Multi Drone Didgeridoos by Will Thoren at LA Outback

"Mohogummy"

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Price: $828.00

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Description

Crafter Biography

Playing Technique

"Mohogummy"
Performance Quality Multi Drone Didgeridoo

Crafted by Will Thoren
Watch a VIDEO demo of this didgeridoo below!

This didge is customized for a new technique that Will, the Yeti himself, developed to play SUPER LOW drone notes. The basic technique involves dropping the fundamental drone or pitch of a didge an exact octave below what it normally is, whilst keeping the didgeridoo normal sized rather than 8 to 12 feet long. The concave mouthpiece conforms to your face for a perfect fit, and is slightly larger than most didge players are accustomed too, enabling better lip movement and control for advanced styles.

Will says, "The wood used to make this was a eucalyptus log that cured for over 5 years giving the exposed heartwood on the neck a beautiful red grain. The concave mouthpiece conforms to your face for a perfect fit and a comfortable, superior seal. This makes a larger mouthpiece easily manageable to provide the maximum amount of subtle lip control that is unattainable on flat small mouthpieces. This subtle lip control is what makes hitting lower drone frequencies possible. This didgeridoo has been balanced so that its concave mouth piece aligns perfectly with your mouth in a naturally held position. This type of mouthpiece is recommended for playing out of the front of the mouth to achieve the Drop Octave and Multi Drone techniques (for more on this see the video on Side vs Front on www.wetdidgeridoo.com)."

What a handsome didgeridoo this is, not to mention eco-friendly (being recycled from a dead tree limb). The bell or distal end is very clear and open which increases volume, harmonics, and clarity of tone. Solid, gorgeous finish. The outside is coated with two coats of epoxy that have been buffed out and rubbed down with a satin wipe on polyurethane. The interior is coated with a single coat of epoxy resin. Features a smooth and comfortable mouthpiece made from black walnut that's been sanitized with Didgeri-Clean (tea tree and lavender oil). This didgeridoo is waterproof, unaffected by hot or cold weather conditions, and very easy to care for, no worries.

Soundwise: Performance Quality

sound and playability. Will says, "This is a great songwriting and recording instrument. It has very smooth and dynamic transitions between its many notes which make it easy to get super soft and build into loud strong rhythms. The tuning of this instrument is perfect for those looking to work with other western instruments as the first trumpet sits very close to a perfect interval from the drone. The balance of volume throughout its tonal range is perfect for recording complex contemporary styles. With a relatively small bell opening its volume does not make it a good busking stick but makes it a strong contender when played through a microphone. The harmonics are very clear with the overall sound rooted in a warm tone that is characteristic of eucalyptus. The Multi Drone note is very controllable and clear which opens up the possibilities of creating bass-line type grooves." Read our 100% Satisfaction Guarantee.

Includes our didgeridoo care guide and playing guide.

Watch Will demo this didgeridoo for you
and see the instrument in vivid HD detail!

Just click on the video below.

Specs for this didgeridoo:

Key: Eb tuned and more
Overtone toots: C#-10, more
Skill: Beginner to Advanced
Wood: Eucalyptus, walnut
Length: 69.75"
Top: 1.38" Inner diameter
Bottom: 3.75" Outer diameter
Backpressure: Medium-High
Mouthpiece: Walnut wood
Weight: 4.2 lbs / 2.4 kg
Ease of play: Very easy
Loudness: Low IIIIIIIII High

What if you don't bond with this didgeridoo?
It can be exchanged within 30 days for any reason and there's no
restocking fee. Can't decide on one? Call 1-800-519-1140 for live help!

Our sound quality ratings:

CONCERT QUALITY Same as performance quality, but with perfectly balanced acoustics.

PERFORMANCE QUALITY First rate, professional grade sound and playability.

HIGH QUALITY Above average sound. Better than most found at comparable prices.

GOOD QUALITY Nice introductory didgeridoo, but may lack in tonal quality and/or volume.

FAIR QUALITY Not for serious playing. Good for muking around on, or as a conversation piece.

About William Thoren

William Thoren is a crafter, performer and photographer best known for discovering and developing the Drop Octave and Multi Drone techniques. He lives in Southern California in the heart of the Santa Monica mountains.

