iDIDJ Australia Didgeridoo Cultural Hub

Hi there!
You probably get quite a few posts like this, but ahh, never mind!
A few days ago I went over to a friends place where they had a didge, or at least a piece of PVC pipe with a rubber mouth piece, now i"m a bit of a muiso so I gave it a try, of course didn't get the drone immediately, but I borrowed it and have been playing non-stop.

I've got the drone pretty perfectly now, and have been working on dog barks, and kookaburra, some local birds I've heard also, and just emulating recordings I've heard, such as some of the tones in Xavier Rudd's song Mana, I can circular breath normally, but then if I try to do it while playing it's a little more dodgy, but I'm getting there! Almost got it! Also almost got that toot going...

What I wanted to ask was what would you advise for a beginner to do, any sites you can recommend to teach me some basic stuff, what sort of didge should I get, etc, etc, you know, all the basic sort of information!


Now back to playing
Cheers,
Eliot.


P.s. Sorry if this is in the wrong section

Hi Eliot,
Welcome aboard
Generally people here are interested in traditional style of playing didgeridoo however it is a wonderful source of information one can find on the net. You can exchange ideas with many skilled/experienced players here amongst whom we have some very knowledgeable fellows you will discover in time
Have you checked the ididjchannel on youtube yet? you can see many wonderful indigenous players showing off their skills. If you are interested in trad style, yo should get the Hard tongue didgeridoo CD by the deceased M*lk*y and CDs of Djalu which you can find on ididj site : http://www.ididj.com.au/store/music.html

Welcome again
cheers
mahir

Can I suggest the forum on Xavier Rudds website?
Its a nice place to go.

D

Hi Eliot, warm welcome mate! I like your username but what's with the camel thing?

I'd say that since you're playing on a pvc pipe, you probably don't have a lot of back pressure to work with, hence the difficulty you might have in maintaining the drone sound and circular breathing when playing the pipe. Generally speaking, if an instrument has a tapered shape and a conical-shaped bore, you'll find it a lot easier to play especially for beginners. I think it may be true that a lot of beginners who are dead keen on learning the didj give up because of the poor quality of their learner's instrument. Once you play the higher quality didjs, you'll noticed the vast difference in sound quality and you'll have have a great deal more fun. But before you splash out on an expensive stick, why don't you get in touch with forum members here who might be in your general vicinity? Where abouts are you? You could perhaps try a variety of instruments that they might have so that you will learn more about what you like and dislike.



The iDIDJ Australia site of course! But it is totally traditionally-oriented. If you have questions, we're more than happy to help you with answers... there's enough expertise and experience here to answer any question you might want to throw at us.

Happy journey!

Guan

Hi! Thanks everyone for the warm welcome!

I'm down in Canberra, so if there is anyone near me it'd be great to get together and have a chat!
What, exactly, is traditional style, is there a certain criteria?
I found this site through the you-tube channel, some great videos there!
I'll take a look at the Xavier Rudd site, thanks for the tip
Guan: ha-ha ti's just a name =P Had it for almost all my Internet persona's, no point to it! Just a random thing.
Peter: By THIS type of thread I meant one of the "hi there I'm new" type posts, and it's one hump of course

I'm glad to hear that if I can do this on a PVC pipe, It'll be a lot easier on the real thing!

G'day again Gloria,

I'm in Sydney and Guwan is in Melbourne, so the three of us are sort of covering southeastern Oz then : ) Dunno if there are any other locals here - you know how folks lurk and won't reveal themselves.

In time you'll probably lust for a nice instrument but it's surprising how far one can develop on PVC. I started that way (not that I'm an accomplished player - I'm a much better listener than player), and many yolngu kids play on bits of PVC and irrigation pipe in the beginning. It's certainly good for all the basics, such as getting the breathing and helps one decide if this is something they'd like to pursue without having put themselves into debt.

Of course nothing beats the real thing though and as I found when I was learning, I had the completely wrong type of instrument for what I wanted to play. I had a recording of someone playing from northeastern Arnhem Land and when I was finally able to track down a didj here (that was in 1978 when they were rare), it was one from Mornington Island. It was far too short to be able to produce the sounds evident on the recording. No overtone for example. So a struggle for two years until I picked up a stick from eastern Arnhem Land.

Traditional style playing is the playing style and techniques used by people from across the Top End - the original home of the didj. - there's a swag of sites that give an overview. (It's not everybody's cup of tea - but it's the reason most of us are here);

http://www.ididj.com.au/

http://www.yirrkala.com/yidaki/dhawu/

http://www.manikay.com/

Hi Peter,
It's good to hear that there are some down here in the south east! (Could we be any further from Arnhem land?!).
I picked up quite a lot on this piece of pipe! At the moment I've got the drone, toot, the scream type thing, some bird calls, I can do the bouncing of a roo, and I'm playing around with adding voice in there as well, it's beginning to sound decentish (I think!). I've almost got circular breathing while playing as well, there is only a tiny amount of time between the spit and the breath that is silentish.

But I definitely want to get a proper stick to play on, I've been looking around www.didjeshop.com which seems to be quite good, they say all their sticks are authentic, termite hollowed sticks made by the indigenous peoples of this land. They've also got them classes, so I can pick up a didge in the "Cheap learners" Section which is meant to have great back pressure. I can pick up a cheap learner from $140 - $250.

I definitely want to pursue learning this great instrument, first time I made a drone I felt like I'd just invented a new revolutionary instrument! It would sound great added to my guitar.


