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How to Play the Didjeridu

THE DRONE:

To create the basic drone it is best to begin practicing without the didjeridu. Create a very loose buzzing of your lips as if imititating a horse, or of giving someone a "raspberry". Relax ... and breathe out of your mouth no harder then your normal exhale. Once your lips are flapping it is time to transfer this vibration into your didjeridu.

Moisten your lips and place them into the mouthpiece, creating a good seal around your mouth. Try placing your lips straight on into the mouthpice or slightly off to the side. Experiment, and use which way is most comfortable. Don't press too hard against the mouthpice, use just enought pressure to make a seal. Make sure all the air you breathe goes into the didj and does not leak out the sides of you mouth. You want to create a tight seal . Do not overlook this key element in creating the drone.

Remember...relax, and do not try to blow too hard.

Your first tries might sound funny, or even vulgar, but don't give up! We have never met anyone who has not gotten the hang of it with a little persistence. You will really know you have the sound when you feel like the didj grabs hold of your lips when you are vibrating them. Once you have gotten the sound with really loose lips try slowly tighting them. This will improve your sound quality, but if you tighten them too much you will loose the sound all together.

The following are some suggestions to help you create different sounds. These are all made while you are continuously buzzing your lips creating the drone. You are only limited by your own imagination.

USING YOUR TONGUE:

Experiment moving the position of your tongue inside your mouth. Even the most subtle change will affect the sound in some way. You can use your tongue to help you create a rhythm while playing. Bounce the tip of your tongue off the roof of your mouth as if you were saying the letter 'd'. Do not use your voice, just make the movement. By repeating this over and over again you can get a good constant beat going. Once you have successfully used your tounge try more complex tounge movements.

dika d dika d dika d etc....

dika dika dika dika dika etc...

This can become an endless source of rhymic possibilities.

USING YOUR VOICE:

A good way to start using your voice is to growl through the didjeridu. As you are droning bring in the vocal cords. You can turn the growl into a hum if that works better for you. This is a nice practice step to connect your voice with your buzzing of your lips. You want the sound to be coming from your diaphragm, not only your throat, so dig deep down. A good practice is saying the vowels through your instrument. A-E-I-O-U. You can also bark through it as if you were a wild dingo. You can say anything through your didj. Try a few simple words or sounds.

Here are a few examples to get you started:

ka ka ka ka ka
la da di da la da di da
didjeridu didjeridu didg didg didjeridu
ooo ooo ooo... (like and owl )

You can also play around with your jaw position. Dropping your jaw can really lower the pitch of your drone. The velocity that you push air out of your mouth will change the sound. Play with your cheeks filled with air puffed out like Dizzy Gilespie, or try playing with them empty of air so that the flow of breath is coming from your throat directly out of your mouth without entering your cheeks. This sharpens up the tone a little bit resulting in a cleaner, crisper tone. You may need a mirror at first to make sure that your cheeks are not filling with air.

CIRCULAR BREATHING:

I like to compare circular breathing with patting your head and rubbing your tummy. It's an awkward concept at first, but once you learn its rhythm you never forget. It is easy to convey the idea of circular breathing to someone, but actually getting it is a matter of practice, practice, and more practice.

The basic idea is to push air out of your mouth, without the power of your lungs, while taking in a quick breath through your nose. This movement of air is making a circle. It's easiest to understand this concept by first practicing outside of your didj.

Fill your cheeks with air. Place both your hands on your cheeks and push that air in your cheeks out of your mouth by using your hands. Do not use you lungs for power, only use your hands. Now at the same time you are pushing the air out with your hands, take a quick breath in through your nose. This is the basic pattern of circular breathing.

Once you get the pattern down, try it without using your hands. The power to push the air out is now coming from you cheeks, throat, tongue and/or your diaphragm. One way to practice this is to fill your mouth up with water and spit it out in a straight stream, while taking a breath in through your nose. You will know that you have it when you are not swallowing water. After you feel comfortable with this you can try it with your didj. Getting the pattern down first is a good way to keep you from getting frustrated.

This last step is still the hardest...putting it all together. I find that it is easiest to pick a simple rhythm and work a breath into the rhythm at the same place every time. Even though there will be a pause at the beginning, you can at least start to get the feeling down of playing and breathing in through your nose. Use your tongue to create a simple rhythm as you try to work in the breaths in through your nose. The more you practice the more the space will disappear when you are breathing. Pretty soon the space will be gone.

DIAPHRAM WORK:

Using your diaphram gives volume, speed, and power to your playing. Learning to utilize that power is a big step for a didjeridu player.

A really good practice for this is to say:

HA, HE or HO

In order to say these you must use your diaphram.

A good rhythm to practice is:

ha ha he ---- he he ho breathe ha ha he ---- he he ho breathe etc...

You know you are doing it right if your stomach starts to feel like you have done sit-ups. It is a workout and takes practice to build up the muscles you use to play this way.

If there is any rhythm that you can create with your tongue, try to imitate the same rhythm using your diaphram instead.Then try to combine both, using your diaphram to accentuate pulses into the rhythm.

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