Play the Theremin with Today's Google Doodle

Legendary theremin performer and developer, Clara Rockmore, was born 150 years ago today, and in her honor Google has made her the star of a "theremin lesson" Google Doodle. The theremin is an instrument created in the early 1920s by Russian inventor Léon Theremin, which you play by gesturing your hands in the air around its sensors, one controlling pitch, the other controlling dynamics. It takes a lot of coordination to figure out, but this version is extremely easy to use: simply go to google.com, and hit the "play" button to learn how to expressively play the opening notes of French composer Camille Saint-Saëns's famous piece "The Swan," from his 1886 suite The Carnival of the Animals.

After three basic lessons, Rockmore gives you a pretty basic gist of the singular, ethereally moody instrument. Although it's less visceral to use your cursor instead of your hands, it's still a fun interactive experience nonetheless.

Today's commemoration coincides with Google Creative Lab's launch of the Chrome Music Lab, which is designed to "create simple ways for anyone, of any age, to explore how music works," according to its designer Alex Chen. Read more about it here, and head there now for a drum machine featuring animated monkeys playing your patterns, a spectrogram showing you the visual makeup of sound, and more.

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