Skip to main content

More PVC fun: Didgeridoo

 This project was for medical purposes. Somewhere I read an article that stated "Sleep Apnea can be relieved through the use of  'circular breathing' ". Since I was diagnosed with sleep apnea years ago I thought it would be interesting to explore this in a musical way. Wind players and especially Trumpet players have used circular breathing for years ( think 'Flight of the Bumblebee').

My percussion background has provided me with a limited concept of breathing during performance, (although an awareness of breathing and therefore phrasing has always been important) let alone circular breathing. I asked some wind player friends for help and purchased a book on circular breathing and started to practice. 

I also knew that playing the Didgeridoo required this technique so I decided to make my own. YOUTUBE to the rescue! (is there nothing that can be found on Youtube?)

Again I used PVC pipe. This time I used 1 1/2" tube diameter and 4 1/2' long with the appropriate attachments called for in the video. 

Eventually I learned how to produce the traditional sound that comes out of this instrument. But I could only achieve it with 1 lung full of air. So far my attempts at circular breathing while playing has produced hyper-ventilation and a few bouts of hallucinations. It is fun and I hope to get the hang of it some day.


Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Amadinda

  The Amadinda is an African xylophone originally made from slabs of wood or even large sticks, with or without gourds for resonators. There was no reason for this project other than to see if I could make a simple mallet instrument. The box was made from plywood (which also acted as the resonators) and the bars were made from maple.  Since this was to be a true xylophone, the bars were all of equal width. Tuning was done by cutting the bars to different lengths and removing material from the bottom. Using a router I created a sort of 'stepped pyramid' instead of the traditional arc cut found on marimba or xylophone bars.  Cutting the underside is not only for tuning but it focuses the pitch and creates the characteristic overtones of the instrument. Since I wanted to play this with other 'Western' instruments, I chose to use a pentatonic scale of 2 2/5 octaves (C#,D#,F#,G#,A#,C#,D#,F#,G#,A#,C#,D#). Two people sit on either side of the instrument and strike the ends of ...
3 comments
Read more

La Caverna del oro

 One of our first backpacking trips in Colorado was in the Sangre de Christo Mountains. One mountain in particular drew our attention. Marble Mountain was the location of a famous story of a Spanish cave of gold. There are many places on the web that tell this story better than I could, suffice it to say that we wanted to locate it and see the iconic 'Maltese Cross' located at it's entrance.  In 1974 after I got out of the Army we invited some friends to join us on this trip. We parked our car at the trailhead in the Wet Mountain Valley and backpacked up Marble Mountain to 12,000 feet. In one of the culverts we found the entrance to the cave. Maltese Cross at the Caverna del oro It turned out to be a real thing. The large red cross was still visible after 400 yrs. According to legend the Spanish put it there in the 1600's. I did have the courage to crawl into it but only a few feet. After about 10 feet there is a vertical shaft that drops about 750 feet!  The Cross is v...
3 comments
Read more

Quack, Moo and Paradiddle

Rudiments: "The basic principles or skills of a particular subject." Onomatopoeia: "A word that is phonetically associated with the word it describes." Scales are for a violinist as drum rudiments are for the drummer. To master anything one must learn the basic rudiments. Once learned they can be assembled to create something more than the individual parts. Drum Rudiments are a collection of sticking patterns and bounces that were developed to provide the beginning drummer the skills to play his/her instrument. But why the funny names? Most of the Rudiment names are onomatopoeiae. They imitate the sound of the rudiment/sticking. They were developed in the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and the use of onomatopoeia was to help the student memorize them. Since many people were illiterate at the time, this technique was easier than using notation.  The teacher would say the name of the rudiment and then play it. The student would repeat the name and play it. ...
2 comments
Read more