Origins

The didgeridoo of the Australian Aborigine comes in many different shapes and forms today but traditionally it is suggested that it was made from bamboo. The origin of the didgeridoo is not accurately known, though some research indicates its birth may have been as recent as one thousand years ago.
(World Archaeology-vol 12, no 3, Alice Moyle).

Bamboo Didgeridoos

It is possible that termite hollowed trees were used in pre-colonial times but the evidence suggests that bamboo was the predominant original material. The fact that bamboo didgeridoos were quite common among northerly groups in the Northern Territory during the last century is confirmed by the word 'bamboo' which is still used in the lingua franca by some Aborigines when referring to the instrument, though 'didgeridoo', (didjeridu, didgeridoo, didgeridu) may be gaining ground.

Some observations on 'three very curious trumpets' made by R.Etheridge Jr. in 1893 are quoted for consideration in this context as they refer particularly to instruments of bamboo. Etheridge writes that:

'…..[the trumpets] are made from bamboo lengths, the diaphragms having been removed, probably by dropping live coals down the tubes. The bamboo, I am informed by Mr. Stockdale, grows about the Adelaide River over an area of about one hundred miles by fifty, and reaches to a height of eighty feet, Mr. J.H. Maiden tells me there are two bamboos indigenous in Australia, Bambusa arnhemica and B.moreheadiana, the latter a climbing species and only one or two inches in diameter.'

The suggestion here is that the first didgeridoos were of bamboo and an article in Smith's Weekly also supports this view
1919 Smith's Weekly (Sydney) 5 April 15/1

'The Northern Territory Aborigines have an infernal - allegedly musical - instrument, composed of two feet of hollow bamboo. It produces but one sound - 'didjerry, didjerry, didjerry - ' and so on ad infinitum.. When a couple of niggers started grinding their infernal 'didjerry' half the hot night through, the blasphemous manager decided on revenge.'

Because of the availability of bamboo in the north-western region of the Northern Territory, the first didgeridoo players may well have belonged to that region.

Pre-colonial Distribution of the Didgeridoo

There is also evidence that the didgeridoo may have originally been more wide spread than just in the northern regions of Australia.

Some evidence for this is to be found in the literature on central Australian groups. Spencer and Gillen (1899) refer to a "rudimentary trumpet" (60cm. In length) called ilpirra or ulpirra.

"This was used by Aboriginal men as a magic charm for obtaining wives. C.Strehlow (1908: 77 and Teil IV,p.15) shows illustrations of the tjurunga ulburu and the karakara, the latter used in an Aranda Itata, or public celebration in which women participated. T.G.H Strehlow (1947: 78-9) writes of a 'low toned wooden ulbura trumpet' used by southern Aranda people on the Finke River. The instrument is pictured representing the neck (rantja) of a venomous snake 'playfully "biting" a novice from another Aranda group' (picture facing p. 89). Eylmann (1908) refers to wooden and bamboo trumpets; and his illustrations include a 'Trompete der Waramunga', that is of a desert group in area" 

Playing the didgeridoo can be very beneficial to the health. Lung capacity and efficiency can be improved, while great benefits can be gained from the revitalizing effects that circular breathing has. Asthmatics in particular are significantly benefited by the health giving properties of circular breathing when playing the didgeridoo. The energy boost and revitalization resulting from ten or twenty minutes of playing can be experienced by anyone and is especially noticeable when the player has been feeling lethargic or tired from too much or too little activity.

Extra breathing and lung activity increases the oxygen supplied to the body, similar in effect to exercise. The sharp breaths through the nostrils act to clear out the nasal cavities, thus eliminating excess toxin-carrying mucous. During the creation of rhythms your diaphragm muscles are actively used and exercised. Also, this active use of the diaphragm muscle aids in toning up the stomach externally. 

Didgeridoo playing also has the ability to reduce stress levels and elevate the mood giving a sense of well-being and achievement, as mastery of this unique instrument is achieved.

The Didgeridoo Linked to Sleep Apnoea and Snoring Cure.

The time has finally come for the didjeridu to become a more widely accepted instrument! The emergence of recent research, linking the didgeridoo to sleep apnoea and snoring cures, has put this unique Australian icon on a sales footing "set to explode" as one recent Australian newspaper article put it. (1)

"Snoring and obstructive sleep apnoea are two highly prevalent sleep disorders caused by collapse of the upper airways." (2) This results in the sufferer gasping for breath, snoring loudly, snorting and constantly waking up. Daytime sleepiness, an increased risk of stroke, heart attack and high blood pressure are all associated with the condition-as are the rising costs they create in the workforce! This disorder costs industry millions, makes our roads less safe and even affects the sufferer's partners with disrupted sleep.

