 1959 I went skiing with my family in Banff, Alberta, and it turned out to be too cold to ski. The temperature was 50 below zero in the Rocky Mountains that season. There was a woman from Spain in the Mount Royal Hotel where were staying and she played the castanets very well. Since we couldn't ski, she asked me if I would like to learn to play and told me she had an extra pair with her. We had a terrific time! For me, it was more fun than skiing.

I still remember all the Spanish castanuela terminology and the names of all the different dances and rhythms (and how to play them). I was about 13 years old at the time. I became a dedicated fan of Flamenco and dreamed of becoming Manitas de Plata!

LOL

Do not underestimate what you can learn from the castanets. They will teach you timing, rhythm and right hand dexterity.

Edit by Thierry

Deleted because it was a double posting. The "other" copy is here (http://thereminworld.com/forum.asp?cmd=p&T=4889&F=780)

I often practice with a tuner on top of my theremin, the kind that has a display showing a needle. I set it to the chromatic mode and try to hit the notes as accurately as possible. There is also a phone app called gStrings that does note by note tuning.

 

[AlKhwarizmi] "It's true that I move my 3rd, 4th and 5th fingers together, and I already had some suspicion that this was not optimal because I noticed that no good thereminists that I have seen on video seem to do it like that. However, there are two reasons why I have kept moving the fingers like that until now. The first reason is that I'm physically not very good at moving those fingers independently, but I'll try to solve this by getting a set of castanets and training as you suggest (it sounds quite fun!). The second reason is that it is quite difficult to see on videos what people are exactly doing with their fingers. Should the intermediate positions (2 and 3) be obtained by extending some fingers and not others, or rather by extending all of them but ones more than others? And which of the fingers should be extended more, is it always the same for each position or rather something that depends on the previous/next note to play?"

I never understood the logic or practicality of that, since the closest finger to the antenna wins!

I never ever practice with a tuner. Heck, I just "play". I rarely do scales and octave jumps. I don't even know how to read music ~ luckily, I do have good ears and I know when I am not on pitch! If I played with a tuner, i'd be too distracted! It's hard enough trying to play on pitch, controling dynamics, etc that by adding another thing to worry about would be the death of me (and probably the audience).

After almost 2 years at the theremin, one thing I learned " the less you do on the theremin, the best the outcome will be". I am a lazy thereminist. I do not move much when I play, but I try to be efficient and relaxed. Relaxed approach with almost marionette fingers is what works best for me :)