Didjerinews issue 9 Vol 11

 A mixed bag of news ........

The Bard of Ely
Category: Music

Steve Andrews a.k.a. the Bard of Ely has a long history of being out there. His release, "You're a Liar, Nicky Wire" drew everything from rave reviews and a feature on BBC R1 to being banned from a shop. As an author, Steve wrote a book (Herbs of the Northern Shaman), and is a regular contributor to many publications. Currently he writes regularity for Tenerife News newspaper and Living Tenerife magazine.

The Bard is a real ordained Celtic Bard & a member of several Druid orders. Bard of Ely has also worked as a TV presenter and as an actor for television and film.

Our collaborations together came from my interest in his poems. Steve had recorded narrations of several of his poems having heard his wonderfully theatric delivery of these, I asked if I might try my hand at a bit of musical backing. Fortunately, for me, he consented and the track Ocean Skies was created. Ocean Skies was well received and we went ahead and did many more. More recently, "Looky Looky Man" and "Manana" reflect attitudes and cultural issues which have not escaped Steve since moving to Tenerife from his native Wales.

My personal favorite is probably "The 100th Monkey v The Beast", a somewhat Orwellian look at modern culture. You can hear it here: 100th Monkey, and many more of Bard's diverse and interesting music here Bard of Ely on Soundclick.

Bard's myspace music page is at :

http://www.myspace.com/bardofely1

 Track used in French film
Category: Movies, TV, Celebrities

I'm quite pleased that Adriane Cordeau has chosen my track , "Ghostly" to be in her new film "Un P il Occulte." It is a short and entirely in French. Ghostly is featured in the opening and closing scenes of the movie. Adriane wrote me, "I want to thank you a million times, your openmindness touched me very much and gave me the chance to add a good twist to my story."

The story is of a woman talking on the phone with another woman who is some kind of a magician. She tells the woman that she fears she is about to loose her lover and asks the magician for one more year of this relationship. The relationship is well shown in a series of flash backs to different points in it's history. Through the course of following the magician's instructions for a potion, we learn more about the main character and her lover. The ending has a magical twist which led me to believe that both the woman and her lover do want very much to find the magic they lost - be it by a potion or any other means.

The actors in the movie are Kay Bourgine, Jean Barat and Genevieve Pierre. I enjoyed my participation in this wonderful little film and hope for it to be seen widely by French language speakers all over.

The stick is the teacher
Category: Opinion

When I was about nine years old, I was playing a trumpet that my parents could afford for me which was probably a 'Sears Best'. Most of the other kids I knew had richer parents or at least they had got them Martins, Selmers and LaBloncs (dating myself here). So I was begging my parents for a better instrument ( a childhood long negotiation over everything from trumpets to pianos to guitars, my poor parents).

My father happened to know a local gigging' jazz musician and so invited him over to let him check out my horn and me for that matter. He took that cheap trumpet and made it sound so fantastic I was stunned. I'd never heard anything outside of recordings like that before. When he handed it back to me, I said, "so it is a good horn after all?" He said to me, "no it's a piece of junk, but don't let that stop you from playing it the best you can." Years pasted, and I got my top quality horn...earned it on my playing, but I never forgot that demonstration which amounted to the old saying, " It's a poor craftsman who blames his tools."

I see it a lot with didjeridus. People grab a stick that appeals visually, give it a few blows and when they don't get the results they expect instantly, they put it down and grab another, then another. I always tell people, "you have to play it, not just look at it." But Americans especially, are visual people. Not only that, but they want instant gratification. They expect the instrument to make them better rather than to take time to discover each instruments unique playing characteristics. Micky Hart talks about finding a drum's higher voice, and I think what he means is to take in each instrument to yourself and try and discover the best way to play that particular instrument. Not impose your will on the instrument, but rather bend to it and follow the journey it offers.

A friend of mine bought a really excellent yidaki via mail and was disappointed that the mouthpiece size was too small for him. He told me, "What am I supposed to do, completely change the way I play." I thought, well yes. If you want to learn yidaki, and you are not Aboriginal, you're going to have to make a lot of changes in the way you play first. Later, you can go back and embellish your new skill with some of your own. You can blend yourself into this new instrument. But initially, if you just try to play the way you always have on a balanda stick you are not going to have the same results.

It happens, a lot recently, when I meet didj players they ask me what "style" I play. I don't really have a canned answer to that. But boy, I've heard a lot from others. "I play percussive", seems to be a popular one. "You mean you hit it with a stick?" is my knee jerk reaction. They want to emphasize that they are rhythmic in their playing, of course, but I mean really, look up percussion in a dictionary sometime will ya? haha Just a thing I've noticed.

But the point of this rant is really, don't be overly judgmental about the instrument in your hands. Lavishing praise on a good instrument or bashing a lesser one only, in my mind, detracts from your goal as a player. That is to learn, grow and be in joy of the journey you are on. Have fun and go out and find a piece of crap stick to blow on, see if you can make it sound awesome. If you do, you'll know that's you making that awesome sound and not the instrument.

Etudes
Category: Tutorial  

I'm known for handing out exercises like lollies during my lessons. Someone will come to me with a question about a certain technique and I usually have some type of exercise to develop the technique to absurdity.

Here is one I haven't done much recently, but it's a breath control thing designed just to increase control and also a little mental work to keep the mind active while playing (what, he thinks?)

Now like all my exercises, it has variations. The variations are only limited by your imagination so I'll just give a couple of examples of those at the end. First, though, we'll keep it very simple. Single tongued note like "dah". Here it is :

Breath, Dah, breath dah dah, breath dah dah dah and so on. See how many dahs you can work up to before you can't fit any more between breaths. Lets say you get up to 12 just as an example, then work your way back down subtracting a "dah" each time till you get back to one breath, one dah. Keep the tempo moderate, but steady. In other words don't start speeding up just to get more dah's in there :).

Variation one, Double tonguing. Breath, tuka, breath tuka tuka and so on. Variation two, triple tonguing. breath, tukita, breath tukita tukita, and so on.

Keep the tempo moderate (not to slow or fast), try to work up to your limit however many that may be and all the way back done to 1:1 ratio.

Gee that's clever, but what does it do for ya? Well, it won't increase your lung capacity. Lung capacity is more a function of age, height, gender and race. And lung capacities, functional ones at least, only tend to go down with age, smoking and other factors. Residual lung volume ( the volume you can't use, the amount left in your lungs after you have exhaled all you can) ironically grows but that is of no use. But it can increase your breath control, that is how you are using your capacity and how well you can play when you are near the bottom of your air supply and at the top with lungs full. This is accomplished by controlling the air stream with the lips, tongue, cheeks all of which become second nature with practice. The goal of this exercise is to try and keep tone and rhythm steady and good though the entire range of lung air volumes.

I came up with this exercise one day while playing my didjbox on a trail over hanging the pacific ocean. So for bonus effect, try it while backpacking!