"Reports of didgeridoo players experiencing reduced daytime sleepiness and snoring after practising, led experts in Switzerland to test the theory that training of the upper airways by didgeridoo playing can improve these disorders." (3) Their findings were quite amazing: "Regular playing of the didgeridoo reduces daytime sleepiness and snoring in people with moderate obstructive sleep apnoea syndrome and also improves the sleep quality of partners. Severity of disease, expressed by the apnoea-hypopnoea index, is also substantially reduced after four months of didgeridoo playing." (4)

"Deep beneath the tidal wave of consumerism is the true, grass roots of the didgeridoo, a musical instrument that is versatile, functional, easy to learn and unique in ways unseen in other musical instruments across the world."

During the past decades the didgeridoo has become a worldwide phenomenon as a tourist item. Any visitor to Australian shores cannot avoid them and there are almost an infinite number of different shapes, colours, types and sizes available. The trend has been catching on internationally too, but mainly in the tourism and souvenir sectors only. Now, with the emergence of this new research, the didgeridoo is likely to be taken seriously by a whole new and much larger demographic, looking to benefit from the health giving properties it offers.

Didgeridoo playing has always been good for the health and this latest finding is just another hidden asset we have discovered about the instrument. Playing has long been known to possess ability to reduce stress levels and elevate the mood, giving a sense of wellbeing and vitality. Circular breathing is one of the key factors that achieve this. Vibration of the lips (a sensitive area for nerve endings), the audible effect of the soundwaves and also their physical effect, are further contributors to the instrument's ability to de-stress and revitalise the player. The energy boost and revitalization resulting from ten or twenty minutes of playing can be experienced by anyone and is especially noticeable when the player has been feeling lethargic or tired from little or too much activity. Some of the physiological effects include increased lung capacity and efficiency (up to double in some cases), oxygenation of the body and brain, and the elimination of excess toxin-carrying mucous.

The extra breathing and lung activity that occurs during playing because of circular breathing increases oxygen supply to the body and helps to expel mucus build up in the lungs (similar to the effect of exercise). Sharp breaths through the nostrils act to clear out the nasal cavities, thus eliminating excess toxin-carrying mucous. During the creation of rhythms, the player's diaphragm muscles are actively used and exercised. Furthermore, active use of the diaphragm muscle aids in toning up the stomach externally. Asthmatics and smokers in particular are significantly benefited by the health-giving properties of circular breathing.

"There exists no other musical instrument which so closely relies on nature to create its unique sound characteristics."

The didgeridoo is also very easy to learn to play, and the sense of achievement gained as one learns is another positive, healthy factor-a positive mental outlook and attitude has great power to keep the immune system active and therefore prevent illness.

Contrary to popular myths, the basics of playing a didgeridoo are extremely easy to pick up. Within any area of learning, imagination, time, energy and money are usually the only limitations to a lifetime of learning, and with the didgeridoo it only takes 3 half hour didge lessons* for the foundations of competence to be laid down.

Once the basics of didge playing have been learnt, (such as getting the drone note and learning to circular breathe), the musician is able to let their natural rhythm kick in and their imagination go. The incredible versatility of the didgeridoo means it can be played with almost any style of music and can be varied to suit many different instruments within those styles.

Playing the didgeridoo can be a great alternative to drugs, not only for sleep disorders, but also in the areas of respiration, vitality and mental attitude just to name a few.

*This information is based on a tuition program curriculum developed by 'Echo Tree' and is currently being used in Australian schools and private tuition with great success.

(1). Sydney Morning Herald,
(2). Milo A Puhan, Alex Suarez, Christian Lo Cascio, Alfred Zahn, Markus Heitz, Otto Braendii. Didgeridoo playing as alternative treatment for obstructive sleep apnoea syndrome: randomized controlled trial.
(3). British Medical Journal.
(4). Milo A Puhan, Alex Suarez, Christian Lo Cascio, Alfred Zahn, Markus Heitz, Otto Braendii. Didgeridoo playing as alternative treatment for obstructive sleep apnoea syndrome: randomized controlled trial.

"The didgeridoo represents the true spirit of Australia 
and if the earth had a voice it would be the sound of the didgeridoo."

"Traditionally, an Aborigine would go into nature and listen intensely to animal sounds, not just voices but also the flapping of wings or the thump of feet on the ground. The Aborigine would also listen to the sounds of wind, thunder, trees creaking, and water running. The essences of all these sounds were played with as much accuracy as possible within the droning sound of the didjereedoo. For the Aborigine, the observation of nature immediately requires a state of empathy, which leads to an imitative expression." 

Ref
Voices of the First Day
Published by Inner Traditional

Playing the Didgeridoo Will Make Your LED Clock Display 'Float' or 'Vibrate'.

