Learning didgeridoo techniques

[tbdana]

Okay, this is gonna sound weird. Well, okay, weirder than my usual weirdness.

I want to learn the gimmick of causing the trombone to "speak" words and sentences. I believe that the process begins by developing fluency in making didgeridoo sounds on the horn. Does anyone have a good resource for learning how to make didgeridoo sounds correctly and well? Or a resource for "speaking" with the trombone?

Thanks.

[BGuttman]

Didgeridoo playing uses vocalizations while playing. There are a couple of books about playing the Didge if you look hard.

[Kbiggs]

Stuart Dempster wrote a book ages ago, The Modern Trombone: A Definition of It’s Idioms. It was all about extended techniques including didgeridoo effects, as well as multiphonics, tongue slaps, etc. In the first edition, the book included a sound sheet (remember those?), but later editions had a CD.

I believe Mattie Barbier and William Lang here on TC are pretty familiar with modern trombonisms and extended techniques. Hopefully, one of them will chime in.

[WilliamLang]

Multiphonics are definitely the key to speaking effects and didgeridoo. Didge players also circular breath quite well!

I've been working with them for a long time in contemporary repertoire contexts, and Mattie is quite experienced in them too. They're fun, and it's a really open world where the surface has just been scratched.

My partner Jen Baker, who is an amazing experimental trombonist and also a great didgeridoo player, wrote a book on multiphonics specifically - https://jenbaker.bandcamp.com/merch/hoo ... ltiphonics

She's used them on her solo CD Blue Dreams, which was all original multiphonic compositions, and in lots of other places, including Werner Herzog's documentary Encounters at the End of the World

She also has some tutorials online:
https://jenbakersounds.com/Tutorials-on ... honics.php

[tbdana]

Multiphonics are definitely the key to speaking effects and didgeridoo. Didge players also circular breath quite well!

I've been working with them for a long time in contemporary repertoire contexts, and Mattie is quite experienced in them too. They're fun, and it's a really open world where the surface has just been scratched.

My partner Jen Baker, who is an amazing experimental trombonist and also a great didgeridoo player, wrote a book on multiphonics specifically - https://jenbaker.bandcamp.com/merch/hoo ... ltiphonics

She's used them on her solo CD Blue Dreams, which was all original multiphonic compositions, and in lots of other places, including Werner Herzog's documentary Encounters at the End of the World

She also has some tutorials online:
https://jenbakersounds.com/Tutorials-on ... honics.php

Wonderful, thank you. Does Jen do the speaking technique, and will she teach it to me?

[ghmerrill]

Long ago and far away, when I was much younger, and much much before I had self-absorbed into the Borg of low brass, I used to do some of this:

https://saxschoolonline.com/articles/2- ... axophone/

I haven't tried it on a trombone and am not inclined to. I think some years ago I tried it on a tuba and it was kind of interesting.

[tromboneVan]

photo_2025-01-22_07-46-07.jpg

Stuart Dempster wrote a book ages ago, The Modern Trombone: A Definition of It’s Idioms. It was all about extended techniques including didgeridoo effects, as well as multiphonics, tongue slaps, etc. In the first edition, the book included a sound sheet (remember those?), but later editions had a CD.

[tromboneVan]

Witnessed one of the performances from this tour in 2012:


Another performance by a master Didgeridoo player:

[SamBTbrn]

Witnessed one of the performances from this tour in 2012:


Another performance by a master Didgeridoo player:

I played Basstrombone on that tour/recording.

[sf105]

Great thread. When I used to do more of that stuff, Stuart helped me get started (he was on a tour that came through Manchester). One thing I found is that working on the vocalisation side helped me understand my "straight" sound.

[FranzS]

For didgeridoo and trombone in jazz I always look to Adrian Mears.

[VJOFan]

Play a sustained low Bb at a moderate volume- mp/mf.

Slowly and deliberately make your oral cavity take on and transition between the vowel shapes: AAAAAAA...EEEEEE.

Somewhere in the middle you will find harmonics popping out that you are not singing. You will also hear how the vowel sounds are actually audible like a voice.

General's Speech is probably the most literal "speaking on the trombone" piece you can get. It uses a combination of vowels, split tones, multi-phonics and just vocalizing through the horn to create a facsimile of speaking.

[Savio]

I don't have a clue what didgeridoo is. An instrument, circular breathing, speaking into the trombone? Or the voice of the Charlie Brown teacher?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDwqaMbrBME

Leif

[BGuttman]

I don't have a clue what didgeridoo is. An instrument, circular breathing, speaking into the trombone? Or the voice of the Charlie Brown teacher?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDwqaMbrBME

Leif

Didgeridoo is an Australian Aboriginal instrument that is basically a hollowed out tube about a meter long. It makes that droning sound you usually hear in movies.

Charlie Brown's teacher "talks" through a trombone with pixie mute and plunger.

[Savio]

I don't have a clue what didgeridoo is. An instrument, circular breathing, speaking into the trombone? Or the voice of the Charlie Brown teacher?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDwqaMbrBME

Leif

Didgeridoo is an Australian Aboriginal instrument that is basically a hollowed out tube about a meter long. It makes that droning sound you usually hear in movies.

Charlie Brown's teacher "talks" through a trombone with pixie mute and plunger.

Thanks Bruce!

Dana want to learn the Didgeridoo "technique" so I got curious what that technique is. Charlie Brown's teacher is amazing. I think we all tried it? Who did play that speaking voice?

Leif

[BGuttman]

I think one of the original "teachers" was Art Baron.

[tbdana]

Charlie Brown's teacher is amazing. I think we all tried it? Who did play that speaking voice?

Leif

I could be very wrong about this, but I think I remember hearing that Dean Hubbard did it.