Modern

didgeridoo The didgeridoo (; also spelt didjeridu, among other variants) is a wind instrument, played with vibrating lips to produce a continuous drone while using a special breathing technique called circular breathing. The didgeridoo was developed by ...

design A design is a plan or specification for the construction of an object or system or for the implementation of an activity or process or the result of that plan or specification in the form of a prototype, product, or process. The verb ''to design'' ...

s are distinct from the traditional

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

Aboriginal Aborigine, aborigine or aboriginal may refer to: *Aborigines (mythology), in Roman mythology * Indigenous peoples, general term for ethnic groups who are the earliest known inhabitants of an area *One of several groups of indigenous peoples, see ...

didgeridoo, and are

innovation Innovation is the practical implementation of ideas that result in the introduction of new goods or services or improvement in offering goods or services. ISO TC 279 in the standard ISO 56000:2020 defines innovation as "a new or changed entity ...

s recognized by musicologists.Wade-Matthews, M., Thompson, W., ''The Encyclopedia of Music'', 2004, pp184-185. Wade-Matthews,M., ''Illustrated Encyclopedia Musical Instruments'', 2003, Lorenz Books, p95. Didgeridoo design innovation started in the late 20th century using non-traditional materials and non-traditional shapes. The design changes include features that are similar to more familiar musical instruments like the

trombone The trombone (german: Posaune, Italian, French: ''trombone'') is a musical instrument in the Brass instrument, brass family. As with all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player's vibrating lips cause the Standing wave, air column ...

and natural horn.Didjeribone, Australia Adlib, Radio National,

Australian Broadcasting Corporation The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is the national broadcaster of Australia. It is principally funded by direct grants from the Australian Government and is administered by a government-appointed board. The ABC is a publicly-own ...

br>
/ref> The modern didgeridoo design innovations differ from traditional authentic digeridoos because they are not made by

Indigenous Australians Indigenous Australians or Australian First Nations are people with familial heritage from, and membership in, the ethnic groups that lived in Australia before British colonisation. They consist of two distinct groups: the Aboriginal peoples ...

in a traditional style and do not use

eucalyptus ''Eucalyptus'' () is a genus of over seven hundred species of flowering trees, shrubs or mallees in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae. Along with several other genera in the tribe Eucalypteae, including '' Corymbia'', they are commonly known as euca ...

branches hollowed by

termites Termites are small insects that live in colonies and have distinct castes (eusocial) and feed on wood or other dead plant matter. Termites comprise the infraorder Isoptera, or alternatively the epifamily Termitoidae, within the order Blattode ...

. Some didgeridoo design innovations, like the sliding didgeridoos, are also multi-tonal, unlike monotonal traditional didgeridoos. Like traditional didgeridoos, modern didgeridoo innovations produce a drone sound and are classified as

aerophone An aerophone () is a musical instrument that produces sound primarily by causing a body of air to vibrate, without the use of strings or membranes (which are respectively chordophones and membranophones), and without the vibration of the instru ...

Sliding didgeridoos

The sliding didgeridoo, or didgiphone, uses a telescopic mechanism to create a variable pitch instrument, and can be made from

plastic Plastics are a wide range of synthetic or semi-synthetic materials that use polymers as a main ingredient. Their plasticity makes it possible for plastics to be moulded, extruded or pressed into solid objects of various shapes. This adaptab ...

aluminium Aluminium (aluminum in American and Canadian English) is a chemical element with the symbol Al and atomic number 13. Aluminium has a density lower than those of other common metals, at approximately one third that of steel. I ...

wood Wood is a porous and fibrous structural tissue found in the stems and roots of trees and other woody plants. It is an organic materiala natural composite of cellulose fibers that are strong in tension and embedded in a matrix of lignin th ...

.''Australia - instruments'', Museum of World Music
/ref>

Didjeribone

Invented by didgeridoo player

Charlie McMahon Charlie McMahon (born in the Blue Mountains outside Sydney, 1951) is an Australian didgeridoo player. The founder of the group Gondwanaland, McMahon was one of the first non- Aboriginal musicians to gain fame as a professional player of the ...

, the Didjeribone design is a cross between the didgeridoo and trombone, and consists of two plastic tubes placed inside the other.Didjeribone design
/ref> The

sliding Sliding may refer to: *Sliding (dance), also floating or gliding, a group of footwork-oriented dance techniques *Slide (baseball), an attempt by a baseball runner to avoid getting tagged out *Sliding (motion) See also *Slide (disambiguation) *Sli ...

inner tube creates nine different tones, similar to the trombone mechanism. This enables the pitch to be varied mid-song, unlike traditional didgeridoos. As a result of eliminating the monotonal aspects of traditional didgeridoos, the Didjeribone can be used in horn

concerto A concerto (; plural ''concertos'', or ''concerti'' from the Italian plural) is, from the late Baroque era, mostly understood as an instrumental composition, written for one or more soloists accompanied by an orchestra or other ensemble. The typi ...

s. The Didjeribone has a pitch range from high G to low B. The length is 65" extended, and 37.5" closed. The flared end also gives a brighter and louder sound.

Slide didge

Scott Dunbar independently created a version of the variable pitch didgeridoo instrument called the slide didge in the early 1990s. The slide didge was the world's first commercially sold variable pitch didgeridoo, and Scott later produced the world's first timber slide didge.

