didgeridoo

Don't give up, Wolfie, but maybe give it a break. And don't worry about the circular breathing at first, that's graduate level stuff.

Once you feel up for it again, try letting your lips just flap freely outside of the didge, like the motorboat sound. Then try it with the didge. You don't need to blow hard, just steady. If it doesn't make a sound, think about making the motorboat speed up or slow down until you hit the resonant frequency. Hope this helps.

my face is still painful and glands stiill swollen but felt a little better today so i gave ti another try, not for too long though, ouch! i hope i dont regret this tomarrow , i guess if i get allswelled up again Ill know why

. I still cant get the circular breathig thing, I understand it but I think the obstruction in my throut is so bad that it blocks things off a lot. I snore when i breath even whenI am awake I often have to stick my head, jaw and tounge out or tilt my head way back to open my throught to breathe. I think there is just too much swelling in my neck and stuff. i am having a hard time even making a rasbury too.if I relax my lips I just cant do it.

I watched a lot of videos, and was not able to get much out of them except for this one it has realy helped,



http://www.davidhudson.com.au/index.html


it it he is 'purses' his lips a bit, i can kind of do it when i do that , but still it hurts and give me a headache.
I can do the little 'ptt' sounds but that is it. none of it works too well with my lips on the insrument , and if i puf out my cheeks i cant rasbury at all. its going to be realy hard to make any progress at this rate. all the pain and eveyrhting sort of takes the fun out of it. but then that is how most everythign else I do is too so wth. im a sucker for punishment appearntly

anyway here is a great video i found whilst researching,



its amazing all that sound is coming from the didge alone, like the dnacing too, I had just started learning belly dance as therapy for my fibromyalgia when i became so ill with my stomache again , soemthign else I cant realy do anymore, its so frustrating its so boring laying around sick adn in pain, atleast I still have my ukuleles <3 they arent terribly painful if i only play a few songs at a time.

thanks for all the kind words of encouragement and help

looks like I may have had a break through. i was just fooling around with the didge, and making funny sounds into it like farting noises with my tounge and by 'squelching' my cheeks. well I was actualy able to breath in as I did this. i am sort of blowig air with my cheeks over my teeth and out my mouth instead of just through my lips from my lungs. I dotn know if this is the right way to start or helpful or not. my face feels like hell though everytime I practice. and I spit and drool a LOT
I was trying to find videos on how to make the 'drone' note but nothing suggested worked, it seems to come so easy to other people. oh well mabee funny fart noises will be all i can do, but I think as long as can get the circular breathign thing I hope that helps the apnea.


I know its too soon to expect much but I hope I am on the right track. how long does it usualy take to get the basics down?


at any rate watch all these videos it sure has introduced me to a lot of great music and musicians I ever knew about , so that makes it worth it.

well I've been playing for a year now, I wont say I've mastered the instrument in any way, but I have the circular breathing and learned a lot of differnt sounds. spent much of my summer playing to the sunrise at the beach. here is a video I put together of one of those performances. This was before Hurricane Sandy, in one direction off in the distance you cna see Joey Harrisons Surf Club and the other the Seaside Heights Amusment piers before they ended up in the ocean!

enjoy

Didge is great and the sound would definitely work with a jug band. My late husband was a sort of virtuoso on the instrument. I have a huge collection of some very interesting didges-- and we spent quite a bit of time when we lived in Europe going to didge fests (it's big in Germany. Not so much here in the US.)
I myself do not play (I play uke and piano and maybe recorder.)

If you want to hear some fantastic didge with a really good groove, I suggest Ganga Giri. This is my fave album Purists like many other experts in didge, but for pure musical pleasure, Ganga is my fave and he's a very wonderful person (an Australian guy.) We did a lot of jamming together in Germany and Switzerland and his concerts were always packed to the gills because he got a sort of dance trance thing into his playing. I just love it.

The bamboo works well--and you need a mouthpiece which is typically beeswax. The PVC also works quite well. There is a good site with instructions

It's interesting to see this thread from a year ago when you were learning the didg because, from watching your great videos, Alice, I always thought of you as the didg queen!

I'm wondering if it helped you with the apnea and breathing issues or not? I know you're extremely musically talented. Did the didge just become another instrument in your quiver, or has it been healing? -- Steve

Your persistence really paid off, Alice, well done.

And Gwynedd, I think you're right about the jug band. I posted this earlier in the thread, but here it is again, a little multi-track ukulele jug band, with didgeridoo.

Banjo & Fiddle - Ukulele Clawhammer & Jug Band

thanks Hwyneed for the link to the music , sounds great! yes a jug band it would fit right in
yes my didge has a wax mouthpiece , I had to buy extra wax because it was a little large for me. I also have a PVC one I made but I like the bamboo much better.

a didge queen! I like that! lol thanks coolkayaker!
actualy yes it does help!! it took a long time to realy see a differnce I would say at least 6 months. It certainly hasn't cured it, but I notice a differnce if I dont play for a few days, and Ive been sick recently with a sinus infection and such and havent played in a while and I see a big differnce now. my realy severe symptoms are returning.

one great added benefit that I noticed has it has realy helped my singing, exersising my diaphram and lung power and control and I guess the same muscle in the throut that are toned for apea also help this.

