The didgeridoo is an ancient Australian wind instrument. In its simplest form, the didgeridoo is a hollow tube, open at both ends. The didgeridoo player blows into one end, buzzing their lips with an embrochure similar (but not identical) to that of a horn player (e.g. a trumpet player). There are a number of techniques used by didgeridoo players that are unique to the instrument - one of the most interesting of these is "circular breathing," a technique by which a didgeridoo player can play a continuous drone without running out of air. Didgeridoo players also use vocalization to produce different sounds from the instrument.

To the left is a picture of the first eucalyptus didgeridoo I bought, in 1997. I have a much larger collection now, pictures will be forthcoming.

The traditional material for didgeridoos is the Eucalyptus tree. The inner core of Eucalyptus branches is soft attractive food to termites, which hollow up eucalyptus branches. Aborigines would trim these branches, flush them out, and use them as didgeridoos.

I've heard some discussion that the "original" material for didgeridoos was bamboo - obviously, the mostly-hollow nature of bamboo makes it an excellent material for didgeridoos, and there are bamboo groves in some areas of Australia. In addition, much traditional artwork painted on didgeridoos has circumferential bands, painted at about the distance of the "nodes" in bamboo, which some believe is evidence that Aborigines originally used bamboo to make didgeridoos, and as they moved to areas that did not have indigenous bamboo groves, they improvised with termite-chewed eucalyptus.

At any rate, there are a number of materials used to create didgeridoos today - in addition to eucalytus, bamboo, Agave, more common woods like pine (hollowed out with a long drill bit or the cut-and-hollow method), plastic (ABS/PVC, golf club holder tubes, etc.), metal, even glass. I personally prefer bamboo - it's cheap and easy to obtain, and has a very organic sound. I have also made an ABS didg - it cost less than five dollars in materials, and is virtually indestructible (bamboo can be very sensitive to changes in temperature and humidity, and cracks can be vicious to fix). I wrote a page on making bamboo didgeridoos.

"Circular breathing" is a technique used to keep a steady flow of air (and, of course, sound) going, while taking in breaths at the same time.  The basic concept is that you build up a mouthful of air, then close off the back of your mouth and blow out the mouthful of air (think of squirting a mouthful of water) while taking a quick "sniff" of air in through your nose.

The easiest way to get the hang of this technique is to blow bubbles through a drinking straw into a cup of water.  It is much easier to keep a steady flow of air going, and it helps tremendously in getting the timing right.  The timing is the key - you need to take very short, quick sniffs of air.  If you try to take too deep a breath (e.g. a normal breath), you'll run out of air in your mouth before you complete the inhale.   Take short, quick breaths, and when you can do a single "exchange" consistently, work on building a rhythm and regulating your air.  For a long time while learning circular breathing, I would build up too much air in my lungs, and it would start to go stale.  I've learned to regulate how much air I intake to avoid this problem.

Another common didgeridoo technique is "vocalization".  This is where you use your vocal cords to make noise through the didj - speaking, singing, squealing, cooing, or any other noise you can think of.  These noises often sound like animal noises.

I'm still working on these techniques - I have a hard time letting loose enough to be really good at this yet.

Although didgeridoos have started finding their way into a fair amount of popular music (and advertising, for that matter), you need to hear the didj to understand the compulsion of its sound.  Here is a snippet of my own playing (excuse the audio quality, I recorded this in my office on a cheap microphone): (Mono 22.05kHz WAV - 106kB)