Don’t stop anymore (on the didgeridoo)!

Today, I’m going to talk to you about the importance of playing your didgeridoo for long enough. All of this with one goal: pushing your limits!

If you don’t have circular breathing yet

First of all, if you don’t have circular breathing yet, I suggest you take a look at the free 7-video course on circular breathing.

Three reasons why students stop blowing into their didgeridoo

The main trap I notice in my didgeridoo workshops is how quickly beginners tend to stop. In other words, they play for a few seconds and stop without really knowing why. When I ask them why, I get three answers:

1. I don’t know why I stop.
2. I don’t have enough air, so I have to stop to catch my breath.
3. I have too much air, I’m suffocating, I have to stop.

Reason no. 1: I stop for no reason

Reason no. 2: I run out of air

On the other hand, if you already breathe in often but still run out of air, then you’re pushing the air out of your cheeks too fast. What you play then sounds choppy and a bit dry. So you have very little time to breathe in. In this case, you’ll need to push the air out of your cheeks more slowly. I strongly advise you to watch (or watch again) the videos on circular breathing. Go back to the first videos, where I explain how to make the sound (a very ugly one, I admit!) by pushing the air out of your cheeks. By pushing it out slowly, you’ll get a more comfortable window to breathe in.

Reason no. 3: I have too much air

Generally, the feeling of having too much air comes from the way you breathe. When we start playing the didgeridoo, we tend to breathe with the upper part of the lungs, whereas belly breathing is what we’re after (I talk about it more in my method). We then pull the air in from the shoulders, the nose makes noise, the shoulders are tense, the breathing is “suffocating”. So the feeling of suffocation doesn’t necessarily mean you have too much air. It mostly comes from the way you breathe. In that case, you’ll need to breathe with your belly.

Belly breathing

With belly breathing, your belly swells when you breathe in and pulls back in when you breathe out. Your shoulders don’t move. You can put your hand on your belly to understand this better. Try to feel your belly and stop moving your shoulders. Here is a video by Marc Flandres who explains the principle really well. I couldn’t do any better!

Marc Flandres explains belly breathing. 🙂

I hope these two videos will help you play your didgeridoo a little longer! At first, it’s normal to last only 30 seconds. Then it will become 45 seconds, then one minute, then five…. Practise breathing in regularly and try to keep going over time. You’ll see your circular breathing become smoother and stronger. Your rhythms will get firmer as you practise. Trust yourself, all you have to do is blow!

Happy blowing, and feel free to share and comment if this helped you!