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Alan Tower is a multi-instrumentalist born to play didjeridu. He is most interested in composing pieces for solo and duo didjeridu that explore melodies above the drone using the harmonic series. He is currently working on his third didjeridu record (solos and duos) with a variety of world class players including Randy Graves, Stephen Kent and Rafael Bejarano. Watch him perform his solo composition, Now, When, and Then.
This page features the first-ever online didgeridoo lessons. This ongoing series combines text, videos, and mp3s. Each lesson costs US $30.00, and can be paid either using PayPal or by sending payment directly to:
Skysong Productions,
Inc.
P.O. Box 11755
Minneapolis, MN 55411 USA
When payment for a lesson is received, you will be emailed a Login I.D. and password that will give you access to that lesson.
These lessons will cover many facets of this wonderful instrument, at levels from beginner to advanced.
The video examples presented in the lessons are QuickTime MOV videos, and to view them you'll need to have the QT software installed in your computer. You can get it FREE for PC or Mac by clicking here. If you do any audio or video production, the QT Pro version is well worth the small fee. You can choose to either view these movies in your web browser or using QT Player (recommended, and faster). You'll get the best performance by copying the files to your hard drive.
ALL MUSICAL PIECES ARE COPYRIGHTED BY ALAN TOWER/EVO SOUND 2004.
ALL LESSONS ARE ©2004 STEVE SKLAR/SKYSONG PRODUCTIONS AND MAY NOT BE REPRODUCED IN ANY WAY. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Please Note: Other than lesson 1 being for beginners, there is no implied progression by numbering. Please see lesson descriptions for specific information and prerequisites.
Instructor: Alan Tower.
This lesson will be helpful to both begining didj players and those who have been on the instrument for a while. e.g. identifying good practice habits and techniques for focusing on quality tone production. Contents include Choosing an Instrument; Preperation to Play; Lip Stretching and Warmup; Breath; Lip Buzzing; Tone Production; The Feedback Loop, and more.
Instructor: Alan Tower.
This lesson is fundamentally about exploring composition as one approach to playing and learning didj that can facilitate you being drawn back to the instrument over and over again, promoting learning and creativity. This is a core challenge for students on any instrument; how to develop your relationship with the instrument such that it takes on a life of its own and your time with the instrument naturally increases. It becomes more than a function of an internally prescribed or teacher recommended number of minutes of practice per day.
Prerequisites: ability to produce a clear, steady focused sound for more than 15 seconds; have good control of the start and finish of the sound; have a desire to improve and dedicate more time to exploring the didj; circular/cycle breathing ability is not required for this lesson. However, it can be useful. Lesson 1 in this video series is recommended as a precursor to this composition lesson.
Future lessons will teach other didgeridoo techniques and styles.