Hi, I'm Jesse, and this is our Musical Instruments series! Today,
let's take a look at an instrument that lots of people associate with Australia.
Take a look at this instrument.
What do you think it sounds like, and how do you think you play this instrument? Well,
let me start by telling you this: It's one of the oldest instruments around. It was played over
1,000 years ago by Aboriginal Australians, and very often, it's related to Australian culture. Do
you know what it's called? This is a didgeridoo. Yep, a didgeridoo, and originally, they were made
of wood, but today you can find them made of plastic or metal or glass or other materials.
And as old as it is, you can still hear it in a lot of today's music. Yeah,
you could hear a didgeridoo in a pop song or a rock song, techno music, hip-hop music, and more!
It's a wind instrument. Yeah, with wind instruments,
they make sound when someone blows wind into the instrument. And with a didgeridoo,
it's very important that the didgeridoo player vibrates their lips inside the didgeridoo. That's
what makes the sound, and it's a droning sound, usually a low-pitched droning sound.
But the idea of pitch brings up a question: You suppose a didgeridoo player can change the pitch
when they play the didgeridoo. Well, not really. There are some things a player can do with their
lips when they play the didgeridoo to alter the pitch up and down a little,
but really, it's the size of the didgeridoo that determines the pitch.
A longer didgeridoo will have a lower pitch, and a shorter didgeridoo will have a higher pitch.
That's usually how most instruments work. Let me show you an example with these two instruments.
These are recorders, a different wind instrument. You'll see a shorter one here on the bottom
and a longer one here on the top. Which recorder do you think will have a lower pitch?
Well, let's try here's the longer one. And here's the shorter recorder.
Hear the difference in pitch?
The longer recorder plays a lower pitch. Yeah, and that's how most instruments usually work. Think
about a xylophone. When we play the smaller metal plates, we hear a higher pitch. It's even the same
way with a guitar. When we play on a shorter section of a string, we get a higher pitch,
and if we play on a longer string or let the whole string ring out, we hear a lower pitch.
Yeah, so it's kind of the same way with the didgeridoo. Longer didgeridoo, lower pitch.
Ooh, there's one more thing I want to mention before we hear the didgeridoo,
and that's the idea of circular breathing. That's when a didgeridoo player
breathes in through their nose while forcing air from their cheeks into the didgeridoo. Now,
why would they want to do that? Well, it's so when they're playing, they don't have to stop,
take a breath, and then continue playing. It's a way for them to keep the sound going on
and on. While they're playing, they can force air from their cheeks into the instrument, and at the
same time, they're breathing air in through their nose. It takes a lot of practice. I'm
not so good at circular breathing, but I can let you hear what the didgeridoo sounds like. Ready?