A Psychological Obstacle

The assertion that the theremin is nearly impossible to play is a myth. It's a myth perpetuated, in part, by theremin players themselves. If it were true, would there be thousands of thereminists? I believe that to make such an assertion is, at the individual level, self-defeating. What other endeavor have you ever entered into by telling yourself, "This is probably impossible because others say it is”? The theremin CAN be played, and played well, by those who take it up, commit to it, and practice. It's that simple. In that respect it is no different than any other instrument. Pick up a tuba and try to play it! If it's your first time, you'll think to yourself, "This is impossible!" Any instrument is hard at first. Where the theremin TRULY differs (and this is rarely discussed) is that, unlike any other instrument, it carries with it a psychological obstacle -- you are not touching anything. THAT is the true obstacle. We are tactile and visual beings. The theremin denies us these two sensory feedback systems. When playing, your hands feel nothing as a reference -- no fret, string, key, etc. When playing, your eyes have no reference point for the location of notes. However, this obstacle, too, is an illusion -- disguised in the form of a purely psychological yet unnecessary dependence upon the sensory feedback that we rely on so often. You can prove this to yourself in the following manner. When you are done, you will be able to play the theremin better than you did a few minutes before. To proceed and actually complete what you will read below, you will need an open mind. Ready? You're going to use a simple scale: Do Re Mi Fa Sol, etc. You already know it backwards and forwards. You've grown up hearing it all your life. If you're more comfortable knowing that you're starting on middle C, go ahead and sound that note out on a piano or something, just to orient yourself. But, in reality, you can start anywhere for the purposes of this exercise. STEP ONE Stand in front of your theremin and concentrate on only one thing: playing the scale. Just slide from one note to the other (DO NOT WORRY ABOUT RYTHYM, CLEAN NOTE ARTICULATION, VOLUME OR ANYTHING ELSE) and just reach each pure pitch. Go slowly and when you hit the pitch correctly just hold and let it sing out ... "Do-o-o-o-o-o" for about five seconds. Then move on to the next, just slide up to it and hold... "Re-e-e-e-e-e-e-e" etc., all the way up, then all the way back down. STEP TWO Go get a WOODEN spoon from your kitchen. Hold the STEM END of the spoon and repeat the same exercise, playing your notes with the wide bowl end of the spoon. Take your time. All the way up and down the scale. STEP THREE Stand as comfortable as possible. Close your eyes. Repeat the same scale using YOUR HEAD. Do not look. Just lean in, find the note, get it right, then HOLD, and then move on. Go all the way up and down the scale. STEP FOUR Do the same thing with each of your elbows. STEP FIVE Repeat all four steps above; only choose a very simple SONG that you know inside and out; something simple, like "Happy Birthday." STEP SIX Go away for fifteen minutes. Relax. Come back to the theremin. Plant yourself, and play the simple song straight through. You be the judge of the result. WHAT IS HAPPENING? Silly as the above sounds, you are teaching your body to move past the psychological obstacle placed there by your conscious mind. You are circumventing your thinking, your inner voice and all you've heard about the theremin's difficulty. The awkward activity of using your head, elbows and a spoon bypasses not only your intellect but also the assumptions you have been forcing your body to make about how to play a theremin (because we all watch the documentaries and see the greats, etc.) In the final analysis, it is your integrated BODY/MIND that plays the theremin wihtout conscious mechanics. Do not misunderstand. There are many techniques for how to use the volume antenna, fingering positions, creating vibrato, mastering scales, and playing clearly articulated notes. They are all put to use consciously. All are invaluable when it comes to finding what you're most comfortable with. Experiment. But none of these addresses the barrier. At its root level, to get past the barrier, you must teach the conscious mind's imposed dictums out of your body. Think of it this way: You drive a car with ease. That is because 95%-98% of driving is done on an unconscious level. If you truly had to FULLY CONSCIOUSLY coordinate all of the calculations, judgments, small motor functions, large motor functions, hand-to-eye relationships, reaction times, neural firings and messages from brain to all parts of your body, visual focus, distance judging and all of the microsecond-to-microsecond unified mechanics required to drive a car you would crash before you got out of your driveway. The steps above will take you past the true obstacle, usually after the first time you complete them. Do you doubt there's an obstacle? Chances are that the very second you began reading above about the steps I propose, you were telling yourself that it sounded weird or silly or strange, telling yourself that this weird thing won't work on YOU, perhaps telling yourself that you might do PART of it, but when it comes to playing with your head, well, that's just too ridiculous, etc., etc., etc., If you were telling yourself any of this, you now have your proof of how dearly our conscious minds cling to our preconceived notions when confronted by something that we have no frame of reference for. It is precisely this type of resistance that your conscious mind buys into when confronting the prospect of playing a theremin. Try it. You've nothing to lose.