A newsletter for the Portland area Didjeridu player......Jan 2001 Volume 7 Issue 1
by Ed Drury
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Continuing to tell the story of Garma 2000 from various perspectives, I hope you will enjoy this conversation I had with Willie Thomas who is currently living in Germany. | |
[Ed] When you attended Garma this year and took the yirdaki master class, what did you find the most challenging things to learn based on your previous experience with the didjeridu?
[Thomas] When I started playing I found the Nuts-Bolts of the western style of playing very easy to learn. The only thing I was having a problem with was tooting. I think this is the first time you got email from me. As with most new players, I developed a number of bad habits that held my progress back. Most of these habits had to be unlearned to make progress with the N.E. Arnhem Land style. The most challenging aspect of playing the didjeridu was finding ways to articulate the rhythms in my head to something that could be play into the didjeridu. That is what led me to studying the N.E. Arnhem Land style of playing. No other style of play comes close to the speed, power and subtle articulation of the N.E. Arnhem Land style.
For the last 18 months I've been studying the N.E.Arnhem Land style of playing. I have taken it to the point that I don't listen to any other style of play. That combined with 3-5 hours of playing a day, studying WebPages's like Peter Lister, Richard Man, the trip to Garma and tips from you have helped greatly.
[Ed] Can you tell me a little about the Yolngu method of learning? How it differs, for example, from the way western music is taught and learned.
[Thomas] I don't know if how we were taught would be considered a typical way of learning the Yidaki. All of the people attending the Yidaki class came with some knowledge on how to play. My observation on how the Yolngu learn to play could be compared to young boys in America learning to play Baseball. I don't remember how I learned to play Baseball it was just something that all of us young kids played in the summer months. As we became better players, older guys would take you under their wing. At that point you would begin learning some of the more technical aspect of the game. Bottom line I think most Westerners learn how to play in complete isolation at least for the first few months. It would seem from my brief visit that for the Yolngu, the learning process might be more communal.
[Ed] Before we get into the more technical aspects, what were those early stages like? Do you feel you can relate exactly what you were shown first? The first thing they had you work on before you graduated to being "taken under wing" ?
[Thomas] The first thing we had to learn was how to decipher the hand signals. The way Djalu taught was to play a part and then have us repeat it, nothing unusual about that. What was new, was the way he indicated in what position the tongue should be placed. He used about three different hand signals; the hand would start out with the palm facing down.
As he said a part, the hand would then be flip back toward him. I understood this to mean the tongue moving back and forward from the retroflex position.
Other times the hand would be curl into a fist and place against the palm of the other hand. I took this to mean that the tongue should be placed against the teeth. The most perplexing hand signal was when he would turn his hand to the side. As hard as I try I can't seem to get my tongue to unhinge, it must be a Yolngu thing. Ok, I don't really think he was trying to get us to unhinge our tongues. I think this was just a visual was of showing us that the tongue was being place in different positions in the mouth. The last set of signal he used was to place his hand on different part of the Yidaki while playing. I took this to mean the breath should be direct to that part of the Yidaki.
[Ed] Well the hand signals sound like an effective way to "speak" to you while your playing. I'm curious about directing the breath to different parts of the yirdaki. Can you explain that a bit more about how you direct the breath to various parts of the instrument and what parts may be important?
[Thomas] I knew that would rise an eyebrow, lets try a simply one. At times while playing he would glide he hand down the length of the yidaki. This would produce a tone that sounded somewhat deeper. It also seems to be created lower in the yidaki. My interpretation was to produce the sound you must exhale forcefully down the yidaki. At the times he touched the upper part of the yidaki the sound seem to be produced higher in the stick. I would say the production of this sound was a combination retroflex tongue and lighter exhale of air. As to which part may be important, all of them. As you know the yidaki is a one-note instrument. The primary creators of the different sounds are the four tongue positions, three Vowels (a, i, u) the Consonants sounds, and hard/soft exhale/inhale of the breath. The creativity of the player comes from how well he controls these elements.
What was learned at Garma was just an introduction of these elements.
[Ed] What are the four primary consonant sounds and the tongue positions associated with them?
