Learning how to didgeridoo
Insight into county music club.
Close your eyes while listening to the sounds of the didgeridoo and you could find yourself mentally transported to the vast, sunbaked landscape and searing heat of the Australian wilderness.
So it seemed vaguely odd to be standing in gardens outside a block of flats in Kingsthorpe Hollow, Northampton, listening to the sounds of the didgeridoo wafting across rain-dampened grass.
The sounds were being produced by the didgeridoo of 43-year-old Pete Berni; "Digeridoo Pete" as he is known.
Viewers of the BBC One show Have I Got News For You may be familiar with
Pete, as earlier this month the panel analysed his Northamptonshire
Didgeridoo Club newsletter.
The club meets regularly at the RAFA building in Grove Road, but Pete confessed that numbers had recently dwindled to a '"handful" of members.
He said: "A lot of people have passed through the doors and, for whatever reason, people have moved away or can't come any more. But life is all about phases."
Pete – who works as a plumber by day – is organising a didgeridoo spectacular, known as the Singing Sticks Didgeridoo Music Festival; a three-day event due to take place on July 10, 11 and 12.
Entry to the festival, which will take place at Overstone Scout Camp, will be by ticket and those coming along have been invited to camp for the duration of the event.
The festival has already attracted didgeridoo artists from around the
world to sign up, including SuperRoo from Germany, Magic Wood from
Belgium and Raw Noodles from the Netherlands.
Pete said: "It has got some of the finest artists in the UK and from around Europe. There will be drummers, guitarists, DJs and two non didg acts, which are dance bands."
Pete's fondness for the didgeridoo started more than a decade ago, when
he heard one being played in a tepee at Strawberry Fair in Cambridge.
He recalled: "I did not have any concept of playing the didgeridoo then. I went to a seaside town and I saw in a shop window that there was a didgeridoo and a drum.
"I played on the drum and then did some raspberries into the didgeridoo
and I chose that one because I couldn't play it.
"I really wanted an ornament. It wasn't until I met various people through travelling that we busked with didgeridoos and now I teach people from all over the country."
Pete's credits have included taking part in the world's largest didgeridoo ensemble, when 238 players got together to perform in August 2006.
His impressive collection of didgeridoos includes an instrument made of
glass, made by a specialist in Quebec, Canada, and a British didgeridoo made with 5,000 matchsticks.
But the whole process of playing these instruments seems tricky, to say the least.
One way of producing a basic sound involves pouting out the bottom lip,
putting the "bee's wax" end of the didgeridoo against the mouth and
breathing out.
While the top lip should be held in place against the teeth, the bottom lip must be free to vibrate.
It seems that a technique called circular breathing can also help; a method which allows players to perform continuously without stopping for breath.
Didgeridoos are generally tuned to one note. Pete said: "It is the same as a sitar, you can't write music for it, but it is not a monotonal instrument, like a block of wood."
Playing techniques aside, it seems that there is a lot of meaning attached to playing the didgeridoo. As well as running the club, Pete visits people in their homes to carry out sound healing sessions.
This is when the didgeridoo is played in a bid to help lift a person's vibrations back to a less chaotic rhythm, making it possible for people to reach a "healing state" that would normally be achieved through meditation or breathing techniques.
In the Aboriginal culture – with which the instrument is most commonly
associated – traditionally women are forbidden from playing didgeridoos for fear it would make them infertile.
The instruments are usually played at Aboriginal corroborees or ceremonies.
Pete said: "They are used at births, deaths and funerals and traditionally it gets destroyed or burnt after the event. The didgeridoo is meant to be a very spiritual instrument."
Anyone who has a marquee or generator to loan for use at the Singing Sticks festival can contact Pete by emailing tickets@singingsticks.co.uk
For more information, or to find out about booking tickets, see www.singingsticks.co.uk
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