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Tom Grillo, Theremin Instructor/Virtuoso: Yes. The fact that the instrument was developed in the 1920s blows my mind. It's way ahead of its time.How exactly does it make sound? I'm not even touching mine right now and it's totally wigging out on me.
It's a non-tactile interface, so you can make all of the music just by moving your hands. There's an electronic circuit inside and it has what we call oscillators. They're found in synthesizers as well. When they're on, they send a pulse of electronic signal through the rest of the circuit and out to the speaker and you get a sound. In the case of these BFOs (beat-frequency oscillators) you have two of them, which are inaudible. One is a fixed frequency that's slightly off. The second one is a variable frequency, which is controlled by our interactions with the fields that surround the antennas.
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Yes it is. Unfortunately, Clara Rockmore, who was one of the best Thereminists there's ever been, didn't like the idea of Theremins being used in science fiction. She wanted to make sure that it was considered a classical instrument. Several Hollywood producers approached her to work on sci-fi films and she turned down every single one of them. It wasn't used as much for music as it was for effect and scaring the audience out of their mind.Were you originally drawn to it for its spooooky qualities?
Actually, I got into the Theremin as an impulse buy. I was helping a close friend of mine who is completely blind and works for NASA look for a keyboard. While I was checking some online shops that carried keyboards, I saw a few also carried Theremins. I bought it without knowing what it was and eventually I taught myself to play. It took me a few weeks to go from sounding like a catfight in a sewer to actually playing notes.Wait a sec. You have a blind friend who works for NASA?
Yes I do--she does stuff for their websites. She's a great keyboardist as well.Just making sure I actually heard that. What else do you do besides excellently playing your Theremin.
Well, the Theremin actually occupies 80 percent of my time. I guess my other hobbies are things like… flight simulation… designing my website… photographing small objects for my family. I used to do holography back in the 80s and 90s.
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I used to do holography. That's holographic imaging. I used to make holograms.Cool. So I take it you're pretty invested in the future?
Ha. I like lot of techno stuff. I'm a total technoid. I've played other instruments like the violin, flute, and the piano for a while, but they've never captured my attention, not like the Theremin. I never get bored of the Theremin. The first thing I do when I wake up is turn on the Theremin and let it warm up--get my coffee and breakfast, check my email, then come back to the Theremin, start my rehearsals. Sometimes I might take a break on the flight simulator too.You actually own a flight simulator?
I do. It's not some great motion platform or anything, but I do have one.Do you still do holography?
Unfortunately not. I live too close to a rail yard, so too many ground vibrations work into the optical layout and I can't actually get a good hologram. It's just not practical to attempt holography in this part of town.I'm sorry, I've got no clue what you're talking about.
What holography does is make a 3D image that is recorded on a photographic film by splitting a beam of laser light, bouncing the light off another object, then recombining the two beams back at the photographic plate. If one of those beams is out of phase with the other, even by a wavelength of light or a thousandth of a millimeter, you won't get a holographic image.
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Well, if you're talking about 3D free-floating apparitions, those will never happen. The physics don't support it. You'd have to use lasers so bright that they would blind or fry you. You're talking about illuminating molecules of air--it's almost the way an aura works.I feel like it makes a lot of sense that an online Theremin instructor would also be really into holography. Do you feel the same way?
Holography and Theremins almost go hand in hand, in that they almost work the same way. With holography, you're splitting light, bringing it back together, and combining wave fronts. In Theremins you're combining two different frequencies of sound to create yet another frequency of sound. You're dealing with constructive and destructive wave fronts. It's all about physics. It's all intertwined really.Were you at any point a scientist?
Not really. I dabble a bit in contemplating relativistic philosophies and that type of thing, but that's really it.When did you get into flight simulation?
When I was a kid I always wanted to be a pilot. Unfortunately there is this little problem that I'm legally blind. They won't give me a driver's license, so they definitely won't give me a pilot's license. The next best thing is flight simulation. I've been at it since the mid-80s and I've had every version of it.It sounds like you weren't made for these times Thomas. When the future actually happens and there are flying cars scooting all over the place and every band has three Theremin players, you're just going to look at your watch and then yawn.
It's just a lot of fun really.BENJAMIN MAJOYTo take your own Theremin lessons on Skype, visit thomasgrillo.com.
