Learning To Play
The Didjeridu
(Section Four)
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Learning To Play |
Your Hall Didjeridu is made from Pyrex® glass. It has been kiln-annealed to remove all heat stresses and to permanently fuse the decoration to the glass. While the utmost care and the best quality glass have been used in manufacturing your didjeridu, it is still fragile and needs to be handled with care. When not being used, the didjeridu should be stored in its protective case. When playing your didjeridu, never rest the end on any hard surface. A computer mouse pad makes a great didjeridu rest. It is padded and waterproof and can be purchased at most office supply stores for about five dollars.
The decoration is kiln-fired and is completely washable. You can use glass cleaner or a solution of dish washing detergent to clean the surface. I have found that the easiest way to clean the inside of the didjeridu is to spray some glass cleaner inside it, and then turn on the shower and place the wide end of the didjeridu over the shower head for about 10 seconds. It’s Pyrex® so you can use warm water. Towel dry the outside and use a Hall Didjeridu Cleaning swab to dry out the inside.
When playing, the moisture from the lungs condenses on the inside surface of the glass. While the moisture will not harm your didjeridu, occasional swabbing will improve the tone. A special Hall Didjeridu cleaning swab is available.
I would like to thank the members of the “Didjeridu List,” a forum maintained by Toyoji Tomita, and “Dreamtime The Didjeridu W3 Server,” a web site dedicated to information related to the didjeridu maintained by Sean Borman for their vast help during the design phase of the Hall Didjeridu, for their responses to the glass didjeridu survey, and for their help in beta testing the product. They have allowed me access to the opinions of many accomplished didjeridu players and helped me find just the right sized mouth hole that would be preferred by most didjeridu players. If you have access to the Internet, links to “Dreamtime The Didjeridu W3 Server” and information about “The Didjeridu List” can be found at our world wide web site:
Hall Crystal Flutes has hand-crafted quality glass musical instruments since 1974. The following are available from your Hall Crystal Flute dealer.
Hall Crystal Flutes:
Hand-crafted Pyrex® glass transverse flutes using a six hole fingering system and Boehm taper produce a tonal range of two and a half octaves. They are available in the following sizes:
Recordings:
Hall Crystal Flutes, Inc. maintains a world wide web site for product support, instructional information, dealer listings and links to information pertaining to the flute and didjeridu. Our web address is: http://hallflutes.com
The following is the notation used by the author. You can use it to record your ideas for future use or to share with others. The notation consists of a main phonics line to record the words of the rhythm, an upper line to record breath marks and voice marks, and an optional base line to record the timing.
Breath Line:
v Breath position
0--- Voice same pitch as didjeridu
5--- Voice 5th above didjeridu
8--- Voice octave above didjeridu
0=8 Pitch glide octave to octave
Phonics Line:
|:text:|3x Repeat “text” 3 times
duu Lowercase word - unstressed
Duu Uppercase letter - accent letter
JEP Uppercase word - accent word
[text] Enclosed “text” is voiced
<Tu> Enclosed “Tu” is in the second octave
du - wee Continued sound
du ~ wee Continued sound with vibrato
ha’ ha’ Staccato - short quick pulse
^w Cheek squeeze as in “ga^wit”
r-r-r Rolled “R” sound as in B-r-r-r-r
wee = uu Vowel glide
duu... Sustained tone
Timing line:
w whole note
w. dotted whole
h half note
h. dotted half
q quarter note
q. dotted quarter
e eighth note
e. dotted eighth
s sixteenth note
s. dotted sixteenth
^ triplet
q_q Two quarters tied
Didjeridu Songs from Around the World
Catch the Pigeon
Chris Peckham, Cambridge, UK
"Although quite a beginner, I thought I would submit a rhythm line that I came up with recently. It's not very difficult, but I like it because even without any "outward" vocalization you can hear the sound of the words on the drone if you enunciate them carefully. because even without any "outward" vocalization you can hear the sound of the words on the drone if you enunciate them carefully."
v
|: Catch---the---pij---Jin---Hu-^wit:|
q e e. e e s
Circular breathing
Ken Scott, Suttons Bay, MI
"I find it fun and helpful (taking the focus off of 'trying' to Circular breath) to mouth out words or small sentences, with deliberate breaks after word or sentence, which turns the exercise into a rhythmical sound experience. In time and with practice, this type exercise has led me to circular breath."
v v v v
Did-jeri-du Did-jeri-du Did-jeri-du Did- jeri-du
v v v v
I love you I love you I love you I love you
Leah Cole
Mark Piton, Toronto, Canada
"My daughter Leah loves your "Rabbits and Frogs" which I play with a bounce. Her name, Leah Cole, makes a nice phrase into which I mix doublet and triplets while I tickle her belly with the end of my didj. From day one when she was new in our house I would play "Leah Cole" repeatedly to her slowly over and over until she fell asleep. For us the key to this very simple pattern it to make her name as sharp as possible so Leah knows I'm talking to her, to make the jaw drop as big as I can, and to use her responses to her name and the doubles and triplets (the tickle lines) to make up the tune by mixing (1), (2), and (3)."
j v j v j v
|: Le=ah Cole... Le=ah Cole... Le=ah Cole... :| (part 1)
q q w q q w q q w
v8-------------------
|: [ Ti-ka Ti-ka Ti-ka ] :|(6x) (part 2)
e e e e e e
v8----------------------------
|: [ Ti-ka-ta Ti-ka-ta Ti-ka-ta ] :|(4x) (part 3)
^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^
When Crocks Dance
James Hall, Rochester, WA
v
|: Dew-dee-you Dew-dee-you Dew-Dee-Dew-Dee-You :|(2x)
q q q q q q e e e e q
v
|: Gaa-^Wee-uuu Gaa-^Wee-uuu Dew-Dee-Dew-Dee-You :|(2x)
q q q q q q e e e e q
8----
hu-hu-hu-hu haa haa haa haa hee Hee’ Hee ’Hee’ [JUP’]
e e e e e e e e e e e e e
Kangaroo dreaming © 1996 - James Hall
Hall Crystal Flutes, Inc
17220 Sargent Road SW, Rochester, Washington 98579, USA
Customer Service: 800-231-2499 Phone: (360) 273-6216; Fax: (360) 273-6217
Email: sales@hallflutes.com
World Wide Web: http://www.hallflutes.com
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