Easy instrument from a different culture...Australia aborigines.
You want to entertain the kids, enrich yourself by learning something new, make something with not much AND play it? Let me share with you the making of one of the oldest instruments made by men. Pictures at bottom of this post. I wish I could say it's easy to make a flamenco guitar or a pair of castanets (both Spanish) but nope…it's not, so let's make something else and all you will need for it is a piece of pvc pipe. WHAT? Yup and it's as easy as pie, it takes just 1 cut! Well you may use a little paint if you want it to look pretty. Come on…tell us what we are going to make? People, you are going to make a didgeridoo. ??? dijo el pueblo. Listen to what it sounds like, this is what I would call the melodic didge link text It is said to sooth pains and improve health of the sick.It is not limited in genres of music played. Other examples are Beat Box (your kids will love this one) link text or traditional link text, this guy is amazing, he sounds like 2 players and also link text and link text. And what about this young French man? He is one of the top players in the world of contemporary didge link text In this example link textaround 2:40 the fast playing is called "wobble", only attained by high level players. Wobble lesson, see it to believe it link text Contemporary Japanese Shibaten link text The didgeridoo also named yirdaki by the Yolngu aborigines (northern Australia) is a trumpet-like instrument made from a eucalyptus tree hollowed by termites. It makes sounds (music to the natives…and to me) that vary from a drone to a galactic electronic sound (like a mouth harp.) Other sounds can be made while talking/playing the instrument such has coyote, dog, birds, pebbles…haha, very hard to explain until you hear it. It is played during ceremonies and is exclusively reserved to men and only those that are initiated according to their traditions. Ok so that's all good but how do we make the instrument? Go to your hardware store, purchase pvc pipe 1 3/4 inch in diameter (thick wall, not the thin one. Cost, probably under $5), cut a length of 46 1/2 inch and you are done. Simply clean up the cut with sandpaper and try it out. Paint it if so desired. Here is a technical link if you are interested. link text Note: you will not achieve the sound from the first link with a piece of plastic but you will get something very pleasurable. An authentic Didgeridoo costs between $200 and $1000+ Fairly easy to play: the basic to play didgeridoo is to buzz your lips. You all have as a kid made the sound of a motorcycle with your lips right? Well, that's just it, only you do it in a pipe. When you do it just right you get a sound, the vibrations bounce in the tube toward the open end. When you rich a certain frequency you obtain 2 waves bouncing vertically and in opposite direction (harmonics) and that's the drone. Don't give up yet, it sounds complicated but really is not and I promise you quite some laughter. Your first attempt at playing will sound (forgive me) as farts or more romantically as a cow and the whole family will be crying from laughing. So try again, buzz your lips, now buzz your lips in the didge (I will give links later in this post so you know what to achieve.) If it sounds like you are spitting in a tube it's because that is what you are doing LOL, so tighten up your lips a bit. If it sounds like a high pitch trumpeting sound then loosen up your lips some. I assimilate the starting of a didge to a bagpipe, at 1st it sounds like a cow then very quickly you are playing. It might help to place your mouth very slightly sideway on the tube, that's how I play it. Here is what it should sound like link text an excellent tutorial, several lessons link text Once you master the drone, try keeping it up for 30 to 60 seconds. Boring huh? How about learning different sounds? While sounding the drone try raising the back of your throat toward the roof of your mouth. You should get a "metallic" sound. Other sounds are made by changing the shape of your mouth and mainly by saying syllables such as DA, Ta, Ka you can even say Did, Ge, Ri, Doo while playing. If you listen to the Beat Box sample did you hear what he was saying? beer, beer, beer, beer, bdbdbd, beer, beer, bdbd, bububub, beer. What does all that have to do with Spanish? Actually the Spanish R (the rolling one) is used to create a bouncing pebbles sound in the tube. And if while doing that you say the letter A as in Ha, no like Hey and lower the tone you'll end up with a Buddhist monk chant sound. All of this is so much easier to obtain than to explain…I swear. The next step in really playing the didgeridoo is to learn circular breathing. In other words blowing with your mouth while breathing through your nose. Now, that's not such an easy one but you can learn it in a week with the help of a straw. There are good online tutorial for that but here is a good way to learn. Twist a straw a full turn about in the middle then release the "knot" just enough to slowly blow tiny bubbles in a glass of water. Instead of blowing with your lungs, make chipmunk cheeks storing enough air to blow the bubbles by squeezing your chicks. Once comfortable with this technique, get rid of the straw and practice as follows: While holding your breath, fill your cheeks with air and hold it by pressing your lips together. Now, as you continue to hold the breath in your lungs, use the muscles in your cheeks to squeeze some of the air out of your mouth causing your closed lips to loosely vibrate. This should produce a buzzing sound.
Next, repeat the above exercise with one variation. While you squeeze your cheeks together to push the air in you cheeks out through your loosely vibrating lips, inhale through your nose.
Lastly, exhale the air in your lungs through your closed, loosely vibrating lips producing a buzzing sound.
Once you have mastered that then the sky is the limit to your musical creativity. Yes indeed it is a very primitive instrument yet if you have watch all the video clips I linked, you probably were surprised by the variety of music that it can produce...for sure. To me playing the didgeridoo is connecting with nature. For a moment I travel to Australia and I play with "them."
As for decorating your didge acrylic paint works well. When it's dry I spray it with a semi-gloss clear varnish.
Enjoy your weekend and think about this...it could have been worse, I could have taught your kids how to make an Indian drum (which I make too.)
Edit: I forgot to mention...do not play on carpet or soft material it will absorb the sound. Instead play on a hard surface and in a room with good resonance, bathrooms are excellent.
The bottom one is what you can expect to achieve.
This one is my big guy, 2 3/8 inches in diameter and 58 inches long. Hand painted fake wood, turtle, snake and bush scene. It requires a mouthpiece made of bees wax.
3 Answers
I've had a lot of fun trying to play a didgeridoo (especially around campfires) and I've got to tell you, I found it very tricky. What we call the "circular breathing" technique to maintain the "constantly flowing" sound takes some time to master ...but I managed to some degree, and had a lot of fun trying.
We have a saying "rigee-dig" (pronounced rheeg-eee-deegg) which I think might have come from the word "didgeridoo" - it means that something is authentic, or, if you like "fair dinkum"..
Bouncing
Doesn't seem my instrument is selling well lol.
