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A trumpet player in our community band has been advised to begin his warm-up with long notes on a didgeridoo, to relax his lip before playing.

His didgeridoo has a rubber-like mouthpiece like a very wide and very shallow sousaphone mouthpiece with a half-inch throat. I blew a couple of long notes on it, and it is at least possible that my tuning stabilized a little quicker that day, maybe.

I found a few references to the didgeridoo in the archives; I guess several of you must own them so I thought I would ask:

Do you use the didgeridoo as part of your regular practise ?
For lip flexibility, or for breathing, or what ?
Is it worth buying or building one (drain pipe plus thermo-setting modelling clay) ?
Or would blowing pedals on a tuba serve the same function?

MikeW wrote:Or would blowing pedals on a tuba serve the same function?

Ding, Ding, Ding...I think we have a winner.

Relaxation, blood flow, waking the muscles up, what's not to love?
But I really have to wonder who's recommending this to him...and do they sell didgeridoos?
Really, couldn't they think of something a little more realistic for a warm-up routine?

It's like telling a weight lifter that he must bench press a buffalo...not the equivalent weight of a buffalo...but an actual buffalo.

Not actually owning a didgeridoo, maybe I'm completely missing something here. It wouldn't be the first time.

To be fair, that's only the start of his routine. After that he goes into the usual stuff like buzzing scales on the mouthpiece, long notes, exercises from Arban etc. The didgeridoo seemed a bit strange to me as well, but he swears by it, and on the one occasion that I tried one it seemed it might offer some benefit....enough to make me curious.

Or modern tools from yet another culture?

bloke wrote:I use tools from yet another primitive culture. My lips are really quite flexible.

Mwahahahaha!

MikeW wrote: 1. Do you use the didgeridoo as part of your regular practise ?
2. For lip flexibility, or for breathing, or what ?
3. Is it worth buying or building one (drain pipe plus thermo-setting modelling clay) ?
4. Or would blowing pedals on a tuba serve the same function?

1. No.
2. Nothing.
3. Hell no.
4. I don't know.

I would recommend working on low register long tones on the trumpet a la Claude Gordon et al. I practice cornet just about every day and thats what I do.

You might find this to be another way of accomplishing the same thing on the tuba.

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Just my $0.02.

Roger

So let me see:
Lip relaxation/breathing exercises before beginning to play: sanctioned by Arnold Jacobs, so probably ok.
Exercising on the tuba ok, buzzing and blowing on modified mouthpieces ok (extra points for cheap homemade equipment)
Building/buying a digeridoo when you already have a tuba: pointless, but fun (points for blushing a little when you admit it)
Using a didgeridoo as a surrogate bass for the tuba-poor: novel, and suspiciously new-age

How about a portable telescopic convertible didgeridoo/yard-of-ale ?