Mini Theremin

I've been looking at this for awhile and finally bought one just a few days ago. This a pretty fun little gadget that works just like the original, but obviously on a smaller scale. And at ¥2,300 for the kit plus a magazine, it's a steal. The same company, GAKKEN, has a series of these "do-ot-yourself kits that are quite fascinating, I'd like to check out more of them.

For example, they also make diy kit for a stereo pinhole camera, a mini telescope and a mini phonograph player. Very cool shit. Gakken's theremin kit includes an 86-page book on the theremin and other electronic musical synthesizers, and of course a mini theremin for you to build and play. All text is in Japanese, but the instructions for assembly are well-illustrated.

Now a bit of history. The theremin, invented in 1919 by Russian scientist Leon Theremin, is one of the world's earliest fully electronic instruments, and is also unique in that it was the first musical instrument designed to be played without being touched. The eerie, other-wordly tones as heard in the films mentioned above are created by the proximity of the player's hands to the metal antennas, with the resulting radio frequency interference being transformed into musical tones. Funky!

Here are some links to videos that show you how to use this amazing little box:

Playing Movie 1
Playing Movie 2 (in Russian)
Playing Movie 3 (in Russian)
Tuning Video