My show and tell today is a Theremin. I used to be in the music business, so I have tons of crazy, fun equipment to make sounds with. At a certain point I got bored with all the usual instruments. I always found myself looking for odd devices, pretty much anything I could find, to make sounds with. And yes, the Theremin makes sounds, but I'd consider it to be one of the most useless instruments ever made. It's fun to play with...for a few minutes.
So this is it, you turn it on and it senses your electro-magnetic field, or something like that. You move one hand for volume and the other for pitch. You can play it like a violin or more like a saw. Here's a video of a man, Arthur Harrison, who loves this thing so much that he's spent his entire life working to improve and refine it.
Perhaps the most notable thing about the Theremin, was it's moment in the spotlight playing the opening hook in a huge song that you all know.
So over the course of many years I tried to incorporate the Theremin into a song but it just ruins anything you put it on. You have to hand it to the Beach Boys for pulling it off. It's the only song I know that has used the Theremin successfully.
Yeah um, I wish I was good with cars, like a mechanic. I would totally be into gettting into a car, getting under the hood. Doing all that stuff. But the minute there is oil, fluids, it's like yeah, no. If it wasn't so dirty I'd be more into it.
