Learning to breathe properly via ‘Circular Breathing’ is also beneficial to ones health. Breath is drawn into the chest and abdominal cavity creating, at the same time, a rhythm.  Such breathing techniques and rhythm induce within the human body a relaxed or more excited state, taking one out of the mind and into what can only be described as an ‘altered state’.  It is a state of total absorption:  At - One - with the instrument.

Some people play the didge over peoples body for healing.  No doubt there is some effect of the vibration on the body as each body part or organ must have a resonant frequency.  However, I think that listening to the didgeridoo can be more powerful on the effect on your health, if you happen to ‘like’ its sound. Here it has a more psychological effect.

From my point of view, as a player, you can feel the vibration of the didge inside you when it is played.  So, you can feel certain frequency or vibration, which feels good and beneficial.  But also the feedback of its sound into the ears is very powerful and so the two together create a very absorbing feeling.

When you listen to music you don’t just feel its vibration in the body because your ears translate those sounds into the psychological dimension of feeling/emotion. Though, the lower frequencies are felt more by the human body which is why if you go into a night club with deep bassy dance music you will feel that inside your body! Music can have a great healing effect on us, whether it is something more melancholic or more jolly.

This also applies to didge music or the sound of a didgeridoo. For some it is a horrible sound, for others - wonderful. It can even be challenging to the conservative fixed mindset that the didge sound might grate on.  After all, there is a ‘primal’ sound to the didge (yidaki) that can transport us into ‘another world’.

I think its important that although the sound of the didge can be challenging to people it may not be appropriate for all and may not always have a healing effect.  Certain things work for people. For me it feels so good to play, I become completely absorbed (not always) into this marvel of sound. So I think the most powerful healing or health effect to be had from the didgeridoo is to actually learn to play it! Then you get all the positive effects of the vibration: on the inside of the body, from the psychological feedback through the ears and via the circular diaphragmatic breathing.

When playing the didge, breathing into the diaphragm is far more healthy than breathing into the top part of the lungs.  People who breath into the top part of their lungs (off didge) may show signs of tension or anxiety, so it follows that this upper chest breathing will not be good for the didge player.  Babies naturally breathe through the diaphragm, as you can see their belly rise and fall. They have no tension at this age.  But once life takes hold with all its stresses and strains tension begins to show whilst ones breathing may suffer.  So, diaphragmatic breathing is the way to go in daily life along with didge playing.

It is quite interesting to note that when you circular breathe on the didge for, say, half an hour, it actually gives you some cardiovascular fitness. I have not done any scientific measurements as such but I know this to be true from my own experience of daily playing.  So, it is possible to become breathing fit by didgeridooing.

Simple yoga breathing techniques can also improve your health along with increasing the power and endurance of your didgeridoo playing.  This will inevitably rub off onto your didge playing, which is what I have certainly found.  If you tend to breathe through your chest only, yoga breathing will help you to breathe into your diaphragm. In yoga there is also the complete breath which is simply to fill both the diaphragm and chest with air. However, it must be remembered that any form of breathing practise like this needs careful attention as over doing it in any way can strain the breathing department and cause problems. So if you want to practise some yoga breathing it is advisable to contact a yoga instructor, and the benefits are worth it.

To be continued...

Health & the Didgeridoo

In the beginning a ‘drone’ sound is created by the simple use of breath and vibration of the lips applied to the mouthpiece. The didgeridoo vibrates at a certain frequency depending on its length and other constructional features. The vibration also feeds back into various parts of the human body creating a pleasant sensation, which can have a healing effect.

A lower vibration, say key of B, produces a deep, more meditative feeling, being at a lower frequency; whereas a higher vibration, say in key of F, will produce a more energetic, exciting feeling when played. The type of didgeridoo that you play may therefore depend on the mood you’re in or the mood you wish to create.