You may be asking yourself, "And just what the heck is a theremin? Some kind of new diet supplement or something?" Well, have you seen the Hitchcock film "Spellbound?" or the science fiction classic "The Day the Earth Stood Still"? Then you've heard one! 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!

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.