Tuning In to Intangibility: Reflections from My First 3 Years of Theremin Learning

This paper presents an autoethnography of 3 years of learning to play the theremin, an instrument lacking tangible feedback. While the theremin is typically invoked in HCI to emphasize the importance of the tactile modality, we interrogate how I, the player, attained musical proficiency without touch. Through a thematic analysis of 235 journal entries, our study distills my strategies for navigating the instrument as well as my personal transformations along the way. We discover that without touch, accurate and musical playing on the theremin relies on continuous auditory feedback, proprioception, and imaginative processes. We discuss challenges and opportunities for embodied and tangible interaction in light of these findings.