Didgeridoo Fungus?
Is your instrument making you sick?
Setup Your Didge for good tone and easy cleaning.
Saliva and breath condensation inside your Didge promote fungal growth that can infect your airways and lungs.
At Symmetrical Drumming Australia I play and promote the wider use of internally sealed didgeridoos and the use of a ‘pull-through’ with eucalyptus oil and isopropyl alcohol to clean-out and kill fungus in all didges.
I have encountered resistance and anecdotes ‘a-plenty’ over the years…however, after 35 years playing didge, and 45 years as musician, and 30 years as sound engineer I know a good bit!
Not to mention the many wider resources beyond my world which elucidate the problem of mycosal growth and infection from ‘scungily’ maintained woodwinds.
Growing tiny mushrooms in your instrument and consequently your lungs is serious!
Complex woody soft and moist
Instruments, especially woodwinds, due to moisture from breath and saliva are perfect fungal environments.
Pneumonic Infection.
This fungal growth can lead to sensitization and potentially hypersensitivity pneumonitis (HP), a lung condition.
Disinfect.
To minimize fungal growth, regular ( after every use) cleaning and sanitation of wind instruments is crucial.
Surface Area and Absorption.
The filaments, filigrees, and swarf left over by the termites that made your Didge need to be removed.
The inside of your Didge will be acoustically more ‘reflective’ and your sound will have more sibilance, presence, treble, and resonance.
Sounds Good. Cleans ‘Easy’.
Removing the soft, loose, and spongy protuberances inside your Didge improves the sound propagation amplitude, and also ‘ clean-ability’ of your instrument. WIN win !
The ears have it!
A smooth bore,
Contrary to some popular myths, a smooth internal bore in/of your didge adds to and enhances (ie does not reduce) the acoustic signature/character to your sound.
A visually complex bore ( not that it's possible to see much of it) may give character according to the eye…but not the ear. You the player, and the hardwood of the didge, are the source of the acoustic signature and character…not the termite architecture!
Sonic Destinctiveness
Great lips, tongue, breathing, and rhythmic precision resonating in and with a smooth (ish) and hard bore…thats the stuff of sonic distinctiveness ….not a soft bore full of termite leftovers!
Antonio Stradivari didn't leave wood shavings, rough hewn surfaces, and sawdust inside his violins! Neither should you have them in your didge.
To further illustrate…. A sound recording studio, for example, uses soft complex treatments on walls, ceilings, to stop sound propogation and reflection.
A controlled studio environment limits and reduces the acoustic ‘ character ’ of the studio…preventing it from impinging upon the instruments being recorded.
A didge filled with soft complex termite swarf has its acoustic characteritics, clarity, and rhythmic articulation, limited and reduced…!
No muffled farts!
A relatively obstacle free, hardwood, sealed bore allows the didge body, the hardwood, to vibrate/resonate more freely.
It also helps the high frequencies you generate with your mouth to propagated/bounce all the way to the end of the didge (ie: not soaked up inside).
This produces a clear, precise, resonant and articulate sound… as compared to a series of soft muffled fart noises.
Sealing.
Once your Didge bore is reasonably ‘cleared-out’…a food safe, waterproof wood sealer can be applied.
Note that temporary wrapping will be needed… on the outside of the didge to support the wood against splitting while the interior layer absorbs, expands and then shrinks back as the sealant soaks in, evaporates and then dries. This requires a whole new blog topic.
Treat it well
The well prepared Didge like a violin, or guitar, is a sophisticated instrument that requires maintenance, tuning. care.
Clean Out and Seal
Thanks your reading…stay healthy, clean out and seal your Didge ( on the inside) ..it's the bits you can't see that make the difference!
Symmetrical Drumming Australia
https://symmetricaldrummingaustralia.org
Feel free to update me on the acoustic science and hygiene with well documented and authorirative discoveries. I am aware that this is a non- traditional approach to didge sound…however such a perspective is my approach as sound engineer, musician and composer.
Bye for now
seeya
Mark
