The Best Didgeridoo
Didgeridoo making has grown exponentially over the past 15 years. Before the recent surge interest in the didjeridu was restricted to Aborigines of the far north and some ethnomusicologists. Now didgeridoos are made all over Australia and increasingly overseas. In Indonesia didgeridoos are being made from bamboo and mechanically bored wood. In America and Spain the Agave cactus is hollowed for didgeridoos and Europe they are made from the swamp plant Bear Claw (it grows a hollow stem) and by hollowing out the centre of all kinds of European wood. Some didgeridoos by contemporary artists and made from non eucalyptus materials are excellent instruments.
The growth of didgeridoo playing demonstrates that people are more interested in didgeridoos as sound instruments and less as artifacts. Indeed there is an inevitability to this trend for contemporary didgeridoo. Traditional and authentic didgeridoos are made by Aborigines of Arnhem Land, Gulf of Carpenteria & The Kimberleys, from termite hollowed eucalyptus stems and painted with ochres in rarrk or x-ray style. If all the Arnhem Land artists were making didgeridoos they could not produce enough to satisfy demand. Arnhem Land Aborigines like didge master David Blanasi are aware of this, but their main concern is for the misrepresentation of their art that happens when didgeridoos are made elsewhere and sold as ‘Authentic Traditional Didgeridoos.’
The rapid growth of didgeridoo making in Australia is causing environmental damage in some areas as eucalyptus didgeridoos are made from live trees, and only a few species in particular areas are suitable. Along the Stuart Highway north of Katherine N.T. the Yellow Woollybutt is becoming scarce, and the Salmon Gum has been declared a protected species as it has not only been a popular didge wood, but is the only nesting place of the endangered Gouldian Finch.
The quality of didgeridoos fluctuates. Didjeribones are definitely superior to the many didgeridoos on the market that are so carelessly made they are unplayable. For beginners a Didjeribone is an inexpensive way to get a didge that’s easy to play and to find the tone that suits. For experienced players the Didjeribone provides fresh ground for original playing, and a solution to the problem of which didge key to carry.
Awesome Music
Non-aboriginal didjeridu players may experience harassment and discrimination in Australia due to entrenched prejudice against non-aboriginal didj players and other misunderstandings such as the false notion that it is taboo in Aboriginal lore for women to play.
Good For Your Health
Playing the Didgeridoo is good for you.
Cycle breathing, which involves diaphragm pressure to expel air and inhaling only via the nose, is similar to yoga beath exercises. People who take up playing didge notice an improved sense of smell and ecreased respiratory infections. Contaminants are caught in the sinuses, and air breathed in via the nose is closer to body temperature by the time it reaches the lungs. Some asthmatics find didgerisoo playing alleviates their symptoms as cycle breathing is similar to the breathing exercises developed by the Russian physician Alexi Buteyko.
Didge resonates a continous tone in your head, nullifying external sounds. When observing stationary objects while playing they appear to vibrate, a consequence of the sound vibrating the head. The vibration affect is more apparent when observing a digital clock or video monitor and is stronger on the higher tones. In the meditative mood, slide down to the lower tones around C and for a vigorous feel, slide the bone to higher keys. By breathing the beat, the body becomes a rhythm organism, and the breath a play thing, like a breath dance or trance.
Regardless of whether the rhythm is fast or slow, cycle breathing induces a euphoric feeling in the players mind and body. Blowing fast rhythms like the “wobble” means breathing 120 breaths per minute, which far exceeds the normal rate of 18 breaths per minute.
Playing didge like any musical sound can be a mood emulator for you, to be played vigorously when excited or smoothlly when relaxed. The vibration is made by your body and it travels along the didge and back into your body. Endogeniously, as in meditation, it vibrates a rhythmic drone with the conscious mind on holiday. Exogenously didge creates a continous rhythm rules by a breath pattern to make an atmosphere sosolid it is likened to a groundsound.