The 5th Element of Didgeridoo Playing

The four elements

For many years I teach in workshops how to balance your power by knowing in which way it is distributed. What I noticed is that our playing power is distributed in 4 directions. Recently I made a video about it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbs0b216seY

The fifth element!

But after I made a video about it, I realized that there is another aspect of power which I did not mention. And that isĀ  ENDURANCE. You can only endure for a certain amount of time certain intensity. To give you an example. If you can play at 200bpm for 15 seconds, doesn’t mean that you can play in the whole song. Or if you can play fifth toot fresh, that doesn’t mean you can do it in a song, after you played already 5 minutes of it.

Training

I propose two different kinds of training.
Specific:
Realize where you fail in a song with endurance and extend that range for a while. To continue on the examples from before, if you cannot play at 200bpm the song that lasts for 3 minutes. Build up the endurance 5 by 5 seconds and come to 4 minutes. Or if you cannot play 5th toot after 5 minutes of playing, train to play toots after 6 minutes of playing.
General:
Play 4x15minutes at HIGH intensity with 1 minutes break in between. Too hard? Start with 4×5 minutes with 3 minutes break, increase the time of playing, reduce the time of rest.
OR
Play 1x 30min and build up to 60 min at moderate intensity and no breaks.
Both specific and general endurance will help you feel comfortable when you play a concert, and you will be grateful to yourself that you did your homework!
Keep didgin!
– Du
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