DIDGERIDOOS

History

The didgeridoo is unique in the world of music. The didgeridoo comes from the Australian aboriginal people, who have the world's oldest continuous culture, dating between 40,000 and 150,000 years.

Didgeridoo music has its origins in the mystical Aboriginal Dreamtime. It can be haunting and mysterious, calming and healing, or pulsate with an uplifting of the spirit. It is a remarkable fact that all these feelings, emotions and an incredible range of sounds arise from a simple hollow tube made from a tree trunk.

Artwork

Aboriginal artwork was traditionally utilised in conveying stories of past and current interest. There are generally accepted two major styles.
a. Cross Hatch of Arnhemland in the North and
b. Dot Painting of the Central Desert Region.
Traditionally utilised in conveying stories of past and current interest, an artist may have included his totem animal or may have related to a particular ceremony he was performing.  Alastair is keen to promote not only the traditional spirit of the instrument but  also artists who share this spirit.

Availability

Alastair supplies Superior Didgeridoos for the Professional Musician. This range includes Musically Keyed, Big Holed, Burnt & Carved Ceremonial and range in length from 1 to 2.1 metres.

Alastair concentrates on producing exceptional didgeridoos to give others the opportunity to magnify their playing skills and expand the range and quality of their musical production.  Top quality economy models are still available and a great way to get started.

To help you decide on just the right Didgeridoo for you, Alastair is offering a new on-line service.  He can e-mail you digital photo's of current stock that match your needs.

To help facilitate on-line ordering Alastair also accepts VISA and MasterCard."

To order, drop Alastair an e-mail of your requirements.  With his expertise gained by teaching novices through to working with the experts Alastair will be able to guide you through the selection process to ensure you make the right purchase.

What they Look Like

The following thumbnail images show a few examples.  A larger image of each thumbnail can be seen by clicking on the didg of interest.  As such these thumbnails are optimised for fast web viewing, (ie in reality these didgi's are different lengths).  If using the IE4 browser you can select one of the images below with the right mouse button and chose "Open Link in New Window".  This will open a new browser screen with just the didg, leaving this page still open.   Otherwise click the image, look at the larger graphic and then hit the BACK button on the browser to get back to this page.

What they Sound Like

The sound clips presented below give a very brief understanding of some sounds that can be made by a didgeridoo. The different lengths and types of didgeridoos available generate many varieties of musical tone quality.  These sounds are not properly represented with Web & PC technology due to the need to keep file sizes to a minimum. The uncompressed 36 sec sound clip is over 6Mb in size. To hear a sound clip, click on one of the links below.

PCM format (older + larger), 5 seconds, 84kb

MPEG 3 format, 6 seconds, 14kb

MPEG 3 format, 36 seconds, 82kb

MPEG 3 format drivers are available elsewhere.
The PCM format is more widely available, but doesn't compress so well.