10 Tips to Practice and Enjoy Didgeridoo More

I know many many didgeridoo players. Many of them are very good, sometimes professional players. When I ask them how their didgeridoo practice is going, they usually start almost apologizing for not practicing enough. Well, we all practice enough, it is simply perfectly balanced with our wish and, consequently, possibility we create. Still, there are some things that can help us go easier with amount and quality of didgeridoo practice we treat ourselves with. I intended this text mostly for players who have a wish for performing, no matter if it is a small one or a huge one. If you don’t have any wish towards performing, well, you can read this text anyway and see what happens

1. Power of now

This is the starting point of all doing and no doing. So it is the starting point of our doing. You will make much better use of your time, both in enjoyment and in progress you make. I know it is not easy. This is why I recommend the book first!

2. Start!

Start easy. Sometimes it is difficult for me to start playing in the morning because I remember the difficult exercise from yesterday which I need to continue, and I cannot make my body go through this agony so early in the morning.  So I delay my practice and lose part of the day in delay. Sometimes I am smarter than that and I start with easy and fun exercises. As I warm up it is much easier to continue with real practice than it was to start. So this might be useful on a day you would like to practice but don’t feel like practicing.

3. Listen!

This is very related to the first point. But it is so important that I have to point it out as much as possible. If you really really listen to what you play, you will start to appreciate the sound more than before. The sound will capture your attention and draw it in the right way. If you practice for some distant reason, it might not be touchable at this point of your practice and you lose motivation. If you listen you will find a good teacher inside your sound.

4. Play on good instrument!

If you have a barely playable stick that you fight with constantly, unless you are fanatic (yes, I know you might be), you will not enjoy this practice very much and you might be even repelled from didgeridoo after a while. Instead if you have a very nice didgeridoo it will call you to play it, and every time you blow sound through it  you will feel great. So if you are serious about (enjoying) your practice, I recommend you invest time, money and energy to get yourself at least a brilliant didgeridoo.

5. Play in good environment!

If you are constantly disturbed during your practice, if you can’t hear yourself, if you are cold or if snakes and spiders are crawling on your back, you will have a hard time enjoying your didgeridoo practice unless you are a didgeridoo fanatic. Yes, I know, I know there is a possibility you are;-) Still, the rest of the crowd will have great benefits and will find it much easier to practice if they find the best place for them to practice.

6. Play at good times!

If you want to practice, practice when there is still some life in you. Don’t put it on the end of all your daily activities when you are too tired even for sex. Didgeridoo practice is very physical, it asks of your body to be awake, and of your mind to be fresh, if not empty.

7. Record yourself and consider putting it online!

Why? First, if you record yourself, you will have a better idea of how it sounds. I know it cleared up A LOT of things to me. Remember that you have to combine both live experience and recording information to get a good feeling. If you put it online, it adds a bit more of seriousness to your performance and recordings since hundreds, possibly billions will hear it. This might be a first step of feeling what it is like to play for somebody else, especially if we talk about many bodies of somebodies.

8. Arrange yourself a gig!

Even if it is a small gig, it will give you the priceless opportunity to have an audience. Audience is many ears, a lot of attention. Audience is your receiver, and you are the transmitter, the circle is full and gets fuller! Besides, you will put yourself a touchable goal, if you need it. For some people practicing without performing is like marriage without sex. There might be some sense in that. Ultimately, it is up to you to decide weather you want to have sex with your audience or not! Figuratively speaking, of course. Know that even if it seems nobody ever listens to you, you are still there, and so is Mother Earth. What more of an audience can one ask for?

9. Don’t take yourself too seriously.

Because it can spoil your enjoyment. I know that it can for me. If I take into consideration expectations and wishes of others and my own, about my new album (whichever that is), I instantly feel less happy with doing it. However, if I just play to see what happens, I will usually get it as good as I can, but it was fun all the way.

10. But first,

POWER OF NOW!

in Playing didgeridoo

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