Didgeridoos & Irish music

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PJ
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Didgeridoos & Irish music

Post by PJ »

Finally, a forum where I can ask the questions that have been burning my soul for years.

The Chieftains recorded a version of the Strayaway Child on which Stephen Cooney plays a didgeridoo that plays the note C fairly well in tune.

Does anyone have information (length, diameter, etc) on how to make a didjeridoo that would play particular notes (C, D or E, for instance)?
PJ
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Post by Cynth »

The 97 cent K-MART, ready-made DIDJERIDOO.

LATE PS: Inflation has reared it's ugly head - the price for one of
these tubes now, in Summer, 2000 (about 4 years after the original
article was written) is up to 99 cents!! Outrageous!

K-MART sporting departments sell a golf-club sheath -- used to protect
clubs that are inserted into golf-bags. These cost 97 cents &
make wonderful didjeridoos when used as is, with no modification!

They even have a metal ring molded into the end that makes a
perfect mouthpiece.

I have found these things ideal for practicing
circular-breathing as they are of a length & pitch that makes
it particularily easy to maintain a nice tone. I've
experimented a lot with these & two modifications that have
proven useful are: 1) chop one in half & (using HOT tap water
to soften one end) force this softened end over the cold end of
a full length tube for the distance of two or three inches.
This creates a longer, lower pitched instrument. 2) Some of the
bigger sporting specialty stores sell various diameters of
golf-tubes -- I found two that telescoped nicely -- this makes
for a great variable-pitched instrument that's excellent for
playing with other instruments.

The tone of these things is surprisingly good & to those of us
who have used them, there's little fault to find with them
aide of aesthetics! Can't beat the price. I even keep one in
my car for tooting at red lights (nevermind the stares!)

Dennis Havlena - W8MI

web-page http://edcen.ehhs.cmich.edu/~dhavlena/

PS - This is a listing of variant spellings for the instrument:
didjeridoo, didgeridoo, didjeridu, didjeridoo, digeridoo, digeridu
http://www.ehhs.cmich.edu/%7edhavlena/d.htm
This is probably not what you have in mind. The other website required that you fell a hardwood tree. So I picked this article.
Diligentia maximum etiam mediocris ingeni subsidium. ~ Diligence is a very great help even to a mediocre intelligence.----Seneca
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Post by PJ »

Good old Rolf Harris made them alternatively from PVC pipe and cardboard tubes. I was thinking of trying to knock one off from PVC so that it would play D and could be used as drones to go with my D chanter. (I've an Aussie friend and we're looking for a project to do together).
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Post by Brigitte »

That is a very nice tune, I have the album, too.

A D key Didge you can get from a tube diameter 4,5 cm and length about 125 cm long, any plastic tube in a DIY shop could work, if you cannot find any "rubber connector" which could do for the mouth piece, silicon could also work for forming it, usually silicon is non-toxic and soft and not changing shape. You best mold it first a little wider and then work your way closer to the size you would prefer for your mouth size. Mine are usually around 2.8 to 3 cm diameter, if I have the chance also a little oval shaped.... well I have not that big a mouth although others say different :lol:

Bamboo is an alternativ, too if you find a big long one in a garden center or so, no cracks is important. Pocking through the knots, file them out but not fully on the first, just that you do not loose your back pressure, shorten is in small steps until you have one key left. To protect it cracking, I did surround all the knot parts with long grass, stuck it on with wood clue (clear) and also around the end and top and after a little sanding down varnished it. I made some this way also for friends and the oldest is more than 10 years old and still fine.

Alternatively you can also do this http://didgeridoo-art.de/
I have a cherry one which plays F down to D, wonderful instrument, which is tunable due to an aluminium tube inserted. There are some shown in there.

Brigitte
Wenn die Klügeren nachgeben,
regieren die Dummköpfe die Welt.
(Jean Claude Riber)
Cayden

Post by Cayden »

Image
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Post by Joseph E. Smith »

I've been playing the didge for a good many years, and I think it is a nice accompaniment to ITM.... once in a while. For my tastes, it shouldn't be used too often... something about overkill comes to mind.

I have made them out of PVC piping, and they work like a charm. I do, however, prefer the real thing.

http://www.tinwhistletunes.com/clipssni ... osephS.mp3

Image
Image
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Post by PJ »

At a party a few months back, John, my Aussie buddy, showed his didge to a woman at the party. She asked him how it was made. His reply was: "The traditional manner. Find a suitable piece of wood and jam it into a termite mound. The termites will bore the hole through the centre."

The woman asked: "How long does that take?" Quick as a flash, John replied: "Oh, about 45 minutes, but you have to starve the termites for a few days beforehand."

He then went on to describe how in the Northern Territory, some of the tribes train their termites and then hold didge-boring competitions.
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Post by Cynth »

Peter Laban wrote:Image
Hmmm....the piper looks sort of...surly. :lol:
Diligentia maximum etiam mediocris ingeni subsidium. ~ Diligence is a very great help even to a mediocre intelligence.----Seneca
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Post by Joseph E. Smith »

... funny, I thought that the didge player looked remarkably like Jeffrie Dahmer....
Image
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Post by PJ »

Joseph E. Smith wrote:... funny, I thought that the didge player looked remarkably like Jeffrie Dahmer....
If it is him, I wonder what he made the didge out of?
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Post by Nanohedron »

Hey, is the piper Tim Britton?
"If you take music out of this world, you will have nothing but a ball of fire." - Tribal musician
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Post by Cynth »

Nanohedron wrote:Hey, is the piper Tim Britton?
No way!
ImageTim Britton is on the right.
Diligentia maximum etiam mediocris ingeni subsidium. ~ Diligence is a very great help even to a mediocre intelligence.----Seneca
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Post by Cayden »

Nanohedron wrote:Hey, is the piper Tim Britton?
No, it's Mark Farelly, must be ten, eleven years ago.
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Post by Nanohedron »

Thanks, guys. I thought I remembered a photo of Tim from some years back that looked a lot like Mr. Farelly.

Dangit. I had some captions, too. :wink:
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Post by Joseph E. Smith »

Image

Image


... kind of scary...
Image
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