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| Backyard Birds of Austin August 7, 2008 |
| APMP Central Texas Q3 meeting August 7, 2008 |
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Tom Polk’s Tannerin, custom-built for Brian Wilson’s band. Click the image to see a larger version. |
The eerie signature sound in the Beach Boys classic “Good Vibrations” was inspired by one of the first electronic musical instruments: the Theremin. But the Theremin was so difficult to play that when it came time to perform the song on the road…well, Brian Wilson needed a better alternative. That’s when Austinite Tom Polk recieved a fateful call.
Nearly everyone’s heard the sound of the Theremin: an other worldly ‘oo-eee-ooo’ often used in science fiction films. But as a serious instrument, it is almost impossible to play competently because there are no pitch markings—in fact, to play a Theremin one waves one’s arms in the air, never touching the machine. The remedy? It’s a device similar to the Theremin with a slide bar and a corresponding pitch scale sometimes known as the ‘Slide Theremin’ or the Tannerin. Tom Polk has hand-built Theremins and Tannerins for several years. He has an excellent website explaning the difference between the two instruments:
http://www.tompolk.com/Tannerin/Tannerin.html
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