Wow, you readers are really pounding down my door with questions! Keep 'em coming - send 'em to ev@12RODS.com! Here's an interesting one...

Q: I listen to a lot of music. The music I listen to a lot of has a lot of electronic sounds in it. I sit and I think about these electronic sounds and a question comes to me. This is the question I thought of. What was the first electronic instrument? Who came up with the crazy idea for a musical instrument made out of electronic parts?

A. Here's what I found: If you want to get technical about it (and this is a technical column), the first electronic instrument was invented by Elisha Gray in the early 1870's. After missing Alexander Graham Bell's visit to the patent office for the telephone by one hour, he experimented with his telephone circuitry a bit more and found that he was able to create a single pitch with a self-vibrating electromagnetic circuit. He put 24 of them together, set them up to different pitches, and had a small two-octave 'organ'! He took it on tour with him in 1874 and titled it the "Harmonic Telegraph". If you count this invention, we've been blessed with electronic organs for nearly 120 years! The next notable electronic instrument would have to be The Theremin, developed by Soviet Leon Termin in 1917, and was one of the most notable and expressive electronic instruments ever invented. Between two long metal rods, the performer could control pitch and volume by waving their hands above them. The only true virtuoso of the Theremin was Clara Rockmore, who performed with her Theremin with stunning violin-like accuracy throughout the 1930's. There is much information on the web and even a movie about the fascinating story of Leon Termin - I highly reccommend it. For the next 60 years, various musical instruments were developed in the US, France, Germany, and the Soviet Union. Most musical innovation stopped during World War II, but the US and the United Kingdom took the lead in the years following, but still nothing came about that was expressive or even fairly practical. It wasn't until the mid-1970's when Japan (and Robert Moog) introduced probably the most influential and useful electronic instruments, developed by companies such as Roland, Korg, and Yamaha, which still thrive to this day.