This guy is the best casual Didgeridoo player I came across while my stay in Western Australia. I met him in Fremantle while admiring these wonderful instruments at the store he was working in. Didgeridoo has always been an instrument of passion for me. Even before I came to Australia, I loved listening to its music.
My sister knew about this and one time she tried to buy one for me from Perth and bring it to Sri Lanka when she was visiting us. However, it did not really work out because of the bulkiness and the fragility of the item. Instead she bought me a CD of didgeridoo music by an artist named David Hudson, which I thoroughly enjoyed.
So, ever since I landed in Australia and got a chance to wonder around the shops, especially the aboriginal art and souvenir stores, I enjoyed admiring didgeridoos. Not just through my eyes, but also through my ears. Most of these instruments are painted with aboriginal arts making them look even more fascinating. Although, some original didgeridoos were supposed to be just a plain hollow wood. Some warm-hearted guys, like the one in the video, went to the extent of putting on a short performance for me, even when they knew that I was not going buy one.
As far as what I came across, one can buy a decent didgeridoo starting from around AU$75. Most of them are intended for tourists and casual players. Probably the professionals would own ones that are of much higher value.
Didgeridoo is an Australian aboriginal instrument. It is said to have originated in northern part of the continent. Traditionally the instrument was made out of Eucalyptus wood and can measure 1 to 3 meters in length[1]. The end where the mouthpiece is, usually have a smaller diameter compared to the opposite end to create resonance of the sound.
When playing a didgeridoo, a technique called circular breathing is necessary, which for my experience is not that easy to pick up. The aboriginal people considers the instrument to be sacred and do not like women playing it. In addition to that, I have heard that the intense breathing method creates a lot of stress on stomach mussels, and could affect negatively on women's womb.
Well, I guess that is it for now. I can guarantee you that there will be another article on didgeridoo soon on this blog.
Reference:
[1]. Wikipedia: the free encyclopedia. Didgeridoo. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Didgeridoo. Accessed on June 6, 2010.
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