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Looper's Delight
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On Saturday, January 4, 2003, at 11:39 PM, Lee Barnes wrote: > Just had an early (if you're Orthodox) or late Christmas present show > up, a > didgeridoo, just delivered by TNT... and I've got to ask, "how do you > play > this beast?" I've figured out which of the two ends you blow into, the > inlay work helped greatly in this, but I've got to ask, what do you do > now? I'm no expert, but I've had didge's kicking around for years... and are great to play whilst on the toilet. Learn circular breathing if you don't know about it already. Its fairly simple once you get the logic of it: Blowing a reservoir of air from your cheeks whilst inhaling through the nose to refill the lungs. The easiest way is to try this from scratch is with a straw and a glass of water - and try to keep the stream of bubbles continuous. With a didge, there are a hell of a lot of different ways to blow into it. Once you get your basic vibratory sound (this can take a lot of practice in itself), make vowel sounds 'AEIOU'.... then move your tongue from the roof of the mouth to the base... to your teeth, then to the back of your throat. Just from the shape of the mouth, you realise the diversity of harmonics in this instrument. Other tricks? Singing whilst blowing.... try gregorian chants based on the root note of the didge. Screams, growls and basically any sound can go well. There are a number of notes similar to brass instruments, that are obtained through faster vibration of the lips and heavy attack. 'High toots'... you should be able to find at least two easily.... any higher than that are difficult. Mould the mouthpiece to fit your position... Do this by heating beezewax (in an old saucepan), and dipping in the didge to build up layers of wax. Dont just rely on the standard mouthpiece. Finally, practice with a good acoustic monitoring system. In other words, a plastic bucket opened towards you, so that you will have the harmonics and high frequencies bounced back towards you. Fireplaces are good, as are small ceramic bathrooms. Alternatively, my SM57 mic plugged into multi-fx then routed into a PA sounds even better.... I'm rambling, but there should be enough tips there :) -- Stuart Wyatt (Solo String Project) - http://SoloString.com