DIDGE!

[lukedavo]

Cool sounding didgeridoos are so easy to make, and soo easy to play. They are the perfect addition to any soundscape lacking texture and low end. The circular breathing is the hard part!
1st get a poster tube or pvc pipe of around 3 to 4" in diamater and cut to a length of around 3 1/2 to 4 ft.
Next find a length of the same material with a larger diameter (5 to 6") and equal in length. Fasten with either tape or glue the larger diameter piping outside of the smaller, ideally creating a length between 5 and 6 ft.
The instrument works as a resonate tube creating sin wave reflections and depending on length and width of the tube, this determines the resonate frequency produced. The reason for the different diameter tubing has to do with freq reflection and dispersion, larger the wave the lower the freqs.
The mouth piece of the didge, is ussually a personal preference type of thing. I use gaff tape to mold the mouth piece on my poster tube didge. I have mine set up so the diameter of the hole is about 2" allowing larger vibration of the lips, producing a lower freq, the smaller the hole the faster the lips vibrate and in turn the higher the freq produced. Bees wax is what they tradtionally use, as well as hollowed out tree trunks, this recipe is really for a city mans or womans didge.
I hope everyone tries this out, total cost around $3

[Uluru]

Have any tips on learning circular breathing? I once heard that you should practice by spitting water into a cup. Basically, you're supposed to drink water and leave it in your mouth, then breathe in through your nose while slowly spitting the water out. I guess it helps you learn to use your cheek muscles or something. Anyways, just thought I'd ask.

[lukedavo]

Yeah you seem to be going about it the right way. It is a really unnatural thing to do so it feels weird and wrong. I practice by buzzing my lips and breathing in and out of my nose.

[smopo24]

i've "played" one, insofar as i've gotten dizzy blowing/spitting into it for about 2 minutes....then, yes i have.

[GearJunkie]

My old band made one out of PVC piping. We cut it at just some arbitrary point and it ended up being in the key of C (only off by very minor semitones). We attached a capsule from an SM58 in the bottom of it, and then ran it through a pedalboard. We could never decide on the name but would either call it:

The Digeridont or
The Digitaldoo.

Anyway, it ruled.

[McLean]

Has anyone used one that slides? I seen it at a Simon and Garfunkel concert a few years ago. A guy came out with this huge thing that looked and sounded like a dig, but slid in and out like a trombone. As far as I could tell it was basically one inside another. It must have had some kind of seal on it, but not to much because the outer peice has to move back and forth for diferent sounds. Anyway, it sounded great and had quite a few different notes to it. It really took the dig to the next level. Far better than just the one droning tone. Not that the drone is bad, this is that, plus more.

[clineaudio]

Originally Posted by McLean

Has anyone used one that slides? I seen it at a Simon and Garfunkel concert a few years ago. A guy came out with this huge thing that looked and sounded like a dig, but slid in and out like a trombone. As far as I could tell it was basically one inside another. It must have had some kind of seal on it, but not to much because the outer peice has to move back and forth for diferent sounds. Anyway, it sounded great and had quite a few different notes to it. It really took the dig to the next level. Far better than just the one droning tone. Not that the drone is bad, this is that, plus more.

This combined with PVC and you'll be the part of the blue man group! minus the percussion.

[lukedavo]

Yeah just a resonance tube.... just in case you missed our acoustics lesson this week, please review here.....

http://phoenix.phys.clemson.edu/labs...nce/index.html

.....yeah its boring, and a little difficult to understand, but is a good knowledge base if you've never ingested this information before.

[smopo24]

Originally Posted by McLean

Has anyone used one that slides? I seen it at a Simon and Garfunkel concert a few years ago. A guy came out with this huge thing that looked and sounded like a dig, but slid in and out like a trombone. As far as I could tell it was basically one inside another. It must have had some kind of seal on it, but not to much because the outer peice has to move back and forth for diferent sounds. Anyway, it sounded great and had quite a few different notes to it. It really took the dig to the next level. Far better than just the one droning tone. Not that the drone is bad, this is that, plus more.

wow, like a glorified slide whistle! well, withouth the whistling part. that reminds me of the pitch bend on the keyboard i used to use, the dige patches were some of my favorite to manipulate.

[cthetranspire]

One of my buddies from college had one of those chromatic didges. They're AWESOME. It does slightly resemble the trombone, and has the intimate tuning issues much like the positions on the trombone. He was telling me that there is one cat that made his particular one, and that person has only made around a dozen.

It was incredible, and it surprises me none Simon and Mr. Garfunkel worked it in.