American Idol Discovers the Didgeridoo a Decade After I Did

When American Idol contestant Crystal Bowersox took to the stage to perform "Come Together" with a didgeridoo player, I suspect that in living rooms across the United States, people were grumbling, "didgeri-what?" But not, I'm pleased to report, in my living room. (Crystal Bowersox's performance with a didgeridoo is available on Youtube; you can find it here.)

I had my didgeridoo moment about a decade ago, in an antique shop that more honestly should be called a junk, perhaps junque, shop. As I was leaving, I saw, leaning against the door frame, a hollow wooden tube about a yard long. I picked it up and asked the clerk if I could blow the didj. She shrugged, and after wiping the tube off, I held it to my mouth. I produced a clean, even drone. The clerk looked surprised. "You're the first person that ever got a sound out of it," she said.

Some months before, I had discovered didgeridoos in a flea market-the first time I had ever seen the ancient Australian instruments which I had marveled at on a couple of CDs. The didgeridoo is simple; really it is just a wooden tube. The traditional Australian aboriginal didj is made from a small tree trunk hollowed out by termites, but those at the flea market were from Indonesia and made of bamboo, and the one in the antique shop was of thick carved wood. I started to buy one at the flea market, but at that time, I didn't have a clue to how to play it.

At home, I found quite a few didgeridoo links on the Internet, even an assortment of instruments as well as instructional books and videos on eBay. It is an elegantly simply instrument: one presses one's mouth to the mouthpiece and blows a "raspberry"-maybe not so elegant, after all. The tube resonates and amplifies the sound. The didgeridoo has no holes, stops, keys, valves, slides or anything else. In five minutes you can learn how to get the basic drone, but I suppose you could spend a lifetime learning the breathing techniques and the movements of lips and tongue used to create various sounds.

In a couple of weeks, I owned a video and a book and a couple of weeks later, I bought my didjeridoo-a bamboo one. (You can try this at home, with a piece of PVC pipe or even a cardboard tube.) After watching the video a couple of times, I took a deep breath and produced a noise which made me wonder if didgeridoo means "sounds like the kangaroos have been in the beans." Very soon, however, I got my low, even drone and discovered that the mysterious didj does indeed have a healing effect: it vibrates so strongly that it can open your sinuses.

So, it surprises me tonight to think that I was one up on the always up-to-something-new Crystal Bowersox on American Idol. You can find many didgeridoo videos on Youtube. Here is one to get you started.

Sources:
Wikipedia article on didgeridoo
"The Physics of the Didgeridoo"
"The Digital Didj" (an earlier article on my experiences with the didgeridoo)