Didgeridoo or Didgeridon't


Advertisement
Australia's flag
Oceania » Australia » Western Australia » Perth
April 22nd 2009
Published: April 23rd 2009
Edit Blog Post

SimonSimonSimon

Doing his facial exercises
DAY 166

It is a cool morning this morning, Andy is already out of bed (he has his early hat on again!), I get up at 7.00 and meet him in the camp kitchen, within a second the kettle is on for my morning tea. Andy is busy trying to get some of the photos back up online after the server problems that our Travelblog hosts have had

I bring the breakfast stuff over, no bacon today, just toast and marmite.

We check email and the news of the day is that a friend’s dog died, poor Duke he was a lovely dog, another friend bought a pair of Jimmy Choo’s while holidaying in New York, that is just torture, I ponder on my now grubby pink flip flops (thongs) and wonder if Jimmy Choo makes flip flops, but even if he does they would be pricey so I will have to wait until I am working again.

It has been another busy day, one of chores again, but a necessity, We both needed to visit the doctor, I need to order some contact lens and more importantly Andy will be having a Didgeridoo lesson tonight.
HaroHaroHaro

The dutch guy, cooly blowing his Didge

We drop into the local medical centre, fill out the paperwork and make an appointment for just after lunch today, then it is off to Woolworths for some groceries, then off to the optician to order some contact lens.

I produce my prescription for contact lens that my optician gave to me before leaving England, I order a 3 month supply of contact lens (I brought a six month supply with me from England), they will be a few days, but that is not a problem as we will be back here early next week, if not sooner. However I will be relieved of $228.00 for the privilege slightly more expensive than England, but then I am not really in a position to shop around, this is more for convenience.

After a light lunch we head to the surgery, we are both going in at the same time, Andy needs to get his prescription for his usual heart drugs, but I seem to have developed a problem with my hearing in the last few weeks, since returning from Kangaroo Island, I was concerned that my hearing was damaged with the noise of the corrugations, but there is only
Is it a stickIs it a stickIs it a stick

If it dosn't come back it is
one way to find out what is going on.

The doctor is very nice he is from South Africa and has made Perth his home, he discusses Andy’s condition, checks his blood pressure etc and confirms that all is fine and gives the prescription.

My turn, I explain the issue, the doctor looks into my ears and confirms that they are fine, he also conducts one of those tests with a tuning fork, that is to say that he pings it and I have to listen to the sound and tell him where the sound is coming from.

He concludes that I must have a blockage in there somewhere and prescribes some medication to help clear it. I hope this works as it feels like my head is in a tin can, when there is a lot of noise around me it has become deafening.

$110 lighter from the medical centre we are then into the pharmacy where we are relieved of another $108.00. This has turned into an expensive although necessary day. I believe most of the doctors costs we can have reimbursed but I don’t think that is the case on the pharmacy cost.
EnthusiasmEnthusiasmEnthusiasm

Simon explaining to class


We have a restful afternoon, we are both tired, I fall asleep which is unlike me to sleep in the day, but perhaps that is the tablet that has been prescribed.

At 4.00 we get ready to drive down to Fremantle, we will see how the start of the rush hour traffic behaves in this area, always important if you are thinking of moving to a specific area for work.

The traffic moves and we are soon parked, Andy jumps out to see if we need a ticket, and for the second day in a row a young lady gave us a ticket that had not yet expired. We look but it only has 15 minutes left and as there is no sign on the car park to say when charges are not applicable we decide to buy a ticket for 3 hours, we don’t want to get clamped!

We arrive at Didgeridoo Breath, in we go and are greeted enthusiastically by Sanshi, Andy signs in, we pay $30 and wait for Simon who is going to run the lesson tonight.

Peter Cross, Bruno and Haro join us and Simon begins to explain the origins
More facial exercisesMore facial exercisesMore facial exercises

Simon was so full of enthisiasmit was excellent fun, I may do the 4 week course
of the Didgeridoo along with one of his colleagues, Tony.

Didgeridoo in fact derived from Arnhem Land and somewhere North of the Kimberleys, stating the point that as a matter of fact the rest of Australia had nothing to do with the Didgeridoo or Yidiki as it should really be known.

A German anthropologist who was doing some work around the Arnhem Land area heard the sound and recorded in his dairy that people were playing a long piece of hollowed out wood the sounds were like “Didgeri didgeridoo, didgeri didgeridoo” and thus this musical instrument was renamed as Didgeridoo, which in fact is not an aboriginal word as most of us probably thought.

Up in the North of Australia, you will find that the Didgeridoo has many different names and they come in many different sizes, also shapes depending on the wood and what the termites have hollowed out.

A genuine Didgeridoo has been hollowed out by termites and can be made from many different types of timber such as stringy bark, woolly bark, iron bark, blood wood but to name a few, once the bark is removed and the wood sanded down it is
Peter CrossPeter CrossPeter Cross

He was here due to his snoring
likely that most people will not be able to tell what wood the Didgeridoo is made from.

However since tourism Didgeridoos are now made in other parts of Australia, but in WA you need a permit to cut wood, the conservation parks in Southern WA have problems, they find that areas up to 3 or 5 acres have been flattened by people with chainsaws as they are looking for wood to make Didgeridoos, but these will be chiselled out by hand or drilled out and thus not really the genuine item.

