Didjeridu Tutorial
Circular Breathing
_________________________________________________________________
Lesson Objective
I this lesson you should learn the basic idea of circular breathing.
This does not mean to say that you will be able to circular breathe,
but you will be along the path to getting it.
Technique
First a word about what circular breathing is. As you listen to
didjeridu recordings, you will no doubt notice that the performer
never seems to stop for a breath! Either he or she has a phenomenal
lung capacity or there is a trick somewhere. Being world-wise, I'm
sure you'll all choose the latter explanation. The "trick" is known as
circular breathing. Physiologically its not possible to breathe in and
blow out simultaneously, but it is possible to maintain air pressure,
without blowing, by using your mouth like the airbag of a bagpipe.
With this (small) reservoir of air maintaining the drone, you can
sniff a quick breath through your nose, thus topping up your lungs so
that you can then continue blowing. This process of snatching short
sniffs will, with lots of practice, allow you to play continuously.
It's not easy though, and may well be the trickiest part of learning
to play.
There are many ways for you to learn the basic technique. Each teacher
appears to have his or her own method, so I will try to include all
the techniques I encounter. If you have any ideas, don't keep them to
yourself, they may be very helpful to others, and can be included in
this tutorial.
Ed Drury has the following advice on learning to circular breathe:
* (A) It is helpful to do some strengthening exercises. Droning
while squeezing the cheeks, as described in earlier lessons, will
help. A useful adjunct which you can use away from the didjeridu
is to employ a balloon as follows :
1. Move air back and forth between the mouth and an inflated
balloon by moving ONLY the cheeks in and out.
2. This should produce an audible sound of air quickly moving
back and forth between the balloon and the mouth. Breathe in
and out through the nose as required. Try to complete a cycle
per second. Start with one minute duration and work up to
three minutes.
* (B) Timing. Puff out your cheeks and use your lips to make a small
opening in the center of your mouth as if blowing into a straw.
Try to make a small steady stream of air come out of this opening
using only the air in your cheeks. By placing the palm of your
hand in front of your lips you should be able to feel the air
stream. Breath in through your nose while you are squeezing the
air in your cheeks out.
* (C) Transfer the previous step to the didjeridu. Try to allow your
lips to vibrate loosely so a low short tone is produced. It should
sound something like "harrumph". Now blow the air in your lungs
through your lips letting them vibrate as in the basic drone.
Allow your cheeks to puff out as you run out of air and then
repeat the process from the beginning of this step.
* (D) Continue working with step C increasing the speed such that
the pause between the sound emitted by your cheek squeeze and the
sound of your basic drone decreases. Don't worry about the
transfer between the cheek powered sound and the lung powered
drone being smooth for now. It will come with practice. Just try
to keep shortening the pause until it disappears completely.
* (E) To work on smoother transfers between air coming from your
cheeks and air coming from your lungs, place a straw in a glass of
water. The glass should be only about a third full. Alternating
cheek squeezing and blowing, try to keep a steady stream of
bubbles coming from the end of the straw - breathing in while you
squeeze your cheeks. If you can keep the bubbles going smoothly
with out pause, you are circular breathing.
This is from the London Didgeridoo Society pamphlet:
1. Breathing in through the nose at the same time as expelling air
from the cheeks. Take a sudden swift sniff of air into the lungs,
while you are blowing air out from the cheeks.
2. Create a steady stream of air coming out of the mouth. Most of the
time, the air comes directly from your lungs, but while you are
inhaling, the air is pushed out from the cheeks.
Practice this by placing a finger in front of your mouth and try
to keep a constant stream of air hitting your hand.
During playing :
1. Blow and let lips vibrate, creating a basic drone for about 2 to 3
seconds.
2. Continue to blow from the stomach, but inflate your cheeks, and
draw back the tongue.
3. Continue the vibration of your lips, but use the air in your mouth
by pushing in the cheeks and bringing the tongue forward.
4. Continue to blow, and take in a quick sniff of air through the
nose while doing step 3.
5. Go back to step one.
John Pemble (pemble@duke.iccc.cc.ia.us) had this to say in a digest
posting:
Again Circular Breathing is a term that doesn't literally mean to
inhale and exhale for real. Like a magician performs a trick
(appearing to do one thing but actually doing another), the didjeridu
player appears to be breathing in as he/she breathes out. Storing air
in your cheeks and blowing it out while inhaling a breath through the
nose is what circular breathing, is all about.
Go to a sink where there is a mirror you can see your face and be able
to spit out water. Fill your mouth with as much water as you can till
your cheeks are bulging out (like a Dizzy G. thing). Spit the water
out in a smooth tiny leak like stream and breath in and out through
your nose.
As you slowly (about ten to twenty seconds) empty your mouth of the
water in this smooth little stream keep breathing in and out through
your nose. You are more or less circular breathing, or at least
illustrating the circular breathing technique as closely as possible
without actually doing it.
Do this water exercise number of times, maybe for a few days. Try to
do the same thing using air in your cheeks, instead of water. Slowly
let air hiss out of your cheeks. Do this several times and gradually
increase the amount of air you let of your cheeks.
After a while of doing that try it on your didjeridu. You may get it
right immediately or perhaps in three weeks. While I could circular
breathe on the didjeridu, it took me about a month to do it with any
smoothness.
Also I recommend that on first trying to circular breathe to use a
shorter higher pitched didjeridu. If your bamboo is too long (low) get
yourself some PVC for practice.
Randy Raine-Reusch follows up with these pointers:
* Step 1
1. Fill your mouth full of air, puffing your cheeks. Hold the
air.
