On vacation in Australia last year, I bought a didgeridoo. (What tourist can resist?) I bought it mostly for decoration, but once it was sitting in my living room, I couldn’t resist giving it a few blows.
And sure enough, with a little practice, one learns to produce a variety of amusing sounds. But alas, that isn’t enough for good didgeridoo play. To do it properly, and impress your friends and family, you have to produce sound continuously, which requires that you be able to inhale through your nose and exhale through your mouth at the same time.
I consulted online sites for help, to no avail. They all recommend blowing bubbles with a straw. I can do that. I can inhale through my nose and exhale out of my cheeks at the same time, and produce continuous bubbles.
This is no help at all when it comes to the didgeridoo. You can produce bubbles through a straw by gently letting air out of your cheeks. You can’t produce sound of out a didgeridoo by doing anything gently. You have to blow forcefully.
And for the love of God, I cannot blow forcefully and breathe through my nose at the same time.
Perhaps, I thought, some Doper can help. Circular breathing is used to play other musical instruments, so some Dopers must know how to do it. Teaching a physical skill without personal interaction is difficult . . . but maybe someone knows the magic words that will give me insight.
And if not . . . where the heck does a person go for in-person didge lessons? Would teachers of other instruments be able to teach circular breathing on a didge?
The Old Town School of Folk Music in Chicago used to give lessons, but does not currently. I checked with the Australian Consulate in Chicago, and Melissa didn’t have the names of any teachers immediately available. But she did say that they had an American player at one of their recent parties. She’s promised to try to find him and get back to me to see if he’ll give lessons.
Two interesting bits of data - Rolf Harris is not Australian, and don’t let any women play it - it would be an insult to the sensitivities of native people.
I’ve been practicing, but have yet to get that last step - making it continuous. Luckily, I spend a lot of time alone, so I don’t have anyone wondering why I’m constantly blowing raspberries. I don’t own a didgeridoo, but I figure it’s better to know how to play one and not have one, than to have one and not know how to play it.
Also, I figure knowing how to blow an hour long raspberry could further strengthen my already formidable cunnilingus skills.
Oh don’t worry, now that I’ve got my cooties all over the beeswax mouthpiece, no one else will touch it. No bad tjukurpa here!
Damn it, I just noticed I misspelled the thread title. I know the difference between “breath” and “breathe”. Really, I do!
The other thing about Rolf–his most famous song mentions the didgeridoo, but doesn’t involve any didge playing. Instead he plays the “wobble board”–maybe I should get one of those, too.