Didgeridoo in Contemporary World

“Of course I know everything about didgeridoo. It is very simple. Didgeridoo is a new age instrument. Played by hippies. It does wau wau sound, but unlike dogs, itโ€™s rather boring.”

“I don’t know much about didgeridoo. Like the world itself, didgeridoo is a mystery. Breath and didgeridoo playing are like one thing.”

We made an extensive survey about didgeridoo among two people you will never meet. But you might meet their relatives which bear close resemblance. In the survey we asked “What do you know about didgeridoo?” and the results are presented as they were given. Here we offer them to your insight and hopeful mind-opening, also by the ancient technique of not taking things too seriously.

didg-in-the-world

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Person 1.
Of course I know everything about didgeridoo. It is very simple. Didgeridoo is a new age instrument. Played by hippies. It does wau wau sound, but unlike dogs, it’s rather boring. It is also played by Aborigines, those ancient hippies. For meditation purposes. Wou wou sound and that. It makes women pregnant. And this is why they are forbidden to play. Didgeridoo can play only one note. It is not really a musical instrument, because you cannot play music on it. Like guitar can. It doesn’t matter that the opposite is also true. What plays on the radio is the law. So this is also why we don’t hear didgeridoo music on radio and festival and such places. Because this one song that exists has already been heard.

Person 2.
I don’t know much about didgeridoo. Like the world itself, didgeridoo is a mystery. Considering the human form it is difficult to imagine a simpler instrument. Something that has less than just one hole.

Since it’s so simple and since it is made of organic material which perishes by time, it’s difficult to know when it really originated, where it existed and how it got to people. For sure it is a part of the Australian Aborigines culture and this is the oldest trace that we know of it… but it could be that Neanderthals played a hollow wooden tube as well. How would we know? Or even older species. Or even humanoid species on other planets, maybe even billion years before us. How can we know? It is quite mysterious in that way.

It is one of the very few instruments that exists in nature, formed by nature, outside of concepts of men. Only some hollow log drums and some whistles come to mind. It is indeed very special for a musical instrument not to be a consequence of elaborate concept.

It is one of the very few instruments that completely excludes the use of hands. Only some overtone flutes and whistles come to mind. Taken that hands are most used tool for human activity, we do all kinds of things with them, we repair a car, we type on a keyboard, we hammer a nail, we pet a snail, we caress our loved ones… and we use them to wipe our butts at the toilet… Mouth, lips, tongue.. are so much more restricted to actions of finer dimension… we sing, we kiss, we make love, we eat, we communicate… so this seems quite special for a musical instrument. Fretless breath powered instrument, hands excluding.

And when we mention breath, it seems that there is no instrument on this planet that includes breath nearly to the point of didgeridoo. The breath and didgeridoo playing are like one thing. Strong breath makes the heavy instrument resonate and enriches the overtones, pulses, accents, textures already found in the body. Usually we don’t hear our body this way as we cannot hear it from the inside. But didgeridoo actually seems to allow us to experience the amazing world, amazing universe of human inner sounds. It really gives form to the breath.

The evolution of unity with breath, as we can see both in ancient and modern didgeridoo players is vast variety and richness of sounds. Textures unheard before. Multi-layered sounds, melodies, rhythms and very complex phrases that leave many listeners in awe. Didgeridoo shows endless possibilities to players around the world, which diverse on the surface of their sound and unite in the core of their breathing.

It seems that didgeridoo has something for everyone. Even people who do not want to be involved in music scene and only want to play for themselves find guidance from didgeridoo into world of strong and balanced breath. It seems that didgeridoo helps with sleep apnea. It seems that it has managed to be successfully applied in sound healing. It seems that it offers a support for meditation, an underlying energy of sound which is like a carpet for the peaceful mind to rest upon.

With all that is mentioned, I see didgeridoo as quite a specific instrument. Not better or worse than any other musical instrument. But very special. And a legitimate question is “why then don’t we see it more in our surrounding?”. I would guess that it is because our society does not support or work with forces of nature. Our society in its majority has quite the opposite approach. Feeling of superiority to nature and a consequent exploitation. A society that could take didgeridoo sound seriously would look very different from that. It is very easy to check as we have (or had) a perfect example. The sacred ways of Aborigines. A society quite the opposite to ours. And since didgeridoo seems to support a certain kind of mindset to those who play it, it is unlikely that we will see or hear much more of true didgeridoo before humanity changes. But have no worry, change is what we are ๐Ÿ™‚

To conclude, I don’t know a lot about didgeridoo. Like many other things, it is a fascinating mystery.

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I hope that our random survey has opened your mind to the wonders of the world who just wait for you to take your chance of “knowing” them.

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2 comments… add one
  • simone February 25, 2016, 09:34

    Dubravko,
    I heard you yesterday in the Klangkeller.
    I want to tell you that the sound of the didgeridoo is still stiring within me.
    I feel very happy !
    Thank you so much for your performance

    PS I was married to Willi Grimm for 30 years, that I wandet to tell you.
    I have the sound of the didgeridoo in my blood

    Lots of love
    Kailani Simone

    Reply
  • Jackson November 27, 2017, 17:56

    I’ve been crafting and playing the didgeridoo for 3 years now. I have to say the entire process is very therapeutic for me.

    Reply
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