Next time you are playing your didgeridoo have a look at your microwave clock or any other LED type digital display. You will find that it does strange things! This is not because it actually is, but because the vibrations caused by the instrument are also causing your skull to vibrate. This vibration interacts with the 50 cycles per second that your LED clock is flashing at (because of the AC current that is supplied by the electricity supplier). The resulting effect is similar to the one you have probably seen on TV when another TV or computer screen is shown and is seen to 'roll' or jump around. Another similar example is also on TV when a spoked wheel appears to be going backward when we know full well that it isn't.

While Playing the Didgeridoo it is Possible to Levitate a Light Object in Front of the Instrument.

While playing the didgeridoo you can try your trick with a very thin piece of paper (like a cigarette paper), a small piece of tissue or a feather. After you get a constant note, get a friend to hold the paper in front of the bottom end of the instrument, right close to the opening. It will hover and vibrate at the end of the didgeridoo! It's a good way to practice a smooth drone while circular breathing, and an interesting way to introduce the didgeridoo into conversation!

Sound is actually a compression wave that travels through the air at about 340 meters every second. When the didgeridoo is blown, these waves are traveling down the inside of the instrument and coming out the bottom end. Vibration of the lips creates this sound and the speed at which they are vibrated governs the pitch that is made. The didgeridoo gains a distinctive and stronger sound when its 'harmonic' or 'resonant frequency' is reached. The resonant frequency of a particular instrument is created by the formation of a 'standing wave' along the length of the hollowed section of the didgeridoo.

For any given didgeridoo there is more than one resonant frequency. This is because the formation of harmonics is a mathematically governed process which is directly related to the length of the instrument used. The longer the didgeridoo is, the lower the note it will produce.

Below you will find diagrams and mathematical formulas that will give a more in depth look at the physics of standing waves in closed tubes - a didgeridoo becomes a closed tube when played.

Standing waves can occur in any wave medium that is enclosed, including the air. For the latter, we can produce standing sound waves, responsible for the rich tones from brass and woodwind instruments, and organs. Of equal importance, standing sound waves within our vocal tract are the basis for producing our voice for others to hear. There are both similarities and differences between standing waves on a string and standing sound waves in a pipe. We will first emphasize the differences, which are most pronounced when we consider a pipe of length L, that is open at one end and closed at the other. Later, we will look at a standing sound wave in a pipe that produces a very similar harmonic series of frequencies as those from a stretched string.

Standing sound waves in a pipe or didgeridoo, open at one end and closed at the other end, differ from standing waves on a string. First, there is an obvious difference in the wave medium. For the latter, the leftward going and rightward going traveling waves that are superimposed to form the standing wave pattern are transverse displacements of a string. For standing sound waves, the wave medium is typically air, and the waves themselves are longitudinal, corresponding to regions of compression and rarefaction of the air. A second important difference is how the traveling sound waves are reflected at the two ends of the pipe. At the end of a pipe open to the air, the pressure at the end of the pipe cannot oscillate. Instead, it is fixed at the ambient pressure of the surrounding air. This is completely analogous to the fixed end of a string; in other words, at the open end of the pipe, the standing sound wave pattern must have a node. The situation is different for the closed end of the pipe. Here, the pressure can vary; in fact, for the standing sound wave, the air pressure oscillation at the closed end has its greatest amplitude. In other words, there is an antinode in the standing sound wave pattern at the closed end of the pipe

For the fundamental standing sound wave, there is only a single node at the open end of the pipe. At the closed end, there is an antinode. The wave pattern looks as drawn below.

The next highest frequency is produced by adding a single node to the standing wave pattern for the fundamental. The nodes and antinodes of the resulting pattern are spaced evenly through the tube, starting with a node at the open end and ending with an antinode at the closed end. The resulting standing wave pattern is shown below.

We can repeat the rules discussed earlier to find the next standing wave mode for a pipe. We add a node to the standing wave pattern of the third harmonic, and demand that the nodes and antinodes are evenly spaced along the length of the tube. The resulting pattern looks like:

There are probably over 50 different synonyms for the didgeridoo. Some are bambu, bombo, kambu, pampuu, (may reflect didgeridoo origins from bamboo), garnbak, illpirra, martba, Jiragi, Yiraki, Yidaki, (seem close dialectically and which means "bamoo" although no longer commonly made from bamboo).

The table below details more names with their tribal groups and regions also listed:

Did you know that termites are the reason for the unique sound of the didgeridoo?

When termites (sometimes called 'white ants', which is not actually technically correct!) hollow out the centre of a didgeridoo, hundreds of channels and irregularities are formed. This alters the resonance of the didgeridoo creating the unique sound that represents the spirit of Australia. The resonance is altered because sound waves react with the irregular surface inside the termite hollowed instrument. Many overtones (like ripples in a creek when the water runs over shallow pebbles) are created; giving a full harmonious and warm sound that is 'multi-layered' in its characteristics.