How to play the didgeridoo
1. Body Position
Find yourself a comfortable position for playing, standing or sitting
while keeping your head straight. Play towards a wall so you can
hear yourself and correct the sounds if not satisfactory and the
most importantly to relax.
2. Position of the mouth
The position of the mouth is again a personal preference.
On the front (the mouthpiece will be positioned straight center
on the lips under the nose) or on the side (slightly of center)
Choose the one you feel the more comfortable with.
The wax of the mouthpiece helps to seal the air inside the didgeridoo
and make it more comfortable for your lips. You must place your
lips inside the mouthpiece and press just hard enough to have a
good seal. Pressing too hard will stop you to vibrate your lips
and not hard enough will let the air out
3. Basic sound
The basic sound is called the drone and it's achieved by blowing
gently, vibrating your lips loosely. Puff out your cheeks gently,
hold your lips together keeping them loose and blow air through
allowing the lips to vibrate.
The tone produced is like a motorboat and not like a trumpet. (If you are getting the trumpet tone you lips are too tight. Try
again with looser lips.)
Practice blowing harder and softer to vary the volume of the drone
while getting used to your didgeridoo.
Experiment with the different mouth positions.
Change the sound of your drone:
Experiment with different position
of your tongue within and also in changing the shape of the mouth.
Try to exercise blowing the minimum air as long as possible.
When you are able to produce about 5 second of sustained drone you
can try your vocals.
4. Introducing the vocals or overtones
Animals and nature sounds are very easily achieved. As there is
no written music for the didgeridoo you can experience with any
sound imaginable:
Grunts, groans, screams, bark, holler, laugh, cry....
First without using the didgeridoo, try using your vocals just like
a singer would while you vibrate your lips.
Back to the didgeridoo try one of the following sounds while playing
the drone
" kooo" " kooo wee" "kah" "kah"
"kah" "kah" "rah" "rrrah"...
A useful exercise is to try words while droning:
Try saying " did -ger- i- doo " " did -ger- i- doo
" " did -ger- i- doo "
When opening your lips too much, you loose the vibrations of your
lips and the sound stops.
Some of the most common sounds made by players are:
Dingo: makes a growling sound like : "rrraaah-raaah"
Barking: make a barking sound "wah" "wah"
Kookaburra: makes a high-pitched "kaa-kaa-kaa"
sound.
Kangaroo: raises and lowers your tongue quickly, hitting
it against the roof of your mouth, to create a 'boing-boing' sound,
trying to give the rhythm of a bouncing kangaroo.
5. Rhythms
The practice of basic rhythms and beats will enable you to play
at various speeds.
Always start slowly trying to get clear and sharp rhythms before
trying faster.
Be creative and experiment with your words, mix them around to find
your own rhythm.
There is different ways in achieving basic rhythms:
The tongue: An easy and fast one is to use the tongue while
playing the basic drone trying to say the words:
" tu-tu-tu-tu" " ta-ta-ta-ta" " te-te-te-te"
or
" do-do-do-do "da-da-da-da" " de-de-de-de"
or
" koo-koo-koo-koo" " kah-kah-kah-kah" "
ke-ke-ke-ke"
The diaphragm can be used to form a beat, squeeze the stomach
muscles and create a belly laugh or groans :
"ha-ha-ha-ha" "he-he-he-he"
The cheeks: Using the cheeks to expel the air to create a
"wah-wah" sound
A good exercise to strengthen the cheek muscle before trying the
circular breathing
6. Circular breathing
Relax and practice is the answer to circular breathing.
Do not expect much music when training at first.
Circular breathing is being able to play continuously without
stopping for breathing.
It is a 3 step method where you have to co -ordinate lungs, lips,
tongue and cheeks.
Step1: You playing and running out of air
You must get ready to breath by filling up your cheeks with air
till fully inflated.
At that stage your lungs are close to be empty and your cheeks are fully inflated.
From now, you aren't loosely vibrating your lips but you are squeezing
the air using cheeks muscles just like spiting water, to get the
continuous sound while (step 2: ) you are going to refill you lungs.
Note: Your are using the cheek muscles to squeeze the air out
without releasing any air from your lungs at this stage. Just
squeeze the air kept in your cheeks.
Step 2:While pushing the air out of the cheeks you must
focus and try to breathe with your nose at the same time to fill
up your lungs.
Step 3:Go back to breathing out normally in
using the air in your lungs.
To achieve the circular breathing you must strengthen the cheek
muscles with specific exercises.
1- Fill your cheeks with water then using your cheek muscles spit
the water out while breathing air by the nose to refill your lungs.
For more exercises and tuition
Ed Dhury All about the didgeridoo
If you exercise the 3 steps very slowly but correctly, it will become
more natural and you will get used to it.
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Authentic Australian Aboriginal Art - Didgeridoos
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