[Thomas] The four primary tongue positions and the consonant sounds associated with them are;
1.) Interdental sound; the tongue thrust forward and just between the front teeth. Consonant sounds associated with this position;
dh e.g dhuyu
nh e.g. nhe
th e.g. matha
2.) Alveo-Ridge Sounds; the tip of the tongue touches the palate behind the front teeth. Consonant sounds associated with this position;
t d n l rr
The rr is a single tongue trill i.e Yirrkala. This rr sound showed up in many of the mnemonics used during the class.
3.) The Retroflex sounds; the tip of the tongue curls over a little against the palate and forward.
Consonant sounds associated with this position;
t d n l r i.e Gardayka (Stringybark), or Yidaki
4.) Palate Sounds; the blade of the tongue is pushed against the palate with the tip of the tongue behind the lower teeth. Consonant sounds associated with this position;
Tj Dj By i.e Gumatj
Of these the rr sound as used in mnemonics seem to be a be big factor in getting that N.E. Arnhem Land sound.
Some of the mnemonics used was;
Dip thurru
Dith thurru
Dirt thurru
Ditj thurru
With these the tongue moves progressively further back in the mouth. Stress is always on the first syllable.Most of this information was taken from handouts received from Michael Christie, and Mike.
[Ed] What about the variations obtained by the orientation of the mouthpiece to the player? As I understand it, you can coach quite different sounds out of a yirdaki by giving it a turn and then playing it in a new position. Also, can you comment on the mouthpieces of these traditional instruments a little? All my Djalus have nearly perfect mouthpieces without beeswax on them. Is that intentional and/or important to that style of playing?
[Thomas] I've heard of this too. At Garma I observed many Yolngu players turning the yirdaki they were about to play. It only seem to be done to find the sweet spot on the stick. Once that spot had been found the player never shift from it to create new sounds. This brings us to the mouthpiece question. None of the stick I saw played during Manikal (public sacred songs) had any wax on them. Most of the stick in my collection comes from around Yirrkala. The best ones have little to no wax. To understand this nonuse of beeswax I think you need to know what someone like Djalu considers a good stick.
When we were following Djalu around as he hunted for Yirdaki I noticed he discarded a number of stick for having too large a bore. I believe most of these could have been good players with the addition of some beeswax. For N.E. Arnhem Land style of playing these stick wouldn't have made it. The reason being that a wide bore at the mouth end would be very hard to produce the overtone. A wide bore also wouldn't produce the right amount of backpressure need for strong rhythmic playing. For Djalu an excellent stick was one that ants had just eaten out the very center of the top end of the stick. The top end of the tree he selected would be cut two feet from what would end up the mouthpiece. The top end would be solid wood, as the ants had not worked themselves up to this point.
He would then cut four to five inch sections until he reach the section ants had been working on. What he looked for was when the hole was about the size of a penny. At that time the knives would come out and he began the work of shaping the mouthpiece. More work seems to be put into the working of the mouthpiece than the bell end of the stick. When speaking to other yolngu people about yidaki I would hear statements like "This maker, makes very good mouthends. or the mouth of this yidaki is a good one".
For western I think we are drawn to the bell end of the sticks.
[Ed] I don't quite know how to ask this as a question. Probably directly is best. But first I want to let you know that the question is somewhat open ended. By way of explanation, I will say that as I have traveled and talked with musicians from all over the world, I have noticed feelings which come up. Sometimes they are good, sometimes, my "feelings" are "hurt" and sometimes I don't quite know what I'm feeling. But music, for me anyway, is very much about feelings. I wonder if you would share with us some of yours? What feelings came up while you were at Garma and what your feelings may have been upon returning home from it.
[Thomas] The feelings that came up during Garma weren't only cause by the music. While my purpose for attending Garma was to learn more about the yirdaki there was so many other things happening. I don't think you could attend and spend time with people like Galarrwuy, Will Stubbs, Jenny Home, Djalu Gurruwiwi's family, and the people of Yirrkala without feeling something. Seeing how the whole thing of dance, song and music is connected to everyday living really open my eyes. I know it's the new millennium and we all should be enlighten. Sometimes I think we forget that art is not about making the artist rich, song is not just about getting on billboard top 40 list, dance is not only something that happens on a Saturday night. I was hit by all of these things upon leaving the Yirrkala area and landing in Darwin, It was like being dropped on my head. We all need to remember that everyone and every culture has something to teach
Questions about this and other articles should be sent to Ed Drury
Send questions and coments about this interview to Willie Thomas