Didgeridoo the sound of Australia

Didgeridoo is a wind instrument made from hollow wood of Northern Australia. It is both a pitched instrument and a percussion instrument. It is made from limbs and tree trunks hollowed out by termites or any other insects. The didgeridoo was developed by Aboriginal peoples in Arnhem Land, Northern Australia. It is one of the oldest wind instruments in the world. It’s possibly the world’s oldest musical instrument, as researchers said the first didgeridoo was over 40,000 years old. It is also known that the Mayan people of Central America had a similar instrument. This is one of the popular old instruments proved by at least 45 different synonyms for the didgeridoo.

It is usually cylindrical or conical. It is cut to an average length of 1.3 metres and cleaned out with a stick or hot coals. As it is a pitched instrument, the pitch of the instrument depends on the length of the instrument. Produces a low-pitch, resonant sound. Earlier various techniques are employed to find trees with a suitable hollow, including knowledge of landscape and termite activity patterns, and a kind of tap or knock test, in which the bark of the tree is peeled back, and a fingernail or the blunt end of a tool, such as an axe, is knocked against the wood to determine if the hollow produces the right resonance.

Non-traditional didgeridoos can be made from native or non-native hardwoods, glass, fibreglass, metal, agave, clay, hemp in the form of bioplastic, PVC piping and carbon fibre. These typically have an upper inside diameter of around 3 centimetres (1.2 in) down to a bell end of anywhere between 5 and 20 centimetres and have a length corresponding to the desired key.

The technique to play the didgeridoo is by non-stop vibrating lips to produce the drone while using circular breathing. Tuning a didgeridoo begins with the cut of the bamboo or wood in small portions, so that good pitch can be achieved. Originally earlier it was used with chants, singers with Bilma means Tapping sticks and dancers i.e tribal dance, often in ceremonies. Today the didgeridoo is heard in almost every style of music, rock, jazz, blues, pop, hip hop, electronica, techno, funk, punk, rap etc. There are truly no limits to the use of this awesome instrument.