2. Breathe in and out through your nose.
3. Still holding the air in your cheeks, empty your lungs
through your nose. I refer to this as part A or "breathe out,
cheeks puffed."
4. Now slowly breathe in through your nose and simultaneously
start pushing the air out of your mouth with your cheeks.
Just as if the air in your cheeks was actually water, it
helps to imagine that it is water.
5. Continue this until you can do it comfortably and you can
with confidence breathe in through your nose while pushing
air out from your mouth. I call this part B or "in nose, push
cheeks."
* Step 2
1. Breathe out of your mouth puffing your cheeks the whole time,
stop anytime, but keep your cheeks PUFFED. (Part A)
2. Now do part 4 of the above technique, that is, breathe in
through your nose, pushing air out from your cheeks. (Part B)
3. Breathe out, cheeks puffed
4. In nose, push cheeks
5. Continue this cycle until it's continuous. If you have
problems go back a few steps, the most important step is part
4 of the first section: breathe in through nose pushing air
out of cheeks. If you can't do this comfortably without
thinking about it you will have great difficulty.
6. You should be able to hold you hand in front of your mouth
and feel a continuous flow of air, granted the pressure may
fluctuate, but you must have a continuous flow of air,
otherwise you are not doing it yet.
* Step 3 (To the didjeridu)
1. The most important factor in circular breathing on the
didjeridu is to first have a good sound. It should be a full
bodied sound so that you not only feel your didj vibrate, but
you can feel the air around your didj vibrate. This should
take very little air, but does require a good amount of
pressure from your stomach. You should not at any time hear
any air coming through the didj, if you do, you are wasting
air and must learn to play with less.
2. Get a good sound on the didj and then start to apply the
circular breathing techniques, (A) breathe out puffing cheeks
and (B) breathe in nose, push cheeks. At first there will
probably be a gap between the two parts, not to worry, this
is normal.
3. Sit in front of the TV with a movie or something that will
grab your attention. Play your didj doing the circular
breathing techniques. It is important that you continually do
the circular breathing techniques although you feel
uncomfortable with them or there is still a gap. Watch TV and
play constantly, ignore your playing just play and watch TV.
The reason I say this is because your brain is you enemy
here, if you are constantly criticizing yourself, it will
take years to circular breath. This is a body thing not a
mind thing and the more you think about it the less it works.
TV as we all know, numbs the mind, so it is an effective tool
in learning didj.
4. You may find that going through all the steps daily will
increase your confidence and understanding of this process.
5. You may also find that all of a sudden it works! You did it
and then it disappears, and you can't find it again. It
disappears because you are looking for it. Don't look, just
do.
6. Again as you start getting the circular breathing on the
didj, there may be a drop in pressure, this also is normal,
the more you practice it the smaller this drop becomes, and
if you really work at it, it can disappear altogether, if you
want.
7. Your breath points now become an important percussive element
in playing, and with practice you will discover that there is
a backbeat to your breath, that is also used extensively.
Some people refer to this as a kind of bounce, although there
are many types of bounces and backbeats.
Have fun and remember to turn off the TV!
Lehwhang@aol.com has this fun idea :
I came up with a useful technique (for me anyway) while trying to get
the circular breathing (which i'm still in the process of trying to
get) that I thought might be useful to learning players :
I found that a good way to practice when you can't get a hold of
anything else is to just make a circle with thumb and forefinger and
put it against the lips. I discovered this on a 3 hour flight. As a
bonus, my bizarre behavior kept anyone from disturbing me while i
practiced. At present, i can keep the breathe going on my finger
circle, but can't do so consistently on the didj itself. This trick is
also useful in showing interested beginners how to make their first
drones.
Common Mistakes
* Thinking that you will never get it.
* Being to casual about getting in air. Sniff with abandon!
* Trying to fill your lungs on the sniff. Short sniffs are what you
are after - there's no time for sedate sniffs.
* Getting dizzy (common) and falling over (less common)! Initially
you will find that you will not be able to get in enough fresh
air, with the result that you will become dizzy. Don't try to push
on. This is not the route to any "Trance State," but is the route
an unconscious flop to the hard floor! Just stop, breathe normally
for a few minutes and relax, so that the balance of gases in your
lungs, and diluted gases in your bloodstream can be restored.
Difficulty
Many experienced didj players will tell you that circular breathing is
really quite easy. This is of course absolutely true as far as these
experts are concerned, but don't be fooled, this is not going to be at
all easy, and you will not master this technique for a long time. By a
long time, I mean a long time, months of playing at least. Do not be
disheartened though, as circular breathing is not an insurmountable
obstacle. You will have a great sense of satisfaction when you
discover that it really is possible, as you snatch your first sniffed
breath! (A few days of frustration will get you to this point). From
there on, its all practice, trying to refine and control the
technique.
Hints and Tips
* Patience. Lots of it. Persevere and you too will wonder what you
found so difficult in the beginning.
* Don't try be cool, calm and relaxed when it comes to sniffing that
breath. Sniff in that air with purpose. You've got to move as much
air into your lungs as possible, and given the short time that you
have to sniff, you want to make every sniff count for a lot. As
you get more experienced you will be able to relax these desperate
sniffs.
* Sometimes even though you are circular breathing nicely, you still
have an urgency to breathe. In this case, try instead to empty
your lungs a bit (yes I said empty) by breathing out through your
nose while you are playing, before taking the next sniff. This
appears to help balance the mix of gases in your lungs, reducing
the urge to breathe.
* If you get the straw blowing into the water thing right, go to a
party immediately and impress your friends (Brian Pertl's
suggestion).
Link to my main page