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.
Re: Learning didgeridoo techniques
Posted: Tue Jan 21, 2025 11:01 am
by BGuttman
Didgeridoo playing uses vocalizations while playing. There are a couple of books about playing the Didge if you look hard.
Re: Learning didgeridoo techniques
Posted: Tue Jan 21, 2025 11:40 am
by 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.
Re: Learning didgeridoo techniques
Posted: Tue Jan 21, 2025 12:50 pm
by 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.
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
WilliamLang wrote: ↑Tue Jan 21, 2025 12:50 pm
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.
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
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.
Re: Learning didgeridoo techniques
Posted: Wed Jan 22, 2025 5:57 am
by tromboneVan
Witnessed one of the performances from this tour in 2012:
Another performance by a master Didgeridoo player:
Re: Learning didgeridoo techniques
Posted: Wed Jan 22, 2025 6:02 am
by SamBTbrn
tromboneVan wrote: ↑Wed Jan 22, 2025 5:57 am
Witnessed one of the performances from this tour in 2012:
Another performance by a master Didgeridoo player:
I played Basstrombone on that tour/recording.
Re: Learning didgeridoo techniques
Posted: Wed Jan 22, 2025 6:13 am
by 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.
Re: Learning didgeridoo techniques
Posted: Wed Jan 22, 2025 7:17 am
by FranzS
For didgeridoo and trombone in jazz I always look to Adrian Mears.
Re: Learning didgeridoo techniques
Posted: Thu Jan 23, 2025 10:37 am
by 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.
Re: Learning didgeridoo techniques
Posted: Thu Jan 23, 2025 4:02 pm
by 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?
Savio wrote: ↑Thu Jan 23, 2025 4:02 pm
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?
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 wrote: ↑Thu Jan 23, 2025 4:02 pm
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?
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
Re: Learning didgeridoo techniques
Posted: Fri Jan 24, 2025 1:32 am
by BGuttman
I think one of the original "teachers" was Art Baron.
Re: Learning didgeridoo techniques
Posted: Fri Jan 24, 2025 10:02 am
by tbdana
Savio wrote: ↑Thu Jan 23, 2025 5:06 pm
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.