Thank you dougf! yes once I got the circural breathing down the instrument became a lot fo fun. I'm definatley hooked now, good thing since appearently I'll need to play it for the rest of my life so I can sleep! haha

I also like the fact that its an instrument you dont see very often here on the east coast USA and I like seeing peopels faces brighten up when they see it, kids especialy get a kick out of it.

A friend and I did a funny prank once with it- I brought it in the carry bag over my shoulder into an Outback resteraunt and we sat at the bar. I was playing it off and on discretely with it pointed under the bar. it was funny seeing the wait staff especialy looking around wondering where the sound was comign from haha. I would toot it and then hide it when the bartender would ignore us

My husband used to teach the circular breathing with a straw in a glass of water. It's essentially taking a sniff of air with the nose whilst puffing air out with the cheeks (rather as if they were bellows.) I would watch him play for hours with his friends and hear that sniff, which was the air going in to continue the sound.

The straw is a small opening to push air out (using the cheeks as I mentioned) so easier than the large bore of the didge.

That's good to know that it did help your sleep, at least to some degree, since that's the main reason you looked into it in the first place, Alice. I enjoy your videos.

I'm sure you don't keep playing it just to slobber into a wooden tube and vibrate your kneecaps. LOL

Speaking of that...all this talk about flapping gums and wax mouthpieces makes me think this is one of those instruments, like a harmonica, best not shared with mates at the local Bennigan's happy hour.

I think I'll stick with my rain stick. lol

This is a very cool thread! I've always enjoyed the didge, and bought one many years ago. I promptly misplaced the instrucional tape. Circular breathing seems so foreign to me, but maybe I'll dig the didge out and practice! I don't breathe well, having a very deviated septum, maybe it will help. Mine is bamboo with a wax mouthpeice too...seems that the didge would go well with the ukulele!

What about a didjeribone?
Invented by Charlie McMahon. A fantastic didge player.
Check him out here -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2UqnWU8d8o

My late husband had a deviated septum and found didging very helpful for his breathing. There are some videos for circular breathing on youtube, and I know that the drinking glass/straw method is very helpful (you don't have to push so much air thru a straw, plus you can see the air coming out into the drinking glass liquid.) Basically, as I said before, you are actually using your cheeks as a bellows to push more air out as you "refuel" your lungs with a puff to continue the flow. The puffs are relatively small--you are not taking deep breaths, just continual "sniffs" of air as you get your cheeks to puff air to maintain the stream.

You can hear the didgeribone on a few of Ganga Giri's albums--he's playing it on this one and also this one. He played it a lot in concert, but ended up in some kind of snitfest with the inventor (not remembering the exact reason), so he didn't use it later on. But many of his bit hits involved it and it was wonderful to hear. The last concert I went to was in Stuttgart, he was playing it, but unfortunately, the club was in a basement with one exit and over-jammed with enthusiastic fans, crushing the aisles. I had to go outside, as that's the recipe for one of those disasters you read about (fire or panic crush.) I happen to like the sliding tones, even though it's not "traditional."

Gwynedd said:

You can hear the didgeribone on a few of Ganga Giri's albums--he's playing it on this one and also this one. He played it a lot in concert, but ended up in some kind of snitfest with the inventor (not remembering the exact reason), so he didn't use it later on. But many of his bit hits involved it and it was wonderful to hear. The last concert I went to was in Stuttgart, he was playing it, but unfortunately, the club was in a basement with one exit and over-jammed with enthusiastic fans, crushing the aisles. I had to go outside, as that's the recipe for one of those disasters you read about (fire or panic crush.) I happen to like the sliding tones, even though it's not "traditional."

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No, it's not traditional, but the didgeribone is fun to play. Although it sounds like plastic. Mine is wrapped in electrical tape to help the tone. If you want to check out accessible (ie popular music) with traditional didgeridoo, you should listen to Yothu Yindi.

didgeridoo2 said:

No, it's not traditional, but the didgeribone is fun to play. Although it sounds like plastic. Mine is wrapped in electrical tape to help the tone. If you want to check out accessible (ie popular music) with traditional didgeridoo, you should listen to Yothu Yindi.

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George Rrurrambu & Birdwave had some good funk inspired rock with traditional didgeridoo.

Here is a link for anyone interested in traditional playing. Larry Winiwini used to play with Yothu Yindi and happens to be a son of the true custodian of the instrument, Djalu Gurruwiwi.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8sdaYobdoWo

I wanted to play but I was told by my wife to DidgeriDON't

Yes, sleep apnea can be cured with didgeridoo playing. However, I did meet one guy that is still a major snore monster. lol Not sure what happened to him. Everyone else cured their sleep apnea