Editing Theremin (section)

== Performance technique ==
[[File:Robotic Theremin.jpg|thumbnail|A robot playing the theremin]]
Important in theremin articulation is the use of the volume control antenna. Unlike touched instruments, where simply halting play or damping a resonator in the traditional sense silences the instrument, the thereminist must "play the rests, as well as the notes", as [[Clara Rockmore]] observed.<ref>{{cite web|last=Moog |first=Bob |url=http://www.thereminvox.com/article/articleview/21/1/22/ |title=Theremin Vox – In Clara's Words |publisher=Thereminvox.com |date=2002-10-26 |access-date=2012-03-13}}</ref>

If the pitch hand is moved between notes, without first lowering the volume hand, the result is a "swooping" sound akin to a [[swanee whistle]] or a [[glissando]] played on the [[violin]]. Small flutters of the pitch hand can be used to produce a [[vibrato]] effect. To produce distinct notes requires a pecking action with the volume hand to mute the volume while the pitch hand moves between positions.

Thereminists such as [[Carolina Eyck]] use a fixed arm position per octave, and use fixed positions of the fingers to create the notes within the octave, allowing very fast transitions between adjacent notes.<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0n-o71RUrQw How to play a scale on the theremin  | Carolina talks Theremin]</ref>

Although volume technique is less developed than pitch technique, some thereminists have worked to extend it, especially [[Pamelia Kurstin]] with her "[[walking bass]]" technique<ref>{{Cite web |last=Kurstin |first=Pamelia |date=February 2002 |title=The untouchable music of the theremin |url=https://www.ted.com/talks/pamelia_kurstin_the_untouchable_music_of_the_theremin |access-date=2023-12-02 |website=[[TED (conference)|TED]]}}</ref> and Rupert Chappelle.

The critic [[Harold C. Schonberg]] described the sound of the theremin as "[a] cello lost in a dense fog, crying because it does not know how to get home".<ref>{{Cite news |last=Grimes |first=William |date=9 November 1993 |title=Leon Theremin, Musical Inventor, Is Dead at 97 |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1993/11/09/obituaries/leon-theremin-musical-inventor-is-dead-at-97.html |access-date=19 July 2015}}</ref>