Video Transcript

So the final and probably the hardest technique on didgeridoo is what's called circular breathing. Circular breathing fundamentally is a trick. It's a breathing trick which allows you to create a continuous tone through the instrument without seeming to need to take a breath. I am going to show you the steps to do that. Keeping in mind that in theory you don't have to circular breath to play the didgeridoo. You could just play it the way you play a brass instrument. Like, you take a breath and you play for a little bit. Take another breath and play again. But, in truth you are short changing yourself if you don't learn to circular breath. It is very much an integral part of the way you play this instrument. Certainly, for the aboriginal players it's absolutely a part of the way that they play. The way that I learned to circular breath and the way that I think is the easiest, is to break it down into three very simple steps. And I'll describe what they are and then we'll work on separating the three steps and then bringing them back together and then you'll be circular breathing. The basic process of circular breathing is one where you're playing along the basic drone. You're going to let your cheeks fill with air. Then using the air from your cheeks to continue the sound going you're going to breath in through your nose at the same time the air is coming out of your cheeks. The way to get that process going, first off is to simply play and letting your cheeks puff out and getting used to way that that feels. Something like this. The sound changes just a little bit, which is fine, when your cheeks puff out like that but just get used to the feeling of having your cheeks fill up and letting them go back, back and forth like that. The next step, once that feels comfortable, is to play the initial drone. Let your cheeks fill up. Stop the air from your lungs and play just with the air coming out of your cheeks like this. So it's kind of like dooooo. Letting your cheeks fill then vwhewt vwewt, just the air in your cheeks is coming out. And it should sort of sound like that. Vwewt as the air comes out of your cheeks. The next, and the third step of that, is to play the drone. Let your cheeks fill up, stop the air, play with air just in your cheeks and then take a breath through your nose. Back to our traditional breathing technique. That's the basic process. Those are the three steps. What we're going to talk about in the next section is how to take those three steps and blend them together and you're actually going to be circular breathing.