Recently a friend Ankush who attended a show at a local pub called Zenzi, where an unknown person called DaveJ would be playing the Didjreedo. I was a tad bit interested in going to the event but the place was not my cup of tea, but thanks to Ankush who recently started playing the Didge, he met DaveJ who was willing to meet him to teach few tricks for playing the didjeridu.

The Didjeridu or Didgeridoo:

Let me start with what the Didjeridoo is, before we move on to DaveJ. The Didgeridoo is originally an Aboriginal instrument from northern Australia. It is an integral part of their ceremonial life, as it accompanies singers and dancers in religious rituals. The rhythm of the didgeridoo and the beat of the clapsticks are precise, and these patterns have been handed down for many generations.

Not only was the Didj used as a musical instrument in ancient times, it also made a decent weapon because of its length and light weight. Apart from being used for war calls to intimidate the opposing side it was used as a large smoking pipe, where local, hallucinogenic cacti were crushed and placed in the larger opening and smoked through the smaller end by the local elders after ceremonies.

Didgeridoo Benefits:

In 2005 a study in the British Medical Journal found that learning and practicing the didgeridoo helped reduce snoring and sleep apnea, as well as daytime sleepiness. This appears to work by strengthening muscles in the upper airway, thus reducing their tendency to collapse during sleep.

What we have realized that the vibrations emitting from the Didjeridoo have a very calming and meditative effect. The sounds emitted have a very broad and deep spectrum, the vibrations resonate in your body causing a very nice effect, you can read about the Didjeridoo Meditation in detail over here. I have embedded a video on the same as well, enjoy take a deep breath close your eyes and enter the DidJ world.

Heres another interesting didj meditation video.

About DaveJ:

DaveJ is an Australian didjeridoo artist seeking new ways of combining his passions for the didjeridoo and electronic music. So we were fortunate to meet a humble DaveJ who spent some time on the beach teaching Manas and Ankush the Didjeri ropes.

He plays the Didjeribone, a recent innovation based on the Didjeridoo, it is a PVC slide didjeridoo that can be used to play rhythms, riffs and melodies in up to 10 keys. It gets its from the combination of Didjeri, from the didjeridoo and bone from the trombone

The Didjeribones advantage as compared to the didjeridoo is that apart from the "drone" of a Didjeridoo the bone enables the player to change notes. Since it's light weight it can be played in while standing, sitting, dancing and even running! When its closed it is only 90cms long which makes it easy to travel with.

When DaveJ is perfomring live his sounds from the Didjeribone are amplified using an earthquake sensor called the ‘Face Bass’. Real-time sampling and looping technology allows DaveJ to perform as a One Man Didjeridoo Orchestra, creating rich multi-layered soundscapes live on stage.

Here's a video of DaveJ performing Minor Madness.


DaveJ also gave us a spectacular end to the evening when he played two Didjeribones at the same time. The dual didj acted like two channels allowing some massivt panning, all four of us present were quite impressed, he gave us a little story of someone who would run around playing two Didjeribones at the same time, I can image the level of fitness required to do something like that, definetly not an easy task.

Would like to thank DaveJ for entertaining us for the evening, unfortunately due to the low light conditions on the beach a video was impossible, even the photography was hampered as it was a blind point and click with the flash on maximum output.

Another video of Ankush playing the DidJ focus is on his face, for you to see the circle of breathing. To play continously, breathing and playing is the first and most important lesson of playing the Didgeridoo.

Plastic versions of the Didjeridoo are available at Bhargawas at Bandra in Bombay, priced at around Rs.900 to Rs.1,500 to start you Didjeridoo therapy. The wooden ones are no longer available, lets hope they come back again in the future.

You can watch DaveJ's video diary of his trip to India 2008, this was his second visit here, it was shorter than his last one which was two years ago. He spent five months in India at that point of time.