Making a Didgeridoo

A didgeridoo is a funny sort of instrument that while you may have no idea what it is, you've probably heard it at least once on TV without knowing it. Since the recent challenge question involves a didj I thought this would be a good time to post how I made one.

I own three didgeridoo's, only one of which I made. Although the one I made is the worst acoustically, it's the most fun to play. One of other the didgeridoo's I own is from Australia and was purchased at a music shop; this didj has a nice deep sound. My other didgeridoo is made out of bamboo. I think this one is the easiest to play and the sound it makes is satisfactory.

In Australia a didgeridoo is not really made, but found and fine-tuned. Some trees in Australia have soft cores that are hollowed out by termites. All one has to do is to find a hollow tree, clean it out, cut it to the right length, and add a mouth piece. Didgeridoos can also be made out of a solid branch. This involves cutting the branch in half length-wise, hollowing it out, and gluing it back together again. Although I would like to do this project someday, it's not the way I made my didj in this blog.

The didgeridoo I made is not your typical one, and I doubt an aborigine would approve. It is made out of two pieces of PVC pipe which slide in one-another so you can adjust the length while you play. This type of didgeridoo is referred to by a few names, including slide didge and didjeribone. Being able to change the length of a didgeridoo allows you to change the note you are playing, something a normal didj is not capable of. Despite most didj's only playing one note, it's amazing the range of sounds you can get out of the instrument.

Getting two pieces of PVC pipe to slide together was not as easy as I had hoped. I searched the hardware store for two pieces that fit well but was unsuccessful. What I ended up finding was two pieces of pipe that were close in size but the inner one was slightly larger. I then placed the smaller tube on a lathe and slowly sanded it down until it fit. Once the two pieces slid together I glued a PVC coupling on the smaller pipe to act as a mouth piece. To make my didj a little more interesting I heated and bent the end of the larger pipe into a wavy shape. The purpose of this was to cause the sound to be scattered and give the instrument more depth.

Included are sound clips of myself playing the bamboo, and Australian didgeridoo, if you listen to the slide didj you can hear the note change.