The Didgeridoo, Yidaki, Mago are some of the names given by its traditional founders, originates from the northern areas of the Northern Territory in Australia in a protected area known as Arnhem land. Here the Yidaki has been played perhaps for 100s of years by its` original peoples, a culture known to be over 50,000 years old. The Yidaki is generally played with the songman and clapsticks (Bilma), songs have been passed on from father to son, generation to generation with new ones being added as well. There are traditional techniques to play the Yidaki, methods varying through different areas, but there is a general traditional foundation in how the instrument is played and how it should sound.
Much more recently the instrument has become popular in Western cultures and people have developed their own contemporary "individual styles" of playing of which bears little resemblance to the traditional methods.The biggest difference between contemporary styles and Traditional styles is that contemporary players blow and with Traditional styles, players pull or draw, resulting with far richer textures in the sound.
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HERE'S SOME TIPS TO HELP YOU PLAY BETTER:
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~Don't blow to hard,or use so much air, this results in fatigue, loud nostril sniffs, saliva pooling at instruments end and destroys the sound texture. You must be relaxed when playing and not force anything, if you are losing sound then play softer, don't force more air out to fix the problem. Playing a fast rhythm should require no more effort than playing a slow one.
~Keep your cheeks flat. This enables better embrochure control as all wind instument players must learn to do.
~Mouthpieces are made to large, most Westerners lips are much thinner then Yolgnus lips are, mouth pieces 25mm or even less will help in developing TEXTURE in sound (Mine are 23mm). Beeswax is not an ideal mouth piece, apart from needing to be reshaped in hot weather, it causes the lips to stick making lip adjustment difficult when playing (fine tuning).
~Players should be relaxed and not force the body to produce the sound. The right actions, through practice, will produce the right reactions of diaphram - throat - voice - tongue - jaw and finally lips.
~You can become the conductor or sound enginner, where the Yidakis' low sounds become the Bass and percussion, the mid sounds are the brass section (calls, toots) and strings and the high sounds are tibetian bowls and choir sections (harmonics). You can control all three independantly adjusting volume, texture, tempo etc.
Some common questions concerning Didgeridoo:
1)Splits: Common occurances on instruments with their walls shaved to thin and by the wood not being allowed to dry slowly before being shaved and shaped. To repair use a boat glue such as "Captain Tulleys creeping crack cure" which is water proof and will expand and contract with the woods movement due to temperature. Do not use an epoxy or super glue etc which will dry hard and is unyeilding and you'll find the crack being unable to close back up in cooler temperatures because of the solid glue and thus force itself to become even longer. Bees wax can be used but it must regulary be reworked. For large splits if the wall is thick enough it is possible to stitch the crack together with small screws at regular intervals post to first drilling small pilot holes. Alternativly wrap the Didge with fibreglass and you'll never need to worry about splits or cracks again.See repair section.
2)Beeswax, not the best material for a mouthpiece, it is useful for a beginner to discover his mouth piece size and shape, but an alternate should be sought once this is known, preferably the natural top of the Didge is ideal, but if to big it can be reduced by using Milliput which is a modelers clay, which like plastercine can be moulded and will go hard and can be filed and sanded afterwards.
