REVIEWS OF PERSONAL THEREMIN LESSONS WITH KIP ROSSER

It’s amazing that online platforms make it possible for you to have a private theremin
lesson from anywhere! Current participants include people from all over the U.S.A.
as well as Canada, Great Britain, The Netherlands, Ireland, Italy, France and Germany.
The following people have kindly provided reviews:

Helen Delamar, Cyberknife Dosimetrist:
Before we met [via Zoom], I was very frustrated. I was ready to throw the theremin
into a ditch. I searched “theremin lessons” and “grounding the theremin.” I found
out about you on an old Reddit thread and emailed you. When I first contacted you I
was wanting help with how to set up the theremin, how close to have the amp to it,
what to turn on first. I had no idea how to mute it with the cord, I had no idea how
to set zero beat. You were very patient and I could tell that I was going to get
somewhere. You walked me through everything step by step. Once you showed me
how to make the theremin be quiet, my mind was able to pick up on what you were
saying. Then it was easy for me to understand how waveform and brightness affect
the sound. I can feel excited again about the theremin. Now I can begin to play it on
my own. I really appreciated your help.

Larisa Migachyov, Pianist:
I learned more in one lesson with Kip than in two months of trying on my own. He is
a wonderful teacher and his teaching methods are astonishingly efficient. I would highly
recommend him to anyone wanting to play the theremin.

Amanda B. Valvano, Music Therapist:
I was immediately drawn to the way he approached instruction. Kip displayed the acuity
needed to assist someone when dealing with such an abstract instrument. His astuteness
quickly took me from interested to apprentice.

Dabby Longlegs, Performance Artist:
I’m a performing artist from Sacramento. This year I decided to add the theremin to my
repertoire of art mediums, and I wanted to say thank you for posting your lessons on
your website and youtube channel! …they’ve provided me a lot of guidance and insight
as I explore this new instrument. Thank you again for the education and inspiration!

Stephen Wohl, Engineer, Aspiring Thereminist:
After trying to learn from a DVD and a book, I was ready to sell my theremin on ebay.
I saw Kip Rosser playing in the New York City subway. He worked with me for ten
minutes and I was suddenly playing better – not virtuoso stuff, but better than everything
up to that point.

Greg Prasker, Superpower Activator/Sovereign Empowerment Coach:
I did a lot of research and I went on theremin sites, watching tutorials and they just
didn’t resonate with me. I kept looking, found Kip’s tutorials, which led me to his YouTube
channel. I saw that his lessons started more basic – really thorough but not in an over-
whelming way. And I felt his energy too. I truly felt his caring. I was having a problem
getting “zero beat” and we found that my factory settings were off, and lucky for me they
were because if I had been able to tune it I might never have reached out. He has the love
for what he does and I could feel that. I saw what he saw in me – when I was matching
pitch and when I was “hitting it,” I saw his excitement. It’s not just a teaching gig for him,
it’s more than that. He’s not looking at the clock and saying, “Okay, we only have an hour.”
He wants you to learn, and he wants to see the fire in your eyes, feel you playing it. He
loves what he’s doing.

Tenglong Ruan:
I found Kip through Youtube. I just went through a couple of different videos and I
saw Kip had a whole tutorial series. I watched a couple of them and decided to
contact him. I didn’t have any expectations, I’m just open to it because I’m totally
new, not just to the theremin, but to music. This is my first instrument, so I just
wanted some basic understanding. I found the information very helpful. He is very
enthusiastic and his methods for playing, such as the volume hand dipping techniques,
and also the explanations about calibration were really useful. It’s inspired me to
work on my own now and experiment. I’ll definitely take another lesson in the future
when I need more professional tips.

David Vogel, Electronics Technician (Retired):
I was on the verge of sending my new Moog Theremini back to the dealer after a week
of frustration. One relaxed and fun lesson with Kip got me pointed in the right
direction. He gave me the basics and useful practice exercises to help me approach
this instrument with new confidence. I learned the right attitude to take to play
this instrument and attitude is everything! His teaching methods were perfectly
suitable – exactly what I was looking for. I am keeping my Theremini and plan on
enjoying the discovery of its possibilities. Thank you, Kip.

Anouschka Doinet, Singer:
It was so much fun and I made so much progress. I found Kip on YouTube because I
was looking for theremin player. I compared several theremin players and I found
that his way of approaching the theremin is very artistic, very creative; he says
much about feeling and the body and creativity. So I thought I would like to contact
him. The theremin is very intuitive and ideally, I hope to translate my feelings
into the theremin – it’s like drawing songs in the sky. I was very excited to find
a way to approach the theremin and be happy with it. The lesson went beyond my
expectations, much more. I never thought it would be so inspiring and I also thought
it would be much more exhausting, but it was giving energy instead of drawing
energy. In every step of his methods there is so much joy. You can always relate to
what he is doing. I can now rely very much on my intuition, not to be drawn away
all the joy while I also focus on the difficult stuff. Incredible. Really wonderful
and inspiring.

Declan Beare, Producer/Musician:
I was given your private lesson as a gift from my sister, who knew I was getting me a
theremin for Christmas. She looked up theremin lessons online and found your
name. I want to use the theremin for many different applications – experimental
noise in the style of early electronic music, or it might be as accompaniment for
an analog string quartet, using a theremin instead of samples of violins and cellos.
Another thing I want to do is use it as a lead instrument rather than doing a lead
on a synth. The first lesson exceeded my expectations; it went incredibly well. A
lot of things I wanted to cover I was able to get down within a matter of minutes of
you bringing up a certain technique. The lesson went incredibly well in the sense
that my ability to play theremin five minutes after the lesson was miles ahead of my
ability to play it five minutes before the lesson. What I appreciate about your methods
is that they’re not a strict set of rules that must be obeyed. They’re more a set of
guidelines you explore in contrast to other lessons online where someone says you need
to do it this exact way. Having that realization really unlocked the theremin for me.
The jump in my ability was much more than I expected. The burst of inspiration that I
got after the first lesson was huge. Before the lesson I was afraid to record myself
playing because it was too out of tune, too inconsistent. But as soon as the lesson
finished I opened up ProTools and I started recording myself and recording multiple
layers, experimented with the theremin – something I was afraid to do before the lesson.

Emily Harris, Musician, Music Educator, Professional Translator:
I did a Google search, and most other theremin people online seemed to have only one
thing that they do. Whereas, going through Kip’s videos there is instruction, there’s
classical music, Bel Canto, there’s jazz. The whole thing intrigued me. I left him a
comment on one of his Youtube videos, and he responded immediately, just like that. He
wrote me a very insightful answer and I thought, “He’s very approachable, I could study
with that person.” I’m a classically trained trombone player and the idea of learning
an instrument that has an infinite range to it and is highly melodic is very attractive
to me. It seems to have no limits: if I can think it, perhaps I can play it – just
thinking, and transferring thought into music. The first lesson? I was initially terri-
fied, after all, you only get one chance to make a first impression and I was struggling
and feeling rather isolated. I was quite nervous but Kip immediately set me at ease.
He was very welcoming and I think that’s fundamental. What struck me was the sense of
humor; you can learn a lot more with a smile rather than being afraid of getting some-
thing wrong, and Kip transmits that. He’s an extremely creative teacher and what I
really appreciate is that there’s no “Kip Rosser Method,” no one-size-fits-all. He
adapts in the moment to what I need, and that is a gift. Rarely have I met a teacher
as caring and thoughtful in responding to students.