How to turn professional in didgeridoo playing

I am inspired to write this article as I see less and less professional didgeridoo solo players… It almost seems as this was a short living species going quickly to extinction. Often I hear how difficult it is to become  a professional didgeridoo player… So I would like to share my experience maybe to give some easiness to rising didgeridoo players.

REAL LOVE

If I needed to state one parameter that would be most important in becoming a didgeridoo professional, I would say: YOU NEED TO ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT!

This is a cliche, so what does it mean in practice? In practice this means you will continue to play didgeridoo regardless of anything. If it is raining, you will play. If you are sick you will play. If you have no money, you will play. If you have lots of money, you will play. You will not find excuses why you are not playing, instead you will be playing.

PROFESSIONAL LEVEL

Didgeridoo level is getting higher and higher. I often hear this. Can you see it? But what is the core of the professional level? In the way I see it, it is not one fixed, absolute thing. It could be roughly  defined as “doing with your didgeridoo exactly what you want to do”. For me, this was a great step from “amateur” playing. Getting into the sound deeper, getting into music deeper, time, pitch… realizing where I go off… Going beyond the perception of most listeners and trying to perfect performance to this level of understanding. It is not (only) about the fast stuff.  It is (always)  about the right stuff.

VECTOR

Some time ago I seemed to realize that each of us has a position and a vector. People usually measure only their position. In one absolute moment this would be the only thing. But in the ever changing world “vectors” direct how positions change. Don’t observe other people’s vector. Observe your own. Do you explore, do you grow, do you endure in practice? Observe your vector and make it strong. Don’t observe position, it is everchanging. Vector is also changing, but this is something more related to the inner, something you can choose and control. Vector controls the outer.

PAVEL’S TEACHING

Pavel Fajt is a drummer, who I met while he was performing with Ondrej in Autopilote and I was in Prague at their concert. At that time I was playing a lot, but I still couldn’t tie the ends together to turn professional. So I spoke to wise master Pavel who told me in his beautiful Czech accent:

Dudo, if  you want to become a professional didgeridoo player, you have to do three things.

First-website. Second – solo concerts. Third-playing with good musicians.

But First! Website.

And so I did listen to wise Master Fajt,  it was in December 2006 I think, and soon after I sailed off far into didgeridoo waters without ever looking back.

BEING BRAVE

People often wonder where I found bravery to quit my job and my PhD studies to do something so uncertain. But in fact I needed not to be brave, the pull was so strong that I couldn’t resist anyway. I can’ t explain how or why, but I can tell you if you feel this PULL, you will need no courage either. It is probably a matter of constellation and accumulation of energy that has gone through your didgeridoo.  So we go to the last point that hits it in the pupil of bull’s eye.

NOW IS YOUR TIME

I repeat this so many times in my articles since it is so crucial for all the above mentioned variables to happen. You can start thinking too much about how this is all possible, didgeridoo playing and so, creating theories, conspiracies, plans, strategies, but… PLAY NOW, THINK LATER. I had quite difficult start, quite little money. But I played and played… Playing is the only real connection that I have found. The root connection. From playing other connections arise, but they have no meaning to a player without the playing part. And when I say playing, I mean – Stop. Listen. Make a sound. Listen. Make another sound. Listen. Speed up. Slow down. Observe. Intensify. Observe. Every aspect of didgeridoo playing must become alive, we are not machines, we are alive explorers of Kozmos!

Du

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