3

All instruments are difficult at the end, but how much skills required to play theremin are comparable to skills to play the similar piece on say piano, guitar or the like? Is the amount of effort involved comparable or is it significantly more complex?

h22
  • 4,454
  • 6
  • 24
  • 61
  • 1
    Though I have not played Theremin I guess the main difficulty is the lack of feedback through touch. You can play a Guitar or Piano even without listening to the sound it produces after some practice because you will develop muscle memory but in Theremin it will be difficult. almost the only feedback you get that you are playing right or wrong is by hearing it. – Tanmoy Jan 20 '15 at 17:03
  • 1
    @Tanmoy Not only that. Also the environment matters: Being next to a large metal structure is like if someone suddenly shorten the fingers of a violinist by couple millimetres. – yo' Jan 20 '15 at 17:08
  • @MeaningfulUsername But that's not the fun. You can directly play your iPad touchscreen if you do that ;) – yo' Jan 20 '15 at 19:31
  • @yo': It's still the same movements. I think it's a great idea to have training wheels in this way, since the theremin is a notoriously hard instrument to master. – Meaningful Username Jan 20 '15 at 19:33
  • Theremini is the wanted answer to this question (we just want to get out something quickly but not yet ready to invest amount of work needed to master violin). If @Meaningful Username would write comment as an answer, I would accept. – h22 Jan 21 '15 at 09:13

1 Answers1

5

On a "real" theremin it's likely quite hard. Moog has a new variant, called the Theremini. You can set it for scales, and set the sensitivity, from discrete steps to normal theremin mode. This in order to make it easier to master. Note that it is different from the original in that it's digital technique under the hood. I've tried one briefly, and with small effort you can make somewhat pleasing sounds.

Meaningful Username
  • 6,697
  • 3
  • 29
  • 49