I'll take a look at those sites, I think I'm into a less traditional style, but not a modern style, I'm not sure how to describe it or what it is! I like playing fast, and energy filled.

Thank you my friend!
Peace.

Buyers beware!

I'm sure others here can tell you a bit more about them.

Guan

Dear Gloria,

I completely understand your sudden enthusiasm associated with your latest discoveries - but just take it slow. Like buying any instrument - learn your stuff, check out what your buying and in this instance make sure what you're getting is ethical and truly capable of what you expect of your new instrument. No sense in throwing good money away on something that may disappoint. Yep, read that stuff - do your homework - hang here on the Forum a bit and find out where you want to go before committing yourself.

If you came here via YouTube and those wicked trad players, and if that's what you aspire too, then be careful about what you're told is an "authentic" stick. Checkout some of the discussions here on the Forum - there are dangers for the unwary.

OK , happy toots.

Hi Gloria,
Agree with Peter and Guan fully,
But I will not be as polite
never ever buy stick from these guys and forget about their definition. There are few places where you can find authentic authentic sticks one is right here and the other is yirrkala as suggested prev by Peter. I made the same mistake of rushing to get a didge and it was a Teak one from Indonesia which I happened to understand after a long while.
Let your money go to Aboriginal fellows, not to those who cut down everything,
cheers

Great point!!!!

Søren Dahl

Hi Gloria and welcome to the forum

Re: the Didjshop, Prior to getting into Traditional playing I did purchase over time 3 instruments from them after extensive examination of their site . The instruments they sell are not traditonal Yidaki or mago but a as far as I can tell are geniune aboriginal didjeridoos, by definition of the fact that are made from start to end by indigenous aborigines where-ever in Australia and that is what is stressed on their site. "Every didgeridoo sold by us is harvested and produced by Australian Aboriginal people. All artwork on our didgeridoos is also guaranteed to be the work of Aboriginal artists.
By contrast, the vast majority of didgeridoos sold in Australia and on the Internet are made and/or painted by non-Aboriginal people. Sadly most of these are sold knowingly or unknowingly as Aboriginal arts and crafts. Aboriginal people feel resentment about non-Aboriginal people producing Aboriginal artifacts and art."
As far as I can ascertain it seems that they buy instruments that are plain and unpainted, subject them to 25 proceses and get them painted by another aborigine, whose name or clan is usually shown on the soundfile page. I have asked Svargo (the proprietor) why he dosen't sell Yidaki or mago and he replied that too many arrive damaged or cracked etc to make it worthwhile, which is a bit strange as one of their processes involves pulling out the filling and plugs put in by the maker and replacing it with their own special filler!!. Some here have tried to find out more about the 25 or so processes and have been met with silence. From examination of my own 3 instruments I can say this: all three, even though termite hollowed, have very smooth bores as if they have been cleaned out on purpose, all have been coated inside with some kind of hard varnish or similar. The two that are painted are by Brad Gosam and finished to a high standard, All three play very nicely, but I have many trad instruments (12) and some of these were cheaper and play better!!! despite what they may say about their instruments sound quality, which could be another subject for discussion. I have one 1st class, one low concert and one medium concert class and I doubt if you heard them you could tell which one is which. All I can say is, I have ny own views on the classes and it is to do with price, say no more . What worries me though more recently is this, are the 25 or so processes being done by aborigines as well or not and how much of the original instrument is left afterwards??? It is common for the sellers of traditional Yidaki or Mago to make a few small repairs now and again, its the nature of dealing with a natural living breathing item but 25 processes later is it stll authentic??? On sites like this one you can hear what the instrument sounds like with none of this class rubbish, if you like it buy it!!! You are told who made it where they are from and a bit about them and finally, there's nothing like sitting at home and playing an instrument that you know has been made by a traditonal craftsmen in a traditional way from the home of the didjeridu. I will leave you to ponder on this.

PS: Svargo, if you are reading this , i'm sure most of us here would be interested in finding out what the 25 proceses are


Paul

Hi Paul,

Good to have your comments based on your first-hand experience, thanks mate.

To me, there's too much smoke and mirrors with this particular retailer. If I was to scrutinize its website, I would find problems on almost every page as far as the accuracy of information presented is concerned. To me, this retailer does nothing more than purchase blanks at wholesale quantities (we sometimes get emails from harvesters from the same region offering to sell blanks to us, at $10 per stick or thereabouts, go figure... we tell them to get lost or words to that effect) and then has them decorated by individuals. From their website about their team and who does what:



The website is giving 2 stories, that its instruments are Aboriginal-made, yet it also gives credit to its own staff for production and tuning. Of 6 staff members, 4 are involved in production. As far as I'm concerned, this does not make the instruments Aboriginal.

I guess a picture tells a thousand tales... below is a pic taken from its own website. Note the caption from the retailer's/producer's website, which says that it works on instruments: "We love didjeridus and when we work on them we do so as if each individual didgeridoo is our own. Each Didgeridoo gets handled at least 25 times in different processes to get the best possible sound out of it and to preserve and protect it as well as possible."

Guan

Hi Guan

Forgotten about that picture, long tome since looked at their site, maybe I will give Svargo a mail to see if I can get an explanation of this, good point though!!!!! does look like a didge factory to me and not a painted one amongst them. am very busy today so I will mail Svargo tonight and wait (could be a long time) for a response

All the best

Paul