well, you've checked out the didge hybred inventions right? Like the electric didge, and the slider didge?
Always wanted to make a few agava americanus stalks into didges myself....... although nothing quit resinates like pvc.
As for playing the didge, I'm pretty mean with one......... for about a breath at a time. :D Although, it's amazing what one can do with a didge and a loop back style repeater!
Yeah, I've kinda mostly moved onto hand drums. Kinda got discouraged after hearing some fricking phenomenal didge players years back at the eugene country fair. I mean, once I heard how the instrument is really played, I just knew I could never compete.
It's like a babys laugh and a cats purr amplified till it resonates in every cell of your body.
http://home.swipnet.se/~w-26367/circularbreathing.htm (http://home.swipnet.se/~w-26367/circularbreathing.htm)
There used to be a great didj site hosted at www.mills.edu (http://www.mills.edu) that seems to have gone now. I used the trick of blowing a small stream of air at the tip of a finger right in front of my mouth while trying to sip quick gusts of air in through my nose. At regular practice over a week or so I got a few fleeting moments of circular breathing but couldn't translate it into playing on the didj... until I'd had a couple glasses of wine one night and it all came together. Once you get the feel and stop thinking about it then the breathing will come smoothly. I've also noticed you can do it a hell of a lot easier with a narrow diameter didj. rather than the wide deep toned ones.
I've also been playing for about 4 years now, but mostly just solo. I think playing with other, more experienced players is really the way to learn and advance. I learned so much more from our old SPF garden forum mod and all around sweetheart nature woman, Chanley, a few years back in just a few minutes than I had in months of self practice and working through tutorials from the american didj. assoc. website. Been thinking for years of starting up a local didj. club to get players together to learn, teach, play and make some good earthy noise once and a while.
Quote from: "Jacko"I've also been playing for about 4 years now, but mostly just solo. I think playing with other, more experienced players is really the way to learn and advance.
This is just anecdotal...
When I was in Peru this summer, I drank Ayahuasca in a circle with a professional musicologist (Ph.D and all), and he brought his dig along to the circle. A few times he brought out the instrument and played during the evening. I found the experience pretty powerful, as did others.
The next day he said he learned more about playing that evening than he had in the 10 years previously.
So, it isn't surprising that a little wine may help bring things together, as the dig is ameable to non-ordinary states of consciousness.
It's been known to induce them, in the listener and the player.