Brief one-off lesson in London?

Hello,
I've just bought an Etherwave, and am trying to get to grips with it. Would anybody in London (UK) be willing to give me a brief one-off lesson?
(I know there's plenty of resources and videos online, but nothing beats someone saying "No, it's easier like this. Yes, like that"(!))


A little more detail: I learnt violin between the ages of 7 and 18 regularly to grade 6 (I'm 23) and have played piano since (grade 5 and then for fun). I consider myself relatively musical and have GCSE, ALevel, grade6 theory, and also play bass guitar, drums, mandolin, guitar... so words like 'interval' mean something to me! I've not got absolute pitch, but my relative is pretty decent. At the moment I can pick out (slow!) melodies and harmony lines.
Oh... I am left handed, and after my violin/guitar experience have decided using my left hand for pitch is far more intuitive to me.


I would like to make sure I'm doing the following:
* tuning the damn thing properly
* proper playing positions (feet, hands, height etc)
* aeriel fingering basics
* is my vibrato ok
* good technique (having held a violin bow incorrectly for 6 years, I know this is worth it!)
* suggestions for good exercises to get me started, shown in person.


To start with I'd just want a single hour (or half hour) session. I'm guessing around £20/hr is reasonable, and I'm willing to travel up to about 30mins outside London.

If anyone's interested, please get in touch! (ideally with video/sound clips of your playing :))

Lydia Kavina lives in London. She teaches, but I don't know if she's on tour right now, or how much she charges.

If you're not able to find someone to give basic instruction, I'd be happy to set up a lesson via skype. I've successfully taught a totally blind person how to play the theremin via skype.

Good luck on your instructor quest.

Welcome to Theremin World, Chris.

Did you know that Lydia Kavina currently resides in the Oxford area? She offers tuition and can be contacted via her website.

http://lydiakavina.com

[edit]Oops - looks like you beat me to it, Thomas.[/edit]

An alternative strategy, if it is feasible for you, would be to attend Without Touch 2.0, the German theremin festival in September. That way you get Lydia, and also Barbara Buchholz, Carolina Eyck [i]and[/i] Wilco Botermans! (They were at the Hands Off Theremin Symposium last year, in Bushey - and on the strength of that - it was an amazing weekend - I booked to go to Without Touch the moment I heard about it.)

More info on their myspace site...

http://myspace.com/withouttouch

Ms. Hypnotique is giving a theremin workshop on Aug 2nd in Nottingham which looks like fun:

http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?
fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=50692920&
blogID=417507049

Thankyou for your kind replies and welcomes, guys!


I'm slightly wary of taking up a legend like Lydia Kavina's time - it seems like a bit of a sledgehammer to my walnut!


The festival/workshop sound extremely interesting though; I actually used to live in Nottingham and am free that weekend so that sounds really really great. Thank you! :)

Hahaha!

On the scary scale Susi (Ms. Hypnotique) definitely rates higher than Lydia! Especially if she's in her stage persona, which has a hint of the dominatrix about it - dressed severely, singing "You need discipline!"

Lydia, on the other hand, I just can't help but think of her as Auntie Lydia and wonder if she knits tea cosies in her spare time.

Honestly - I've met a fair few of the top players and not one of them strikes me as a diva - they're all just regular folk. No need for wariness.

I have a few small pointless questions if I may - I wonder if anyone can help out?


I've not picked up aeriel fingering just yet (:D), but one 'technique' I've inadvertantly found is to rotate my hand around, as if I were turning a key, to step up pitches. Is this a bad habit, or part of any advisable technique?


Can anyone confirm the type of audio output from a Moog Etherwave? For some reason, when I plug in headphones (or my mixer) I only get the left channel - ideally I'd like to hear myself in both ears ;) Am I using the wrong 1/4 inch (6.35mm) -> 3.5mm adaptor (I've tried 3: two stereo 6.35mm, one mono 6.35mm), and would a mono one fix my problems; is it an Etherwave thing; or could my instrument be slightly faulty? (it was a purchase from eBay). Is there anything I need to pick up from Maplin? (our equivalent of 'Radioshack' I suppose!)


Regarding tuning - each 'pitch' setting will mean the interval spacings in the air will be different. Should I a) be adept at playing to many different tuning settings, or b) should I *always* make sure my instrument is 'in tune' to a certain level and then learn to those distances in the air? Answer 'a' would suggest that the ear is the most important, where 'b' suggests a degree of muscle memory is involved...


Another thing I've found is that my pitch hand is playing between the centre of my body and the antenna - is about 45 degrees the right sort of place (or 135 if you're being pedantic), or should it from my shoulder to the antenna at 180 degrees?

GordonC - I didn't mean like that, simply that it would be a bit like getting Steven Hawking to help a child with some school homework ;) From what I've seen of the theremin community, it seems a very friendly and 'interesting' group of people!
From my Moog DVD, I do think Clara Rockmore did have an air of rockstar 'arrogance' about her (she *knew* she was the best theremin player in the world and a very talented musician!) - which I think is a just fantastic thing. Not a diva, simply a fascinating character.

[i]I've not picked up aeriel fingering just yet (:D), but one 'technique' I've inadvertantly found is to rotate my hand around, as if I were turning a key, to step up pitches. Is this a bad habit, or part of any advisable technique?[/i]

Strive for an efficient technique. Knuckle extensions are quite efficient in that it requires little movement to get from one note to the next. Twisting your arm/wrist requires a lot of wasted effort -- if your goal is to play via aerial fingering.

[i]Can anyone confirm the type of audio output from a Moog Etherwave? For some reason, when I plug in headphones (or my mixer) I only get the left channel - ideally I'd like to hear myself in both ears ;) Am I using the wrong 1/4 inch (6.35mm) -> 3.5mm adaptor (I've tried 3: two stereo 6.35mm, one mono 6.35mm), and would a mono one fix my problems; is it an Etherwave thing; or could my instrument be slightly faulty? (it was a purchase from eBay). Is there anything I need to pick up from Maplin? (our equivalent of 'Radioshack' I suppose!)[/i]

The Etherwave's output jack is a standard 1/4" unbalanced line output (Tip and Sleeve). Since a stereo headphone is TRS (Tip-Ring-Sleeve) you will only hear the left (Tip) channel. You will need to get an adaptor to route the mono signal to the tip and ring of a TRS jack in order to hear the theremin out of both sides of your headset.

[i]Regarding tuning - each 'pitch' setting will mean the interval spacings in the air will be different. Should I a) be adept at playing to many different tuning settings, or b) should I *always* make sure my instrument is 'in tune' to a certain level and then learn to those distances in the air?[/i]

Strive for consistancy in everything -- your tuning, your stance, the height adjustment of the theremin. To play with a different note spacing from one day to the next would be like playing a keyboard where the width of the keys change from day to day.

[i]Answer 'a' would suggest that the ear is the most important, where 'b' suggests a degree of muscle memory is involved...[/i]

The ear IS the most important however as you practice you are training your muscle-memory.

Whatever you do, strive for consistancy. [b]Accuracy is more important than speed.[/b]

If you play fast and carelessly, you are training your muscles to play that way. If you play accurately, then you are training your muscles to play accurately.

Learn to play slowly at first and the speed will come. Have faith!

[i]-- Kevin[/i]