“Gauthier, I play every day, but I feel like I’m going round in circles…” If you knew how many times I’ve heard that sentence! At workshops, in private lessons, in the messages I receive… It keeps coming back. And I understand it so well. Once you’ve found the basic sound and your circular breathing is more or less in place, you find yourself a bit alone with your tube. You blow, you replay the two or three rhythms you know by heart, and you wait patiently for something to happen.
And yet, very often, the time you spend on the instrument isn’t the problem. It’s more the way you use that time that deserves a moment’s attention. So in this article, I’m sharing a practice routine with you. It fits into 20 minutes and four steps, each with its own little reason for being there. You’ll see, it’s nothing complicated, but when you understand why you do things, the didgeridoo gives it back to you a hundredfold.
Sound and breath, the two pillars of your playing
Before we talk about exercises, let’s set the scene. Everything you play rests on two things: a clear sound, which makes your rhythms easy to hear, and a regular breath, which brings them to life. If one of the two falters, the whole thing limps. So each step of the routine below helps both of them grow together: a step forward for the sound, a step forward for the breath.
And since we’re talking about routine, let me repeat a piece of advice I’ve been giving for years: it’s better to play 10 minutes a day than 3 hours every two weeks. The didgeridoo is about dexterity, of course, but above all it’s a whole set of muscles (lips, tongue, cheeks, breathing) that need regularity to develop gently.
The 4-step didgeridoo practice routine
Step 1: warm up gently, at a slow tempo (5 minutes)
Pick up your didgeridoo and start calmly, with a slow rhythm, around 50 bpm. No need to look for complexity, a very simple pattern will do perfectly. What matters here is the quality of the sound. Let your in-breaths space out a little (you need to feel comfortable) and use this time to listen to your drone: is it clear, stable, well settled? Does it come back cleanly after each breath?
At a slow tempo, you have all the time in the world to hear the moment your sound starts to slacken… and to catch it.
And on the days your didgeridoo stayed at home? There’s an exercise that William Thoren passed on to me. He’s one of the best American players, and he has taken sub-vibrations very far. Simply make your lips vibrate, without the instrument. Without a didgeridoo, there’s no cheating: you have to squeeze properly to keep the vibration going. In the car, out walking, doing the washing up… you just have to accept looking like a bit of a daydreamer. 😉
👉 I show you this exercise on video in the article An exercise to improve without your didgeridoo.
Step 2: speed up little by little, without stopping (5 minutes)
Once your sound is well settled, speed up little by little, up to about 100 bpm. Your in-breaths become shorter and more frequent, and the whole challenge is to keep the same sound quality as at the slow tempo. Above all, don’t stop at the first sign of fatigue: it’s by carrying on playing, right at that moment, that you build endurance. Thirty seconds at the beginning is completely normal!
👉 If your sound collapses along the way, I’ve gathered my tips (and the video) in Does your didgeridoo sound fade as you play? Here’s how to stabilize it. And if it’s air you’re running out of, read Keep playing: why beginners stop on the didgeridoo again.
Step 3: work on one technique, one organ at a time (10 minutes)
Now that you’re nicely warmed up, it’s time for technique! Here there’s only one rule, but it changes everything: work on one organ at a time. When you play “a bit all over the place”, everything moves at once (lips, tongue, throat, belly) and the sound quickly turns into a merry mess. So you isolate. The tongue, for example, with “t” and “k” tongue attacks. Then, the next day, you add a thin new layer, as if you were building a millefeuille. And always, right from the start, with the breathing: it’s the breath that sets the sound in motion.
👉 I explain everything, step by step, in The good habit that will help you progress on the didgeridoo
A metronome or a pair of clapsticks can also be a great help to feel the pulse (I talk about it in Why is the use of a metronome essential when playing your didgeridoo?).
Step 4: let yourself breathe (5 to 10 minutes)
The first three steps call on analysis. The fourth is the exact opposite, and it’s just as precious: letting your body play.
Take a very simple, easy rhythm, and breathe regularly. Then, without stopping playing, come back down into your body. Your shoulders first: have they crept up? Your neck, your face… and that little space between your eyebrows, the one you frown without realising as soon as the didgeridoo resists you a little (or even in everyday life, come to think of it!). Release everything. The only tension to keep is in the corners of your lips. And if you’re still a bit tense, play at half your power: you’ll often gain in nuance.
Then, listen. But really listen, deeply! Because in the end, which of the two of you has more to say? Listen to the sound of your breathing, to what happens between two breaths, just before, just after… There are sounds there, in the background, waiting for just one thing: for you to bring them a little more to the front. Play with the timbre, let your tongue slide from an “a” to an “i”, then to an “o”, in a gentle gradient. If something is already moving a little, move it a little more. No need to search with your head, simply follow your sound.
