iDIDJ Australia Didgeridoo Cultural Hub

Ok Guan will do probably won't be until the end of the week though, can't play this time of night here in the Uk, too noisy, neighbours will freak out. Maybe you can give me some tuition when I come over to see you in January.??

Thanks

Paul

No worries Paul, happy to give you some tips. I'm not a teacher or even a player though, lol! But will do my best...

Guan

[quote="ididjaustralia"]No worries Paul, happy to give you some tips. I'm not a teacher or even a player though, lol! But will do my best...quote]

Guan

Not a player??? what I have heard sounds excellent to me, bet there is a lot of "players" who wish they sounded that good, me included, my problem is no practice time and I am still a relative newbie to the yidaki in the whole sense of things. One question in the meantime. To get that throat "wobble sound" at the end of each dhirrl, especially when the player is playing quickly, is it made entirely by the throat as you breath in with no tongue involvement or if the tongue is involved where is the tongue at the end of the dhirrl as you breathe in? is it still up on the roof of the mouth or has it dropped down ready for the next dhirrl??

Thanks

Paul

I think it is done entirely by the throat. The tongue can be either up or down when breathing depending on what effect you want, if you are playing "dhirrl" I think the tongue would be up, but if you're playing "dhirr" the tongue would be hanging mid-air, does that make sense?!

Guan

Hi there !

Concerning the Dhrill.
It's for me one of the hardest sound to get correctly.
I'm no expert at all, but I'll tell you how I see the thing, please tell me if I'm right or wrong.

That retroflex tongue position (cf. M*lk*y's CD) is the same used in throat singing to produce the overtone.

In Jeremy Cloake's new CD (Balanda Yidaki Dhukarr), we hear that overtone when he's just singing the "Dhrill" (without the didj).

As M*lk*y and Jeremy explain and show on their CDs, Dhrill is a tongue movement from interdental tongue position to retroflex position.

From what I understand, the Dhrill sound is really produced in that movement, and not in the starting or ending tongue position in themselves.
I imagine that movement as an excavator's shovel (!!!).
As if the tongue was that shovel that had to bring back the air-flow into the throat, working against that air pressure and letting only a small thin amout pass through.
Or... if we see it the other way : as if the tongue was trying to pull inside your throat the air of the outside (or of inside the didj), a bit like a dog lapping water...
And maybe that last image is the origin for the use of the verb "to pull" instead of "to play" when talking about didjing ?

I don't know if this "imagery" could fit with the Dhrill or if it is way out ? Please tell me...


There also is still something I didn't figure out at all there (neither in throatsinging):
When retroflexing the tongue, does the tip of the tongue touch the palate or is it just close to it without touching ?
Does the air pass only through the sides of the tongue or also a little bit from above ?

Get the Jeremy Cloake CD its explained on there brilliantly

He's already got it Stockie.

Fran6co, the tongue touches the palate in the retroflexed position.

Thanks Kyle !

I can play dhirrl all day long with the quick breath in after each dhirrl, but despite trying various tongue positions /movements I can't get that "sound". I have even been walking around work secretly tonguing Dhirrl,dhirrl etc to try to get the action right and strengthen the movement. I have no problem with the action now and can get a strong flick back with my tongue and even stronger with a thrust from my diaphram but still the lovely throat wobble alludes me. Will try to post a sound file of what I can play and also send off for a copy of Mr Cloakes CD.

Thanks all

Paul

Hi Paul,
I opened a new topic specifically on the "Dhrill".
> it's HERE <