The guys at Didgeridoo Breath support conservation so they won’t buy Didgeridoos from people in South WA, they will only buy from the North of Australia and will go out themselves to find wood that is naturally hollow, with the help of Aboriginal land owners.

People ask how they can justify cost of Didgeridoo but when you realise how many people and how long it takes to find them and then make them the cost is justified.

I am sat here watching 4 people including Andy have a Didgeridoo lesson. What a treat this is, the teacher Simon is a real expert at playing the
The teamThe teamThe team

Us all blowings our rspective Didges
Didgeridoo, and has been playing since he was 8 years old (played on a vacuum cleaner pipe), however more seriously for 5 ½ years. Apparently Simon even at the age of 8 used to snore and kept his family awake at night, however since the Didgeridoo playing he has stopped.

Fact about snoring, playing the Didgeridoo actually can help you to stop snoring, we had this conversation with Peter Cross when we first got here, he is here to practice circular breathing which according to write ups in the British Medical Journal stops the snoring, 4 months of 25 minutes per day the snoring improves because of the breathing. (Peter tells us about a valve in the middle of the throat that has weakened with age; circular breathing should strengthen that valve and therefore remedy the problem of snoring).

(Karen W this is one for you to research “Circular Breathing, Didgeridoo and Snoring”!)

But before all of you that snore rush out and by a Didgeridoo, it is not easy so do get lessons!

Everyone is introduced, Simon (the teacher), Andy, Peter, Bruno and Haro. I am sat listen to a multitude of sounds blown through
Tony ColleyTony ColleyTony Colley

Enjoying the Cameraderie
these pipes of wood.

Simon picks out each person and just discusses technique, put your lips out like you are going to kiss someone, make the sound better by bringing your cheeks in a little bit. Peter seems to be struggling so Tony pulls him out to do a one on one session with him.

The guys here are really nice and they are very passionate about what they do and you can really feel that passion, if you want to find out about them and Didgeridoo’s look at www.didgeridoobreath.com.au

Haro is Dutch and has been backpacking and working his way round Australia for about 18 months now, he bought a Didgeridoo last week and now he is playing it!

Andy, Bruno and Peter are using a pipe with a piece of plastic at the end for the lips to rest on and Haro uses his own Didgeridoo. We have a Didgeridoo that we bought on our last trip out here, but it is in storage back in England, perhaps if Andy is any good at this we can buy another and if we need the money I can send him out to do some busking.
TonyTonyTony

Toney is one of the owners of Didgeridoobreath wat a shop


The lesson is really good and interactive, I was asked if I wanted to join in but I declined as my mouth is still very sore and healing from my recent fall on Cradle Mountain, somehow blowing into a tube for 1½ hours is not appealing and not worth the pain.

They try the Kookaburra sounds (Koo’s and Kaa’s), it sounds amazing! If you could hear everyone in the class make the sounds and then try to transfer the sound through the didgeridoo it really is quite funny.

Before we know it we are through the sounds of Dingo’s and Kangaroo’s and now they are practising spitting and breathing (this technique is the circular breathing bit).

I am exhausted and I am only watching these guys. Peter asks if I am recording anything, I said not but did threaten to spin the webcam into action and put it on Youtube.

Simon, relays a story that everyone now plays the sounds that they have learnt this evening in the hope that a tune comes out of it, Simon plays it first so that we know what we should expect, the sound is truly fantastic.

“In
SimonSimonSimon

Taching us how
outback Australia there are two kangaroos one big one small”

The guys all play the sounds.

“The little one followed the big kangaroo, boing, then they stopped as they could hear wild dingos screaming and barking so they turned around and hopped the otherway, boing, the Joey followed, boing boing, but they stopped again as they came across a man made construction of a road busy with cars buses and trucks, they found a break in the traffic so hopped across the road, boing boing boing boing. The Joey followed and they all hopped safely into the sunset boing.”

Simon then played a slightly twisted version, which again sounded, excellent but not so good for the little Joey! This time adding some truck air horns into the sound.

And so the end of the lesson and now we need to find some dinner.

We have a chat with everyone afterwards; Peter gives us some tips on travelling up North, mainly suggestions of what not to do when there are crocodiles around, such as don’t fish in the same place more than twice as the crocs will remember where you are and will wait to ambush
in stockin stockin stock

A great stock of beautiful Digderidoo's behind him
you. Don’t sleep on the beach and don’t walk on the beach at dusk. Some more useful tips and also suggested some places to visit on the way up that should not be missed.

We left Fremantle at around 8,15 and went to back to camp, picking up pizza and pasta on the way, as we would not have time to cook.

The weather has really turned cold tonight, so our extra blanket will be a blessing.

Straight after dinner we went to bed exhausted again after a full day.



Additional photos below
Photos: 15, Displayed: 15


Advertisement

ConcentrationConcentration
Concentration

Peter visualising hisbrething


Tot: 0.049s; Tpl: 0.015s; cc: 6; qc: 24; dbt: 0.0238s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1; ; mem: 1.1mb