Playing - Titch and Tim's Didj Tips

Basic Drone

1. Keeping your lips together, push your lips away from your mouth, as if you were going to give someone a kiss on the cheek. But, do not make your lips form a circle, try to keep the shape of your lips as natural as possible.
2. With your lips still together, but relaxed, blow through your lips so they vibrate. You should now be making a sound something like an old motorboat.
3. Practice until you can make the same sound consistently.

Now take your Didjeridu and place your lips against the mouthpiece. Do this gently, you do not need to push your lips against the Didjeridu very hard. You only need to create a seal. If you push too hard you will eventually make your face sore (No kissing for you for a while then).

It does not matter if you put the centre of your mouth on the Didjeridu, or like Tim does, use one side of the mouth. Whatever feels most natural for you, is fine.

Now try to repeat the exercise above with the Didjeridu. You may find to begin with, the sound you make is like, what can only be described as, a farting sound. Once everyone has stopped laughing, keep trying, and believe me, eventually you will create a 'drone'.

Keep practicing until you are able to consistently create the 'drone'. Do not try to learn anything else until you can, as this is the basis for playing the Didjeridu.

Circular Breathing

1. Sit comfortably (or uncomfortably if you prefer), with your bowl of water within easy reach of you and your straw.
2. Place the straw in your mouth (did I really need to tell you that).
3. Now, guess what, blow, gently. You can make this really exciting by adding washing-up liquid to the water and then you can make lots of bubbles.
4. As you blow gently into the water with your lungs, let your cheeks fill with air, and then gently squeeze your cheeks until they are flat again. Practice this for a while.
5. When you have this mastered, try this. When your cheeks are full of air, start to squeeze them flat (slowly), but stop blowing with your lungs. You will know when you have done this correctly, because the air you are blowing out with your cheeks will still blow bubbles in the bowl of water, even though you are no longer using your lungs.
6. Practice this for a good while until there is no gap between the transition from using the air in your lungs, to using the air stored in your cheeks.
7. The next step is to continue with the above exercise, but, as you blow out the air in your cheeks, inhale very quickly through your nose. You should make a slightly loud 'sniffing' sound. Your lungs can now take over again.
8. With practice, you will be able to blow bubbles continuously.

Circular breathing with drone

All you have to do is combine the 'Drone' you have learned to produce, with your new circular breathing technique. Of course it is not going to be perfect first time. But just keep practicing and you will get there. And, it's really great when you do it for the first time.

Varying Tone

• Lip tension
• Cheek bellowing
• Tongue movement
• Jaw movement
• Air flow

Cheek bellowing is what you do to achieve circular breathing. If you are able to circular breathe, you will have noticed the change in tone of your Didjeridu already. With practice you will be able to bellow your cheeks without changing the tone.

Tongue movement also changes the tone you create. Try moving your tongue to the back of your mouth and then bring it forward to just behind your teeth. You will notice the change. Also just let your tongue play around inside your mouth, to hear other Didj delights.

Jaw movement creates quite noticeable changes in tone for what appears to be a small movement. Drop your jaw but not too much so that you break the seal with your lips, and not so that you separate your lips, then slowly close your jaw until your teeth are touching.

The really interesting thing about these different methods is they produce a different quality in the change of tone. Try combining the various methods, you will discover that your Didjeridu is capable of producing a wide variety of amazing sounds. Have fun.

Air flow is simply how hard you blow. Blowing harder will cause your lips to vibrate faster and therefore cause the frequency to increase.

When you have given the above some practice, the next best thing is just to play your Didjeridu and experiment.

If you usually sit to play your Didjeridu, try standing up, so that you are free to move about. It really does make a difference for some people.

Don't forget there are lots of web sites to find more ideas and Didjeridu music. Try our links.

Ooops, nearly forgot. The sound of the Didjeridu is great for Shamanic trance work (obviously, someone else will have to play if you are journeying).
It's also really fab for meditation, just play a simple rhythm and focus on the sound and your circular breathing. You'll be off in no time.

Oh yes, and finally (honest), do look at the 'maintenance' page because your Didjeridu is the sound of creation, like 'Om', 'Beth', and 'The Big Bang'.
It deserves your love and care. Be good to each other.

Enjoy !!