Hi, I'm Vijay Khurana.
Welcome to My Australia, the show about people from overseas having Australian experiences.
Coming up today
Rif learns a traditional Australian musical instrument,
Priya helps some disabled kids have fun on horseback
and Raisa and her mum pamper themselves on a girls' day out.
If there's one instrument that you think of as being truly Australian it would have to
be the didgeridoo.
Indigenous Australians have been playing it for thousands of years but how easy is it
to learn?
Rif is about to find out.
All right, so how can I help you today?
Rif is 22 years old and comes from Bangladesh.
He met his girlfriend Priya in Malaysia and they both came to Sydney to study.
Rif recently completed a media degree at Macquarie University and got a temporary job working
in a call centre with Datacom.
Good morning.
You've reached Datacom.
My name is Rif.
Can I please start with your first and last name?
He and Priya know a lot about cardboard boxes.
So far in Sydney they've moved house eight times.
At the moment they live in a flat with two girls from Norway.
We work at the same place so that's one of the main things.
We also come back home watch the laptop, go down to the shopping centre, the Macquarie
Centre, watch movies.
Yes, she loves window shopping.
I can't like ... some of the times I will be tired and I want to go home but she will
drag me to every shop.
I guess all girls do that.
Every day at the gym for about two hours I do about an hour's worth of martial arts and
another 45 minutes of weights.
My main interest is just keeping my body looking good, that's the main interest so that's what
it started off as.
And nowadays, after like, ever since I was a kid and I watched Brue Lee I've really been
into martial arts so that's the main thing.
It's just martial arts and weight training.
Right now I'm not playing as much guitar as I would normally do but I'm working more on
electronic music production, because it's much simpler.
I can just put on my headphones and be on the computer.
Whereas the guitar I'd have to set up the whole amplifier and people would get annoyed
with me.
Well, the main reason I want to play the didgeridoo is it just sounds awesome.
It sounds like some alien noise basically.
And the time that I saw them playing it they were playing it with some techno beats.
I'm pretty into that kind of music now so should be pretty fun.
And plus it's a big part of Australian culture I guess.
It is the only instrument that is completely Australian.
I just want to learn it, just sounds really interesting.
There was a lot more to it than I thought there would be.
I mean the guys ... his breath control was just awesome and I think it's gonna be a lot
harder than I thought it would be.
But yeah, should still be a little bit of fun I guess.
Should be a lot of fun.
G'day Rif.
How's it going mate?
My name's Dave.
Hi.
Nice to meet you.
That's the didge you'll be using.
Yeah.
Looks ... looks ...
That's an F.
That's an F?
Yeah, this is an E so we actually gonna go up on the Botanical Gardens here and get you
started on a lesson.
Here looks like a nice spot.
Yeah.
Didge is mainly for corroboree.
It's also was used for hunting as well, like to call out birds or to call out certain animals.
The didgeridoo, is that an Aboriginal word or not?
No, no, didgeridoo is an Irish ... a Gaelic-Irish word, which means black person playing a pipe.
It's actually didgeridof, is the Gaelic-Irish word.
Traditional, proper traditional name is yirdaki.
Yiraki?
Yeah.
You want to really relax your lips, just let them wobble.
Just like 'pfpfpfpfpfpfpf'.
Ppfpfpfpfpfpfpf.
Yep, so, tight, you compress your mouth in there so that no air can escape, in or out,
then just blow nice and soft.
That'll be the first noise is just the drone.
So it's just
See that there's just too hard so you'd pull back a little bit and just ...
Yeah, so you're getting it straight away.
Sounds like you're getting the drone there.
I think straight would be the most comfortable.
Yeah, that sounds like best for you.
So it's like pfpfpfpfpfpfpf.
Yep.
Trap your lips inside so that no air can come out and yeah, just blow soft.
And keep trying it a cou ...
Yeah, there you go.
That's just right.
You're doing that cool.
You've done something in five minutes that people can't do in a whole day.
Thanks for that.
So that's a good start.
That's cool.
All traditional songs normally go to a heartbeat.
All of them so that's what it was.
So it was like
And, if you're drooling,
Yep.
you're doing the right thing.
The breathing is really, really hard to get.
That's the hardest part.
The hardest part is the breathing, the circular breathing.
I mean there are a few little tricks to it.
My first didgeridoo lesson was actually pretty fun.
Dave was an awesome teacher.
It's a lot harder than I thought it would be specially the breathing technique.
It's just, I don't think I'll get it within a year or so, something like that.
It's really, really hard to do.
We had that little trick with the glass and there was a straw in it so the trick was to
try and keep the bubbles going,
by exhaling, trying to keep the bubbles of water constant.
And there's one point where you run out of breath and you're supposed to trap the
the air in your cheeks and do a really quick, sudden exhalation and breath in at the same
time and that's just incredibly hard.
This is the hardest part of playing a didge, which is something that'll come through.
I can see why.
That's it.
Where to from here?
I think I gotta get myself a didge.
That sounds like a plan.
Personally one of my best students coz he listened and I didn't have to say anything
twice.
He did really well for a beginner to get down what he did get down.
I'm gonna jump on and do just a little bit of busking and during the song Rif's going
to jump in and have a little go himself, just have a little drone along with me.
Pretty much just accompany me.
Just to show people that, at the end of the day, all you need is to relax and have a bit
of confidence and anyone can do it.
Ah, I'm a bit scared and a bit nervous.
I don't think I'll be able to keep up with those guys
but yeah, I'll give it a go, give it a go, see how it goes.
Not bad ladies and gentleman, this guy has just finished his first ever lesson.
And he did quite well.
Cool, thanks for that man.
That was awesome.
No, you were great.
One of my goals when I came to Australia was actually to busk - not just busk, to actually
jam with some Australian musicians and it does not get more Australian than this.
Rif did pretty well there don't you think?
I tried to do that circular breathing exercise.
It is impossible.
Now it's fair to say that disabled children don't always get the same opportunities as
other kids
but Priya is about to lend a hand with an organisation than aims to change that, with
the help of some friendly horses and a bunch of volunteers.