And if nothing comes? Speed up! On the didgeridoo, don’t hesitate to play fast. Turn up the speed knob, still breathing in on every cycle, with shorter, closer in-breaths. You’ll see, when you speed up, something quite natural happens: your WON can turn into a WA, a TON becomes a waon… without you even meaning it to.
Then watch what comes: you might start adding your voice, a low voice that comes to support the sound… Sometimes without even noticing! Other times, it’s the wobbles that arrive and want to unfold. Don’t hold them back, follow them. What will limit you most is your wish for control 😉. By the way, if you want to understand where wobbles come from, I explain everything in my free course on wobbles.
This is where the four steps come together. What your body discovers on its own in step 4, you can then observe, understand and work on in step 3. This back and forth between intuition and analysis is, for me, the whole key to learning the didgeridoo (I talk about it here, in the explanation of my method).
👉 To go further, read the article (with the video): Letting go on the didgeridoo: a 3-step method
The little bonus: record yourself
Once a week, record your step 4. A phone is more than enough. When you listen back, you’ll discover lots of things you wouldn’t have heard while playing (it’s not easy to know what’s really coming out of our piece of wood!): a sound that tires, breathing that’s a bit too noisy… but also, sometimes, a brilliant rhythm idea that would otherwise have flown away. If you want to go further, Adrien details his setup (recorder, microphone, headphones) in his article How my Zoom H4n helps me progress with the didgeridoo.
When you’re going round in circles anyway
There are times when nothing comes any more. It happens to me too, don’t worry! In those moments, I go looking elsewhere: I listen to a lot of didgeridoo, I pick bits from rhythm videos… and I come back to step 4, which I make a little longer.
👉 My three ideas, in detail and on video: Stuck in a rut on the didgeridoo? 3 ways to find new rhythms
How long does it take to progress on the didgeridoo?
Ah, the famous question… Hard to answer, it varies so much from one person to another! For circular breathing, I can still give you a rough idea: with progressive exercises and regular practice, most of my students find it within two weeks to a month. Some in a few days, and very rarely, almost instantly.
And above all, remember this: if you manage to keep going, even with a little “gap” at the moment you breathe in, then you’ve got circular breathing! The rest is just a matter of breaking it in, a bit like a yoga pose that softens session after session.
For everything that makes your playing rich, your sound, your own world, the path is longer, and that’s a good thing. It took me about twenty years, fed by meetings with other players, to really understand what was happening in my body when I blew. But long doesn’t mean boring, quite the opposite: that’s the whole joy of the journey.
Frequently asked questions
How long should you practise the didgeridoo each day?
Ten minutes a day is already very good. Regularity counts far more than duration: ten minutes every day will help you progress more than three hours every two weeks. If you have 20 to 30 minutes, the four-step routine above is ideal.
Can you progress without your didgeridoo?
Yes! The lip vibration exercise without the instrument can be done anywhere, and it builds exactly the muscles you need for a stable sound. Listening to didgeridoo also helps you progress, because it’s much easier to reproduce what your ear already knows.
Why does my sound get worse after a few minutes?
Most often, it’s the pressure escaping after you’ve puffed out your cheeks for circular breathing. Squeeze the corners of your lips again right after each breath. A good firm attack (“to”, “ko” or kouf) can also help you put your lips back in place. And keep playing anyway, that’s how endurance is built.
Do the straw and the glass of water work for circular breathing?
I don’t particularly recommend it. Water offers very little resistance compared to a didgeridoo, so the exercise doesn’t train you much. Progressive exercises directly in the instrument are far more effective, like the ones I offer in my free course on circular breathing.
To conclude
Progressing on the didgeridoo isn’t necessarily about playing more, it’s about playing with a little more attention. Warming up gently, speeding up little by little, taming one technique after another… then letting it all go and listening to what the instrument has to tell you.
And promise me one thing: stop saying “I have to practise my didgeridoo”. Say “I feel like playing my didgeridoo” instead! 😉
Everything I share with you here took me more than twenty years to understand, through meetings, workshops and many hours of blowing. If you’d like to move a little faster along this path, that’s what my online courses are all about. If your circular breathing is still fragile, The art of the didgeridoo will give you solid foundations: a clear sound, breathing that becomes an ally, and your first rhythms. And if you’ve mastered circular breathing, The secret of the 7 breaths will help you step out of your habits and discover the full richness of the 7 breaths!
And you, what does your routine look like? Share it in the comments, it will surely help other players. Happy blowing!
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