It’s hard to believe it’s been 20 years this week that I walked into a local used CD store in Seattle, listened to the David Hudson album Rainbow Serpent: Music for Didgeridoo and Drum and walked out with the fire to learn how to play didgeridoo. That album above all the rest inspired me to take up one of the most unusual instruments in the planet. What a journey it’s been since then!! Certainly not one I would have ever expected in my musical life.
When I first started to learn to play didge, I was teaching piano in a local music store outside of Seattle. I remember hauling my bamboo didge into the store to practice on during breaks, learning things like dog barks, kangaroo twangs, rhythms from the Middle Eastern and Sufi traditions and of course circular breathing. I’m sure students of other instructors were wondering what those strange sounds were issuing from the room next door. I even had a few visits from other instructors and theirs students just to see what this instrument was. This is the way of didge – it’s like an ultimate ice breaker because of the shape, size and sound of it. Even just carrying one through a marketplace or a local festival during my busking days often generated curious and enthusiastic conversation. I’ve had people ask if it was a gun while carrying it in a case by a bus stop in downtown Seattle. I would explain “no, it’s a didgeridoo.” This led to me pulling it out to give a short demo. Everyone at that stop, smiled and started asking all kinds of questions. This is the Way of Didge – connecting people who otherwise may not even talk to each other.
Jamming in Mexico City @ Mexican Didge Fest 2017
The people I’ve met through this instrument have been some of the most amazing, sharing their stories with me of healing, loss, trauma, relationships, life lessons, musical experiences, rhythms they’ve learned, what they had for dinner….or breakfast…..or lunch. This is the way of didge – helping us to be comfortable enough with each other to be a little more vulnerable and soft.
The experiences I’ve had with road trips, seeing sacred places, experiencing sacred moments, dancing with strangers who are actually cosmic friends, wandering through forests, deserts, prairies, mountains, beaches, rivers and driving down roads. So many roads that has always led to more people, more places and sacredness than I would have not experienced had this instrument not come into my life.
Then there are the virtual experiences of throwing a music video or a tutorial out onto Youtube and having people respond with heartfelt words. People I’ve never met in the real world yet, who have shared some of the same vulnerable moments as if we were face to face. This is the way of didge – getting past that seemingly unemotional technological hump to reach to the soul and change things up on a cellular level to feel a little better about life.
I could wax on forever about all of it but the best part is the depth of my own relationship to myself. The rewards of playing this instrument have run far deeper than simply learning rhythms and making those rhythms into actual songs that people remember, performing those songs, teaching the techniques to thousands of people around the world through videos and live workshops and collaborating with some of the most talented people I know. This instrument, like any, has taught me so much about myself in ways keyboard can’t.
Circa. 2011
Didgeridoo has helped deepen this relationship through breath, resonance, rhythm and of course that deep earthy vibration that speaks to the ancient in all of us. In many ways, it has brought me back full circle to that kid, growing up in the Nevada desert, learning how maintain the pure honest relationship with her soul through making music.
So here’s to 20 years of learning, dancing, smiling, healing, traveling, meeting people and so much more. I’m looking forward to seeing what the next 20 years brings.
Thank you to the First People of Australia some of whom willingly share this instrument as a cultural bridge to better understand each other. Thank you to those Aboriginal peoples who have spoken up about women and didgeridoo and how I am disrespectful. You have taught me just how much this instrument means to you. I only hope that you can learn how much it’s meant to me as a person from a culture that has largely been cut off and redirected from ancestors, traditions and culture by powers that be. This has been the way of didge for me to find a way back to this ground that I can stand on in sincerity and wholeness.
I know this was kind of a long one so if you got this far, thank you for reading. Until next time, take care of yourselves and of each other.
Much love and be well,
Pam
P.S. If you're new here and want to get to know the work I do, here is a list of the albums and singles, from beginning to current, I've made from beginning to end. Take your time and enjoy!
Albums
Singles