Travel didgeridoos

The travel didgeridoos are also called traveller didgeridoo or compact didgeridoos, indicating the compact size originally designed for portability by folding the length of the didgeridoo. They are made from wood, plastic or

resin In polymer chemistry and materials science, resin is a solid or highly viscous substance of plant or synthetic origin that is typically convertible into polymers. Resins are usually mixtures of organic compounds. This article focuses on natu ...

, and are usually monotonal.

Didgebox

The original "Didjbox" was invented by Marko Johnson in 1995. The first production line didgebox was released in 1999. Since then, numerous versions of didgebox have been developed, including the traveler box, obelisk box, didj flute, meditator and mindblower. The didgebox is monotonal and made in the specific keys C, D, and E.

Biking PVC didgeridoo

The Biking PVC Didgeridoo , also named as a Cyclophonica Didge and Bike Didge, was developed by the Cyclophonica Bicycle Orchestra, founded in 1999 in Rio de Janeiro- Brazil. It is built with a number of 50 mm PVC pipe sections and 90-degrees curved PVC connections. The complete length is approx. 1200 mm, producing a steady C drone sound and a G overblowing tone. The construction method includes cutting the cylindrical parts, joining them with the connections and making a "mouthpiece" from the pipe end by heating it up and molding it to better adapt in the player's mouth. The main interesting features are that it can be used while the player is cycling - with no accident risks to the audience or player- and that a trained performer is able to make circular breathing while doing the physical work required for biking with the Cyclophonica

Spiral didgeridoo

The spiral didgeridoo is also known variously as a spiral didge, spiralidoo, didgehorn or snail didgeridoo. Its spiral shape makes it more like a natural horn, and instruments are monotonal in C, C#, D, E, and F. The construction method includes splitting the wood, carving, and gluing back together to form the basic instrument.

Other modern didgeridoo types

A keyed didgeridoo (having keys somewhat like those of a saxophone, allowing the performer to play melodically) was developed in the late 20th century by the U.S. didgeridoo player

Graham Wiggins Graham Wiggins (October 25, 1962 – September 7, 2016) was an American musician and scientist. He played the didgeridoo, keyboards, melodica, sampler, and various percussion instruments with his groups, the Oxford-based Outback and Dr. Didg. ...

(stage name Dr. Didg) and used on his CDs ''Out of the Woods'' (1995) (in the track "Sun Tan") and ''Dust Devils'' (2002) (in the tracks "T'Boli" and "Sub-Aqua"). Wiggins built the unique and somewhat unwieldy instrument in 1990 at the physics workshop of

Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

, from which he earlier obtained his Ph.D. Multidrone didgeridoos have been created by

William Thoren William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of Eng ...

, a U.S didgeridoo player and crafter. The construction method and technique was developed in 2008 that gives a didgeridoo the possibility to produce multiple drone notes on a single didgeridoo. William has designed a larger cup-shaped mouthpiece with a concave face that is close to double the diameter of a regular didgeridoo mouthpiece. This mouthpiece gives a player more room to control the vibration of their lips at frequencies below the traditional drone. The technique is similar to playing pedal tones on a brass instrument. The desired tone is different from that provided by brass, and therefore the embouchure used to play it is different from that used for brass. The most prominent playable note on these instruments is always one octave below the fundamental didgeridoo drone. Several other drone-notes can be played below the fundamental as well, and these correlate with notes that exist in the harmonic series above the drone.

Closed end didgeridoo

The "closed end didgeridoo" was invented by Richard Marquette in 2009. Created by leaving end opposite of mouthpiece closed. Then holes and designs are carved and drilled into the closed end for the sound to flow out.

Celloridoo

In 2015 Aidin Ardjomandi won A’DESIGN Award by inventing a new brand musical instrument, the Celloridoo, which was a hybrid one by a combination of

Cello The cello ( ; plural ''celli'' or ''cellos'') or violoncello ( ; ) is a Bow (music), bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), t ...

and the

Didgeridoo The didgeridoo (; also spelt didjeridu, among other variants) is a wind instrument, played with vibrating lips to produce a continuous drone while using a special breathing technique called circular breathing. The didgeridoo was developed by ...

. The

part of Celloridoo is played with continuously vibrating lips to produce the drone while using a special breathing technique called circular breathing. This requires breathing in through the nose whilst simultaneously expelling stored air out of the mouth using the tongue and cheeks and the

chordophone String instruments, stringed instruments, or chordophones are musical instruments that produce sound from vibrating strings when a performer plays or sounds the strings in some manner. Musicians play some string instruments by plucking the st ...

part is played with a bow. A chordophone needs a Pegbox, a neck and a resonance box, and an aerophone needs a pipe and a

mouthpiece Mouthpiece may refer to: * The part of an object which comes near or in contact with one's mouth or nose during use ** Mouthpiece (smoking pipe) or cigarette holder ** Mouthpiece (telephone handset) ** Mouthpiece (woodwind), a component of a woodw ...

so the pipe under the mouthpiece became to peg box and neck to install finger board on it, and the lowest part of it became to a resonance box to install bridges, holes and keep the strings.

References

External links

* The Didgeridoo - A Guide''

{{Natural horns Natural horns and trumpets Australian musical instruments