I will respond in detail to this question later this evening, but I am running out the door and don't have time at the moment...

Good post! - Cat

Didgeridoo Sound Description Adjectives

These are my personal thoughts and opinions to define the didgeridoo sound description adjectives you listed:

Meditative – A didgeridoo with the ability to create a calming, relaxed sound quality. Some didges lend themselves to this style of playing more than others, due to their overall sound quality (slow, mellow, and rich, defined below).

Percussive – A didgeridoo with the ability to create a sound reminiscent of drums, or other percussion instruments. Usually playing techniques, such as tongue articulations, diaphragmatic pulses, and cheek slaps, are used to enhance this effect. Some didges lend themselves to this style of playing more than others, due to their overall sound quality (specifically fast, described below).

Vocal Clarity - A didgeridoo that allows vocal technique and inflections to easily be heard over the drone of the instrument. Physical characteristics, such as bore shape, bore size, and bell flare can affect the vocal clarity of an instrument.

Fast - A didgeridoo that lends itself to being played rhythmically at an upbeat tempo, or speed. The ability to clearly and easily articulate on the didgeridoo (with the tongue or diaphragm) is a major element in this particular sound quality.

Slow - A didgeridoo that lends itself to being played non-rhythmically, or rhythmically at a reduced tempo, or speed. An instrument that has poor articulation qualities is usually best played “slow”.

Mellow - A didgeridoo with an unobtrusive, centered, or muted sound quality.

Sharp - A didgeridoo with an aggressive, edgy, or bright sound quality.

Trumpet Tones – The harmonic series of overtones playable on a didgeridoo. As the didgeridoo has no valves, holes, or extensions to change the fundamental pitch, increasing air pressure and tightening the “buzz” of the lips allows the performer to hit other pitches. Some instruments have “more” trumpet tones available to the performer, due to physical characteristics such as bore shape, bore size, mouthpiece diameter, etc.

Thin - A didgeridoo in which only one or two pitches in the overtone series are easily discernable to the listener. This results in an empty, flat, and weak sound, regardless of overall volume.

Rich - A didgeridoo in which many pitches in the overtone series are easily discernable to the listener. This results in a full, round, and strong sound, regardless of overall volume.


Some additional interesting reading can be found here:

Timbre: The Color of Music
cnx.org/content/m11059/latest/

Harmonic Series
cnx.org/content/m11118/latest/

Harmonic series (music)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harm...es_(music)

Here are some of the "features" that I use to classify didges, in my own mind.

sharp/dull - has to do mostly with harmonics, how easy it is to get them to "pop out" while playing.

Percussive - for me, this is mostly about responsiveness to changes breath/air pressure, i.e. diaphragm hits, bounce breathing, cheek pops... that sort of thing.

Percussive Clarity - some didges that I have feel quite percussive.. but it's hard to get a clean percussive sound, the articulations and various rhythmic elements are "muddy", while others that are equally percussive are easier to get clean rhythms with. This probably has a lot to do with player skill as well.

Backpressure - how much air do you have to pump through the didge, for a given volume level? Lower didges tend to have lower backpressure while higher didges tend to have more. Higher backpressure usually makes for a "fast", percussive didge, while less backpressure makes for a slower, more meditative didge.

Vocals - how easy or hard it is to get vocals heard "through" the drone. This can be dependent on the range of the vocals as well - "low vocals come through clearly while higher vocals are harder" (or any similiar variation)

pitch bending - how easy is it to bend the pitch with a jaw drop, and how far you can bend it. (you can bend it up as well, by tightening the lips, but usually not very much, so it's not really important).

ability to play soft - how easy is it to play very very soft (less than a whisper) without loosing the drone?

toot pitch - the relationship of the toots to each other and the drone - especially important is the relationship of the first toot to the drone. There is no "right" or "correct" relationship, but some people have preferences for certain relationships. For example, I seem to remember that ClarinetCat prefers a toot that is an octave above the drone.

ease of toots - how easy to hit the toot

number of toots - how many toots can be played? This is related to how easy the toots are to hit, and will vary between players.

volume of toots - how loud are they in relation to each other and the drone. There is no right or wrong here, its just personal preference, based on your style of playing. I personally prefer a first toot that has a similar volume to the drone, but it's not a big deal if it isn't.

singing overtone - some didges have peculiar acoustic properties that make one of the harmonics pop out when playing just a basic drone (even with a neutral tongue position). This is a positive feature, but it's not all that common.

Harmonic wobble? - I've read a bit about another peculiarity called harmonic wobble, which allows a particular "trad" technique to produce a transient tone that has a harmonic that "wobbles" between two pitches. Probably not too important unless you're into traditional playing..