I have been playing Yidaki (Didgeridoo) since October 1992, I started by teaching myself on a plastic telescopic tube, getting to grips with the circular breathing technique within 3 afternoons whilst sitting on a beach in Diu, India. I developed my "own style" of playing, I could play very fast or do slow long drones and had made in due course 3 cassette tapes series which I sold whilst busking.
One night however my life was changed forever, I saw Yothu Yindi, a traditional Aboriginal Arnhem land band performing in London. The true sound of Yidaki as it should sound hit me and from then on with the help of a fellow enthusiast, Shozo, began practicing traditional foundation techniques. It has been a long and difficult journey, with countless hours of listening and practise to get to where I am now. I am now confident enough to begin performing again with proper foundation technique which I confirmed recently when I meet my guru, Yidaki Master, DJALU GURRUWIWI, of the Galpu clan in northeast Arnhem land, at a special workshop in Germany.

I remember in Eisenbach, Germany 2002, our Yidaki master Djalu Gurruwiwi blessing his students, passing on the Yidaki Spirit through himself and into us from all Djalu's ancestors, it was a very moving experiance, something I'll never forget. He said you must respect the Yidaki, its' sound and what it means other wise the spirit will leave and never return to you.

I have always felt a special feeling when I was learning to play, as though the instrument was teaching me, but would only give me the next stage of knowledge when it felt I was ready to recieve it. A Zen type of experiance, where the learning curve goes up or stays stationary or you find yourself covering old ground only in more depth; the deeper you go the more there is to realise.
Now almost any time I perform I feel like a medium, through which many Yidaki spirits want to play their songs, so I can never tell what song will come and where it will go to next. A conductor of ghosts.....................
NOTE: Although I play with a trad based foundation I am not nor ever will be a traditional Yidaki player.

INFORMATION ABOUT DIDGERIDOO

The Didgeridoo, Yidaki, Mago are some of the names given by its traditional founders, originates from the northern areas of the Northern Territory in Australia in a protected area known as Arnhem land. Here the Yidaki has been played perhaps for 100s of years by its` original peoples, a culture known to be over 50,000 years old. The Yidaki is generally played with the songman and clapsticks (Bilma), songs have been passed on from father to son, generation to generation with new ones being added as well. There are traditional techniques to play the Yidaki, methods varying through different areas, but there is a general traditional foundation in how the instrument is played and how it should sound.
Much more recently the instrument has become popular in Western cultures and people have developed their own contemporary "individual styles" of playing of which bears little resemblance to the traditional methods.

The biggest difference between contemporary styles and Traditional styles is that contemporary players blow and with Traditional styles, players pull or draw, resulting with far richer textures in the sound.

HERE'S SOME TIPS TO HELP YOU PLAY BETTER

~Don't blow to hard,or use so much air, this results in fatigue, loud nostril sniffs, saliva pooling at instruments end and destroys the sound texture. You must be relaxed when playing and not force anything, if you are losing sound then play softer, don't force more air out to fix the problem. Playing a fast rhythm should require no more effort than playing a slow one.

~Keep your cheeks flat. This enables better embrochure control as all wind instument players must learn to do.

~Mouthpieces are made to large, most Westerners lips are much thinner then Yolgnus lips are, mouth pieces 25mm or even less will help in developing TEXTURE in sound (Mine are 23mm). Beeswax is not an ideal mouth piece, apart from needing to be reshaped in hot weather, it causes the lips to stick making lip adjustment difficult when playing (fine tuning).

~Players should be relaxed and not force the body to produce the sound. The right actions, through practice, will produce the right reactions of diaphram - throat - voice - tongue - jaw and finally lips.

~You can become the conductor or sound enginner, where the Yidakis' low sounds become the Bass and percussion, the mid sounds are the brass section (calls, toots) and strings and the high sounds are tibetian bowls and choir sections (harmonics). You can control all three independantly adjusting volume, texture, tempo etc.

SOME COMMON QUESTIONS CONCERNING DIDGERIDOO

1)Splits: Common occurances on instruments with their walls shaved to thin and by the wood not being allowed to dry slowly before being shaved and shaped. To repair use a boat glue such as "Captain Tulleys creeping crack cure" which is water proof and will expand and contract with the woods movement due to temperature. Do not use an epoxy or super glue etc which will dry hard and is unyeilding and you'll find the crack being unable to close back up in cooler temperatures because of the solid glue and thus force itself to become even longer. Bees wax can be used but it must regulary be reworked. For large splits if the wall is thick enough it is possible to stitch the crack together with small screws at regular intervals post to first drilling small pilot holes. Alternativly wrap the Didge with fibreglass and you'll never need to worry about splits or cracks again.See repair section.

2)Beeswax, not the best material for a mouthpiece, it is useful for a beginner to discover his mouth piece size and shape, but an alternate should be sought once this is known, preferably the natural top of the Didge is ideal, but if to big it can be reduced by using Milliput which is a modelers clay, which like plastercine can be moulded and will go hard and can be filed and sanded afterwards.

HOW TO MAKE A TELESCOPIC DIDGE

A PVC telescopic Didge, great for when your travelling or when you are jamming and need the right key to fit with the other instruments or song. They can have an excellent sound as well depending on wall thickness, the thicker the better.

Your didge can be in two, three, or four lengths. The more lengths the greater the amount of backpressure and playability  possibilities. Using PVC piping, look for the thickest wall available, the smallest diameter being 23- 25mm. If larger then 25mm it will be much more difficult to make a sound when the didge is fully extended. A thicker wall will produce a better sound ie 4mm. Try to get pipes with a difference of 1-2mm between the larger pipes inside diameter and the smallers outer diameter. The bigger the difference between the diameters the more taper you must make. A total fully extended length can be up to 2.5m.

STEP 1: As shown above.  Cut the pipe into equal lengths, if using two pieces, then 900mm to 1 m, if three lengths, then 700-800mm,if four then 500-600mm. Too long and you won't be able to get a sound out!  Make sure the ends are square and flat and clean off any rough edges with a file .

Step 3: Now to flare the opposite end of the pipes, this operation is carried out on all the lengths. The largest diameter can be flared out to the max as this acts like a trumpet flare. Heat the end of the smallest pipe over the gas stove until the very end has become soft, then push it over the top of a glass bottle so that its end flares outwards, then quickly slide the smaller diameter into the larger until the flare reduces to the right diameter, quickly cool with wet cloth. Do this with all the pieces.

Step 4: You can now slide all the pieces into each other. The mouth piece can be made by heating its end and flaring it outwards over the bottle then flattening the flare over a flat surface. The whole length can now be sanded with a very coarse sand paper to scratch into a more natural looking surface and then be sprayed with a matt paint, black or brown and the largest diameter pipe can be decorated with your artwork. You may want to knotch bands at intervals to mark out the keys of notes in conjunction with a tuner. Vasolene can be used to ease sliding, but these instruments aren't designed to slide freely like a trombone .

Note: This process is designed, tried and tested many times by myself and given to you freely, so much bad karma and a thousand curses to any bugger who takes this idea and turns it into financial profit for themself.....