Didgeridoo

The didgeridoo is a member of the brass (Hornbostel–Sachs 423.121.11). It originates from Australia. Learn how it makes its sound and explore related instruments.

How the didgeridoo makes its sound

In the Hornbostel–Sachs system, which classifies instruments by how they produce sound, the didgeridoo belongs to the brass (lip-vibrated aerophones): the player's buzzing lips set the air column vibrating – trumpets, horns, trombones, tubas and the didgeridoo.

More broadly it is one of the aerophones (wind instruments), where sound comes from vibrating air.

Players shape its sound through technique and materials; the resonating body filters the raw vibration, boosting some harmonics and damping others.

From Wikipedia

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 Aboriginal peoples of northern Australia at least 1,000 years ago, and is now in use around the world, though still most strongly associated with Indigenous Australian music. In the Yolŋu languages of the indigenous people of northeast Arnhem Land the name for the instrument is the yiḏaki, sometimes more recently also called mandapul. In the Bininj Kunwok language of West Arnhem Land it is known as mako.

A didgeridoo is usually cylindrical or conical, and can measure anywhere from 1 to 3 m (3 to 10 ft) long. Most are around 1.2 m (4 ft) long. Generally, the longer the instrument, the lower its pitch. Flared instruments play a higher pitch than unflared instruments of the same length.