William picked up the didgeridoo at the age of 11 while on a family vacation in Costa Rica. All throughout middle school and high school made his own didgeridoos out of PVC pipe, yucca, and later hard woods. William now only makes wooden instruments “working with wood gives me the most control over playability as I can start with a thick log and shape exactly what I want”. In 2007 he traveled to Australia to further pursue the art of playing and crafting the didgeridoo. While there he traveled for 3 months with William Barton, an acclaimed Aboriginal didgeridoo player who performs with symphony orchestras worldwide. Barton later connected William with Djalu Guruwiwi, custodian of the Yidaki and one of the most respected traditional makers of the instrument, with whom, he spent time in North East Arnhem Land learning traditional methods of crafting the instrument.

William conceived two new groundbreaking didgeridoo techniques he calls the Drop Octave and the Multi Drone that dramatically expand the sonic range of the instrument. In 2008 He took a break from selling instruments to the public to develop a new type of didgeridoo specifically for the Drop Octave technique which allows one to play an octave below the regular drone note of a didgeridoo. During this time he focused heavily on tuning the overtones or trumpet notes to make didgeridoo more suitable for playing dynamically in western music. This lead him to discover the Multiple Drone technique which enables one to play 3-8 separate drone notes on a single bore instrument. “The Multi Drone came about as a result of an experiment to lower the first trumpet as close to the drone as possible. When this was done several more drone notes between the regular drone and the drop octave became playable” (similar to a pedal tones on a tuba). Beyond the shapes and range of his instruments William has developed a new mouthpiece design which makes these new techniques more accessible and comfortable to play. Most recently William has created www.WetDidgeridoo.com to teach the fundamentals of this technique.

“With these techniques I design the most dynamic instruments for fusing didgeridoo with western styles of music and the most sonically dynamic solo instruments available on the market. The Multi Drone technique has opened doors for me to use didgeridoos in ways i never imagined possible. My dream is that the didgeridoo can be used as fundamental piece of a band throughout many styles of music. The expanded range of these new instruments has enabled me to write music around didgeridoo more dynamically than ever before. My favorite thing about the world of didgeridoo is that we operate like one big family. I have to thank William Barton, Chad Butler, Djalu Guruwiwi, Geoff Frost, Tyler Spencer and Ondrej Smeykal who have all influenced my crafting and playing in a huge way".

See more photos of Will Thoren in the LA Outback Blog!

Check out Will's photography by Clicking Here!

Advanced Lip Control

Will Thoren discusses how to develop lip control for playing the didge. This is part 1 of 2. In the next video, "Applying Lip Control To Multi-Drone", Will talks about how to apply the advanced lip control to the Multi-Drone technique.

Dropping the Drone
One Octave Below

To learn this technique one must first understand that it is based 100% on lip control. It is common to confuse the technique with other pitch bending techniques such as dropping the jaw but believing this will slow down the road to mastery. With that said, you may find some sort of movement with your face that helps you achieve the dropped pitch in the first place (this may involve dropping the jaw or using more of the bottom lip) but once you are comfortable it will become as easy as playing the regular drone. Your top and bottom lips will be doing equal work and your jaw will actually close a little bit. If you watch the videos of me playing you will see that my head nods down whenever I play the drop octave. This lowering is actually a closing of the jaw because my lower jaw stays in exactly the same space while my upper jaw closes down on top of it. This movement naturally makes the lips protrude a little more outward which allows for a looser flapping. None of this jaw talk is important for learning the technique, i am simply stating what is so in relation to the jaw to save any confusion as i am commonly asked that question. The Bigger the mouth piece the better for learning. Once the technique is achieved you may find yourself able to play it on smaller mouthpieces. So why is it easier to learn on a bigger mouthpiece?

Imagine you are creating the note with your lip vibration and you don’t even need a didgeridoo to play the note. Try humming the note of the didgeridoo you are attempting to play it through and then recreate the same pitch by flapping your lips. You’ll notice if you start with a really loose flapping of the lips (sounds like a horse) and then begin to smile, the pitch and speed of your lips will increase. Try starting with a big smile before you start vibrating your lips and then once vibrating, release the smile and listen to the speed and pitch drop. this will give you an idea of what is meant by “lip control”. Creating different pitches with your lips. if you can develop a little it of control with creating vibration without the didgeridoo it will be easier to find the sweet spot where the actual drop octave note sits. It’s like learning to play didgeridoo all over again and for this reason may be more frustrating for experienced players.

Side vs. Front Playing

Many didgeridoo players play out of the side of their mouth because the clarity of the drone sound is easier to achieve. Often the front sounds softer and not as rich in the early stages of playing. From my experience, with practice, frontal playing allows for equal clarity once mastered and opens up a larger range of possible control. Mastering frontal playing is a lottle more difficult at first but has huge payoffs in the end. Making the switch to playing out of the front is possibly the most important foundation to learning this technique.