What is a didgeridoo?
The didgeridoo belongs to the lip-reed wind instrument family. It means that the vibration is created by the lips and amplified and modified by the instrument's sound post or air column. The brass instruments are the closest instrument family to the didgeridoo. The frequencies commonly played by didgeridoos are those of the tuba.
Its origin is native Australian and dates back to thousands of years ago; even though its dating is not defined, the most ancient finds showing it go back to at least two thousand years ago. Up to now, this instrument has been played by some native peoples and is now expanding to all Australian areas, where it wasn't originally played, and mainly to Europe and the United States.


Didgeridoo sound features
Different didgeridoos have different tone features, here you find the diagrams of two antipodal tones; they represent the tone range extremes achievable during the shaping process, therefore it is possible to obtain several tone solutions in between them at your will.
Generally, the sound produced by vibrating bodies is unable to produce pure sounds. Each sound carries a number of other sounds, called harmonics, occupying higher frequencies than the main pitch. These harmonics define the tone of the instrument.
Moreover, varying the position of the oral cave, it is possible to emit further harmonics until 3000hz, about 30 times more than the main pitch. They are used and emphasized when playing the didgeridoo, as well as in the overtone singing and Jew's harp playing technique.

Playing the didgeridoo accurately, you can play extremely clear harmonics, well separated from the main pitch. The “distance” shown in figure 1 represents silence. These sounds make the didgeridoo much more audible also at a relatively low volume, especially when playing in a band.

In figure 2 the sound spectrum of a different didgeridoo is shown sharing the same main pitch as the previous one.

The first instrument's main pitch is clearer but poor of its own harmonics, therefore the harmonics emitted by the player obtain more relevance. In the second situation we have a far wider spectrum; this way, the harmonics emitted by the player are much less audible. On the other hand, a drier sound spectrum (figure 1) means lower volume and at times lower dynamics (in percussive sounds), whereas a wider spectrum (figure 2) can sometimes mask some sound imperfections of a not-excellent main pitch. Another feature of wide spectrum instruments is their ability to amplify in a great way every little sound produced by the lips. Figure 3 shows some very clear volume peaks with excellent dynamics, similar to those of drums.

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