iDIDJ Australia Didgeridoo Cultural Hub

Hi Guys

I know that from Moyles etc that Mago's are accepted to be shorter and a higher pitch (generally) than that of Yidaki, but do Deeper key mago's say those from manigreda area are longer and deeper and lower D's and C's key. what cultrural placing do they have if any in the local communities ie would the be used in ceromony or are they just made for the western market as we like the deep airoplane style drone?

and would the playing style be any different to that of say Mr Blan$£" or Mr Camer)(*&^ ie the Dita Mo dita dita mo style or would it be any other slower style?

Stockie,

I suggest you look at the exhibition pages on the ididj website. This gives a breakdown of the various instrument types by region and includes historical references.

In the Western / Central Arnhem Land region they use instruments in many pitches for both ceremonial and recreational use.

Yeah Ive had a look on there (probably man vission) but couldnt seem to find anything relating to the really deep ones D and C's im assuming that the playing style is still the same as the higher pitch magos but slower as in the B's and C key Yidaki im probably way off on this just cant seem to see the info regarding this specific. I think ive heared some tracks on either the moyles CD' s or some of theManikay web site tracks but cant remember specifics. Thanks for the info

acording to what im getting from the exibition site the deeper mago is predominantly central arnhem land could it be fair to say that they are a best of both worlds where to coin a food analagy east meets west due to migration of song men etcor am I way off

When talking about 'mago' instruments, we're talking about overtone-absent didjeridu accompaniment that is prevalent in Western Arnhem Land, the NW Northern Territory region, southern Arnhem Land etc. I seem to recall that the key of instruments used in ceremony is matched to the voice of the main songman. And good singing voices are generally high and shrill with a nasal quality to the voice. Instruments would accordingly be high as well. These days, however, didgeridoos are made not just for ceremony but for sale as well and the latter do not appear to be constrained by cultural specifications. Sometimes they can be good quality, and at the other extreme, terribly bad.

Guan

Guan thats interesting about the stick matching the songmans voice never new that, I did noyice though on your exhibition page on Ididj for North Central Arnhem land that there was a pradominance of lower key sticks with overtone being used in the playing style but being on the border of western and eastern is there much of a cross over of playing types as I think it stated that central is not as rapid playing as NEAL so would it be more along the lines of Djalus style of slower playing for want of a better comparison.

are the instruments the same as well as I seem to remember seeing somewhere that there was a style of instruments that were basically a mixture of the 2 style (ithink someone termed them madaki yidago) ie long deeper and wider bore than a yidaki but longer than the general mago? This is where im confused to if they are from central.

A couple more points... the match between voice and instrument pitch for the WAL region is well documented by Moyle et. al. There's also stuff Darryl Digarrnga has said about how instrument pitch is related to particular songs... for lively songs with vigorous dancing, higher keys are preferred. More subdued songs utilise lower keys. I think some of that is mentioned in my YouTube clips.

In terms of pitch, D is about as low as I would recommend for a mago, any lower than that and it starts to resemble generic didgeridoos with little if any mago sound characteristics. Occasionally you might come across something lower than a D that is outstanding, but these are the exception rather than the rule. I prefer higher keyed mago myself: Fs, F#s, Gs and G#s. Something with a bit of grunt! That snarly howl sound is what I like

Guan

Yeah Guan I agree about the grunt (just to let you know im not looking for a new stick at the mo as Im skint and I had approched Kyle and he would be my first port of call or indeed Christian) it just seems to me that there are a lot of low key sticks around and was curious as to there cultural role in that lower yidaki, Djalu and thunder and all of that side of things if there were any/similar with mago style sticks. for example I know of a couple of Cish Key bob burrells here in the UK Kyle has one and my mate Paul has the other I was wondering if these were comon place and if so how much or if they were the exception to the rule (which it seems they may be) I like the tone of lower keyu stick but like the punchines of the higher keys. they are all very very special.

and I really wanna meet that chick in the advert with her toung sticking out

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=cdvsN6evojM

And here is me ironically on a deep key mago its a C# Mr A Cameron

Guess my playing WALish is that good everybody is lost for words ha ha

Just reading through some older threads... New to music and trying to learn the notes and pitches.

So when you talk about any particular pitch, how do you convey exactly what pitch you are talking about? For instance the note D mentioned by Guan. I realize that these instruments basically play in the 2 octaves below middle C and one octave above, so...

Is the note of D mentioned above the one below middle C (D2) or an octave lower than that (D1)?

Sometimes I realize that the pitch is obvious from the context, but that doesn't seem to be the case here (I think). We've got one reference to an Ambrose C# (that is obvious C1# or two octaves below middle C by watching the video) and then references to higher Fs, F#s, Gs and G#s. These could be Fs and Gs right below middle C or the octave below that, or even above middle C.

I am asking this question here, and not in a new thread, because the question here has a context and I think the answer is in the context if I only knew more about magos.

Generally speaking the Fs, F#s, Gs etc would be in the same octave as the aforementioned C#. There are exceptions, but usually these are in the lower spectrum as opposed to the higher pitched sticks. At the end of the day the pitch is only relevant when playing with accompaniment be that songman or band!

Kyle

I wonder if there is such a thing as a deep key (A,B & C key) WAL mago. Does anyone here know of any examples from far western areas eg. Daly, Belyuen etc. which are in low keys? The deeper keyed instruments that I own and most of the examples I've seen in photographs are mostly from North Central Arnhem Land where, coincidentally the playing technique incorporates elements of both WAL and NEAL. Should the Giyanggiyang sticks really be classified as mago? I wonder if Moyle would have done better to define three types A-B-C of didjeridu?? BTW, I own a Jacky Nawalil stick which is in a low B key - it is huge and more like a "log-o" than a mago

Stockie, this was the sort of question I was trying to find an answer to and asked that to quite a few peoplke in Arnhem Land . As Guan said above, the type of mago is related to the song as well ( hence the pitch of the songmen etc). In general for mimis for instance they tend to chose short ones which are high key and kind of shrill. If they wanna play a song for Marlwa, they tend to pick up deeper sounding instruments. maybe difficult to get the direct reasoning behind this, but this is how it is. With yirdaki, there is no such a thing as far as I am concerned- folks here please correct me if I am wring here- between songman and the yirdaki key etc..

Other than the above post of mine about what Darryl has said, I don't really know, I think some low key mago instruments are just made for the market and it earns the craftman $$, so maybe there's a "relaxing" of standards sometimes by Bininj or the standards are somewhat flexible? For instance, Djalu has a standard length for cutting mandapul but if we were to measure each instrument that Djalu makes, we'll find a variation in lengths that he produces. There may be a distinction in the ideal and what is available in the way of timber. Then there's the Giyanggiyang instrument as well:







Which chick?

Guan