Dear theremin Veterans: What do you want to see in the near future?

w0ttm: Learn your instrument. Master it. Nail the pitch and phrasing. This is solid advice no matter what you play.

Most people agree that the theremin is the most difficult musical instrument ever devised. Unfortunately, due to its novel, high tech nature, it attracts the very people who are least liable to be able to play it seriously, and given the huge amount of time one has to spend mastering the instrument there is no financial reward at the end of the tunnel.

Many people who come to the theremin are "tekkies" who come for entirely technical/scientific reasons, not for musical reasons, and the chances are they will never be able to play precision theremin with the skill of someone who has come to the instrument for the love of music.

There ain't no such animal as a full-time "professional" thereminist, who makes his/her living solely from playing the theremin. How can you justify the hundreds, or possibly thousands of hours you are going to have to spend learning to control the device? It's fine if you are in a position to be able to subsidize your theremin career with your own money but not everyone has that luxury. 

All this sounds so damn NEGATIVE but this is the reality of the situation. 

"Many people who come to the theremin are "tekkies" who come for entirely technical/scientific reasons, not for musical reasons" - Coalport

I agree with the above to a degree - There will always be the "tekkies".. But the "novel, high tech nature" of the instrument is, I think, much less of a "pull" in this century than it was in the last.. We have tech toys now which makes the theremin look antique.

I do think fewer people will be drawn to the theremin (or certainly to "real" theremins - there will always be a market for toys) and that a larger percentage of these will probably be those with a more musical than technical interest.

I THINK that I have noticed the above already happening during the brief time I have been involved with the theremin world - I THINK I have seen more interest in serious instruments and actually playing, than there was 7 years ago.

"All this sounds so damn NEGATIVE but this is the reality of the situation"

 I dont think that the fact "There ain't no such animal as a full-time "professional" thereminist" should be a "problem" - A person capable of mastering the theremin is likely to have mastered other instruments - Being a master of the theremin can only increase their number of bookings! - Multi-instrumentalists (and I regard the human voice as an instrument) will be in demand as long asv music lives!

Fred.

Peter, if I remember right, you and several others have said the theremin should not be a first instrument.

I agree completely. Even after piano lessons and forty years of guitar playing, the damn thing drives me nuts sometimes.

"Multi-instrumentalists (and I regard the human voice as an instrument) will be in demand as long asv music lives!" Fred.

I think Peter and our own, sweet Amey prove that point. The theremin has often been compared to a human voice, and being a vocalist could be an advantage.

My voice sounds like a flatulent bull frog gargling used razor blades. Maybe that's why the theremin gives me grief.

The theremin is an antique, but a very cool one. I'm lucky enough to be a musician and a tech geek. I've seen in the last few years a lot of interest in analog technology.

Vintage guitars, amplifiers, keyboards, and effects are selling for insane prices. There are several websites devoted to cloning older gear.

Old is the new new.

My old Indian music teacher, Ravi Shankar, used to say that ALL musicians were singers, including instrumentalists. This is perhaps more obvious in the Indian tradition because the science of harmony was never developed. Melody, on the other hand, is far more sophisticated than what we are familiar with in the west and based on a 22 note, quarter tone octave (rather than the 12 note chromatic scale we are familiar with).

If you want to make REAL money as a musical performer, you can only do it as a singer. There have been a few exceptions to this but they are few and far between. Don't forget classical instrumental musicians, as famous as they may be, earn only a fraction of what a reasonably successful popular singer makes for a single appearance.