Clay Boquet chose to learn how to play the Theremin for his senior project. He was intrigued by the unusual instrument. Through his research, he learned about its inventor Leon Theremin and how it works using oscillators and electromagnetic fields. For his project, Clay learned to play the Star Trek theme song on the Theremin. Learning this challenging instrument taught him about musical skills and perseverance. He recommends the Theremin as a fun and unique hobby for those interested in music.

1. Clay Boquet
Hi, I am Clay Boquet and my senior project was to learn how to play the Theremin. I
chose this topic because I was intrigued by the instrument from the moment I saw it.
I chose to write my research paper about "all things Theremin" so to say. Writing my
research paper that way, really helped me to understand my project and what it entailed. Before
doing my research paper, I had no idea what I was doing. I didn't know who Leon Theremin was,
or how the Theremin even functioned. I have to say though; I was really surprised to find out that
the Theremin was a complete accident. Leon Theremin was asked to build a motion detector, and
he later realized that his invention was a lot more than that, and so he created the Theremin.
My product was to play a song on the Theremin. At first I had no idea which song to
play, so I started thinking, I am a nerd, I know a lot of cool things I can play on this thing, but
which one should I chose? Well, around the same time, my brother was learning to play the
piano, and his songs of interest were from the Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, so I thought I’d
learn that too. And I did. It didn’t take long for me to knock out 3 or 4 songs. But I started to get
the feeling that I needed something more before it was acceptable. So I went back to the drawing
boards, and one night, when I was watching the big bang theory, Sheldon Cooper started to play
the Theremin. He played the star trek theme, and I got to thinking. This is what I need to play. It
was the perfect song for my project so I began to work on learning it. It was simple, but
compared to the Zelda songs; it showed a lot more of what the Theremin could do.
To be honest, my project facilitator really didn’t do much for my project. I chose
him because of the fact that he had a Theremin and going in, I thought I was going to need a lot
of help from him, but I was generally surprised when I just didn’t need much of his help.

2. Now before I go on too much further, I know you all are probably wondering "just how
does this weird little contraption work"? Now this is no simple answer. When the Theremin was
first built in 1928 it used a pair of synchronized oscillators to project a slight magnetic field
around the instrument, and when the player moved his hands inside of the field, he would disrupt
the field and cause a different sound to be produced. The reason this system worked is because
every human has something called capacitance, which is a slight magnetic charge in their body,
and it’s the player's capacitance that is really disrupting the field.
Now, it is important to note that normally an oscillator produces a note that is too high for
human ears to hear. It is the combination of the two oscillators that makes the sound hearable.
Why is that important? Because each of oscillators has to be specifically tuned to one another
and they each control different things.
To explain what each of them control, I would like you to look at these antennas on the
sides of the Theremin. This horizontal antenna, which kind of loops back around to the
Theremin, controls how loud the note will be. The farther my hand is from the antenna, the
louder the note, and the closer my hand is to the antenna, the quieter the note. This vertical
antenna controls the frequency of the note, also called the pitch that is produced and works just
like the other antenna. The close my hand, the higher the note, and the farther my hand the lower
the note. Each oscillator is connected to one of these antennas and, as I said before, they mix to
produce a note that is hearable.
Now here is where it comes together. You turn on the Theremin and the oscillators create
the magnetic field. You begin to play the Theremin and your capacitance begins to disrupt the
magnetic field. The disturbance reaches back to its respective antenna. The antenna feeds back to

3. the oscillators, and the oscillators produce the note that is fed to the speakers to be played.
Nowadays though, Theremins are built with circuit boards, but I believe the process remains
much the same.
I really learned a lot from this project, and I’m not talking about what I learned about in
my research paper. I learned about how it felt to learn to play an instrument. I learned musical
terms I never thought existed, and I learned a respect for all who play instruments. Learning an
instrument is not something you can do in 5 seconds, it take time and effort. I almost gave up on
it. In my mind, it was too much work. But I didn't quit, and I’m glad I didn’t. Learning to play
this instrument was one of the biggest accomplishments I have ever had. I don’t think I would
continue with this as a career because I really just don’t want to be in a music career, but this is
definitely something I will pursue as a hobby, and I really recommend it to any who like music,
or even to those who just want to make noise; it is a really fun instrument.
I hope you liked my presentation and thank you for your time. Are there any questions?