Didgeridoo Making - How It Is Done

Didgeridoos from WorldMusicalInstruments.com are hand-crafted, one-of-a-kind instruments made by Tree Thump Didj Co. that not only create the unique didj buzz, but are also finished to last a long time. Here's a brief look at the didgeridoo production process of turning a tree branch into a beautiful, long-lasting musical instrument, the didgeridoo:


Tree branches are selected for the didgeridoo production process. These didgeridoos are made in Illinois, so are made from limbs of pine, poplar, or birch trees.


The bark is removed and the branch is shaped and sanded, then split in half, ready to be carved.




Branches are carved to specifications to create didgeridoos in various keys. After carving, the two halves are glued back together and coated inside with a protective resin and hung to dry.


A final sanding, then finishing artwork and/or stain are applied, followed by a glossy protective resin coating. What was once just a tree branch is now a custom didgeridoo!


Please note: Since the didgeridoos hang to dry, there may be some hardened resin drips at the bell of the didgeridoo as pictured here, which in no way impact the great didj buzz:

Presentation on the Maintenance of Chinese Musical Instruments

We were invited by recently by the Ministry of Education(MOE), Singapore to give a talk to secondary school students leaders of various Chinese orchestras on how to maintain and protect their Chinese musical instruments.

We starting giving such talks to teachers and students a couple of years ago and it quickly became a yearly affair.

Usually the talk is one of the programmes of a music camp organised by MOE for student leaders from the various secondary school Chinese orchestras.

The talk starts with a presentation by Tan Kim Seng- one of the founders of Eason Enterprises, followed by a breakout session whereby students are split into string, plucking and wind sections. The old dude one the left is Tan Kim Seng and yours truly is on the right.


Below is Mr Er, a music instructor for not the Erhu as his name suggests, but Chinese wind instruments like Dizi and Sheng(Chinese pipes). He is one of the few people in Singapore who can repair the Sheng. He gave some tips on how to do simple repairs on the Sheng.


And that's me speaking to a group of wonderful students from the string section on things like maintenance and setting up - the various aspects of the erhu except how to play it.


This is Mr Ng, one of the people from Eason. Besides knowing how to wipe the Yangqin, he plays and teaches the Yangqin as well, along with the Liuqin, Pipa, Guzheng and Ruans - well, almost every instrument in the plucking section.

I'm surprised many of the students who play Chinese musical instruments have blogs. I have added some of their blogs on the right.

I have also added a cbox on the right. It is a sort of message board so feel free to leave me a message. Please refrain from posting viagra ads or related stuff. The profile of my readers clearly is not your target audience.

Duduk Tips for Ghamish Reed

This post provides tips for working with the ghamish reed for the Professional Duduk:




Make sure ghamish is open before playing. If it is not completely closed you can blow warm air through it to get it to open a little more so it will play better. If the ghamish is completely closed, you can do one of three things:

- make sure cap is on and run some warm water into the bottom (open) end, shake it with your finger covering the hole and then pour out. Leave sitting with cap down in a vertical position for up to 20 minutes.

- an alteration of the above is to leave the warm water in the ghamish and let it sit for awhile with cap on, upside down.

- on a really dry day with a very closed ghamish you can take the cap/bridle off and set the top upside down into about 1/2 to 1 inch of warm water. This can be dangerous if you forget and leave it! The ghamish is not a split reed like bassoon or oboe; it will want to revert to a round shape if left in that water. This is not good and you would need to carefully put the cap back on and hope it comes back down to a reasonable opening with time.

Once it is open enough to play (you never want it too open- if so it will feel really hard to blow) you can use the bridle to make very slight adjustments to the pitch. Remember that ghamish can change pitch in the middle of a tune with no warning so that bridle needs to be able to hold on to the reed a little for adjustments. In dry environments you can put a little water under the bridle on the ghamish to help it grab.

The duduk is played with very little reed in the mouth. Just a quarter inch or so. The embouchure is not like oboe or any other double reed woodwind in that the reed is not held between the teeth with the lips covering them. You must keep the reed/ghamish in front of the teeth controlled by the lip muscles. The whole top minor third of the range (on an A duduk from G to the highest B) is all achieved by squeezing the reed so the opening has to be good to allow for the control to get these notes. If the opening is too little, or the ghamish is dry many times these notes can be very sharp. And conversely if it is too wet and open you will have great difficulty playing the top part of the range.

These tips for working with the duduk ghamish reed were provided by professional woodwind player Chris Bleth.

To purchase the Professional Duduk from Armenia, visit WorldMusicalInstruments.com.

New Products Listed - Mini Flutes and Mini Ruans

I've just listed some new products on my website.

2 of them are koudis - which directly translated to English means 'mouth flute'. I suppose they called it a mouth flute because it is played with the mouth, as opposed to the rest of the flutes which is played by the, erm...., the mouth as well. Hey!....so why is it call the mouth flute?

After looking at the video below, I conclude they call it the mouth flute because the lady looks like she is whistling instead of playing a flute.

Anyway I shall call it the 'miniature flute' instead.


You need one of these if you want to do what this lady is doing:



One of it is a G key koudi and the other a D key koudi.

Click the below links to go to the individual product pages:
http://www.eason.com.sg/products/dizi/wdz42(d).jsp
http://www.eason.com.sg/products/dizi/wdz42(g).jsp

------------------------------------------------

The other 2 products listed is a XiaoRuan (Small Ruan) and GaoYinRuan (High pitched Ruan). The XiaoRuan and GaoYinRuan is part of the Ruan family, consisting of DaRuan, ZhongRuan, XiaoRuan and GaoYinRuan.

Here's how they line up to be:


The XiaoRuan and GaoYinRuan sounds similar to the mandolin.

For those who are not acquainted with the 'hanyu pinyin', the pronunciation of 'Ruan' is more like Run, instead of 'Roo...Ann'.

Click on the video samples link in the respective pages to hear how they sound like.

XiaoRuan:
http://www.eason.com.sg/products/ruan/tbxr5.jsp

GaoYinRuan:
http://www.eason.com.sg/products/ruan/tbxr3.jsp

Ruan product page:
http://www.eason.com.sg/products/products_ruan.jsp

More Photos From Shanghai Music Fair 2008

Here are the rest of the pictures I took at the Shanghai Music Fair:

This was one of the main attractions at the Dunhuang booth - a butterfly Guzheng.


Its not just 1 Guzheng, its 4 Guzhengs in 1!


Shot of the gigantic lute again. Nothing new cos they recycled from last year's fair.


The world's largest erhu? Correction - the world's largest playable erhu. Tried playing it and sounds horrible.

A close up of the erhu. What a bridge.


The booth of Shanghai Dunhuang 'Yun' brand, which we are the sole distributor in Singapore.


Took them a long time to figure out sex sells....


After 1 year they are still together....


Nice booth.


To be frank I'm not sure what is this. Looks like a horn flute or something.


I took some shots of these ocarinas but was stopped by the owner. What's so special about them?


Miniature Chinese instruments.


Another shot of it.


The world's largest Chao gong. Correction - the world's largest playable Chao gong. According to the owner there are some bigger in size but they are all looks and no substance.

Coming up next.....Beijing Olympic Chinese music instruments.