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Frequently asked questions - How to play

Read below to see my answers to commonly asked questions, including questions from readers of this web site. If you have any questions that you would like answered here, please contact me on my contact page.

1. How do I make all those different didgeridoo sounds?

Different didgeridoo sounds are made primarily by using your tongue, mouth and cheeks, as well as your lungs, to alter the vibration of your lips on the mouthpiece, and hence the sound that comes out of the didgeridoo. Learn all about the various techniques used to make different sounds on my how to play pages.

2. How do I make those cool animal sounds or the effect that sounds like a kookaburra?

This is quite easily done by using your voice at the same time as you vibrate your lips and drone with the didgeridoo. You can make any vocal sound you like as you vibrate your lips. As you do this, you'll hear your voice mixed in with the sound of the didgeridoo. Surprisingly, it can feel strange at first to co-ordinate this, but eventually you'll get it and you'll be imitating animal noises in no time. For more on this technique, go to my page on vocalising.

3. Jouni, from Turku, Finland, asks: Should I keep my teeth together or apart when doing the very basic drone?

Your teeth don't touch when you are playing the didgeridoo. They stay apart just as they would when you are talking and making sentences. When your tongue is at the front of your mouth and your cheeks are tight, your teeth may be a little closer together than when your tongue is at the back of your mouth and your cheeks are inflated. However, you don't have to think about this. Just allow your teeth to remain naturally apart and concentrate on keeping your lips vibrating as you do the various mouth movements.

4. Shoher writes: I love the magical sound of the Didgeridoo. But I am quite busy and not sure how long it will take to learn playing it. I know that it really depends on how much you practice and about the talent. But would you be able to tell me generally for a normal student how long it takes?

This is a very hard question to answer, because no matter how good you are, there is always more you can learn, just like any musical instrument. So you never really finish learning how to play, you just keep getting better and better. It also depends on what you actually want to learn, how much you practice and how committed you are to learning new techniques and skills. These are variables that will be different for every person and so there can't be just one answer to this question. But this doesn't really help Shoher, so I'll just try and answer the question!

If you just want to learn to circular breathe for your own personal interest, a rough estimate would be four weeks of practicing every second day for half an hour. Of course, this will change depending on the person, but generally I would give it this time frame.

If you want to learn how to circular breathe and play a few simple didgeridoo rhythms to impress your friends (and yourself) at a party, I would say it might take you a couple of months of pretty regular practice before you can do this.

If you want to play a wider range of didgeridoo rhythms using a variety of techniques to impress those friends and family members that are harder to impress, I would give yourself a year of regular practice to achieve this.

If you want to learn how to play fast and complex rhythms (generally the indicator of advanced playing) I think this will take you anywhere from 1 year and up of frequent practice. If you practice less or are less committed to playing, it will take you much longer. Of course, this will vary greatly between individuals so I can't promise this will be relevant to you. Remember that there are many advanced players out there that have been playing for decades. How long did it take them to learn? Who knows? I am sure they will tell you they are still learning.

5. Chris from the Netherlands writes: I'm a beginner player and have just learned to circular breathe. But after a short while (1 to 2 min) I develop a lot of spit and the sound becomes less clear; more like a whirlpool. Then I have to swallow and so the continuation of the sound disappears. What am I doing wrong?

This is a problem that occurs for beginner players but thankfully doesn't last very long. The problem occurs initially because beginners play quite slowly at first, and don't use the whole range of playing techniques. This allows the spit to stay in the mouth where it pools and causes problems.

When you become more advanced, you play faster, and use more aggresive techniques, such as pulsing, tonguing and the horn. Playing faster and using the above techniuqes helps force the spit into the didgeridoo, rather than allowing it to pool in the mouth.

There's not much you can do to limit the problem initially; basically you just have to deal with it, and if you need to stop and swallow, just make a pause that fits nicely into the rhythm and do it then.

You can also try to expel the saliva by using the pulse or the horn techniques. This may help you blow the saliva out of your mouth and into the didgeridoo. Also, don't eat when just about to play the didgeridoo, and limit your water intake at the time of playing.

Most importantly though, I would concentrate on playing faster rhythms and continuing to learn more explosive playing techniques and incorporating these into your rhythms. Once you learn to do this, you should find that this problem naturally goes away. If you want to breathe faster and play faster rhythms, check out my How to Play Didgeridoo PRO, which is available now.

Also, when it happens, don't worry when saliva starts running down your didgeridoo. This is perfectly naturally and occurs in all wind instruments. It is also a useful indicator how much time you should spend practicing, that is, if saliva hasn't run out of the end of your didgeridoo, you haven't been practicing long enough!

If you have any other questions that you would like answered here, feel free to contact me.

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