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Didgeridoo Circular Breathing

By Dr Bruce Copley

Some Tips & Tats from Bruce Copley

While circular breathing is considered by many to be a difficult technique to master the reality is that it is not. It is not a TRICK but a CLICK. The moment your brain clicks that it is quite simple to quickly inhale through your nose while simultaneously squeezing air out of your mouth using your cheeks you are on your way.

Learning to circular breath is like learning to kiss and I don't mean the boring closed mouth stuff! Like kissing when you get good at it, it is very pleasant, natural, relaxed and almost timeless.

What follows are some simple activities which can assist you to make this click. Do them in the order given and be sure to master each step before moving on to the next one.

Puff up your cheeks and then using an exaggerated and repeated chewing motion with tight lips, squeeze air out of your mouth using your cheek muscles and jaw movements(up and down) to assist you in this process. Practise this until you can do it quickly and continuously making rhythmic pulses of exhaled air … short and sharp blowing sounds.

Be sure to keep your lips tight while doing the above ... only allow air to be exhaled through your lips with RESISTANCE. This means you must feel pressure in your cheeks because you are not allowing the air to escape easily and rapidly from your mouth. Filling your mouth with water and then squirting it out in short sharp spurts and also one long continuous stream are good ways of getting the feeling of pressure in your checks... do this while showering and have fun.

While you are doing this continuously you will of course need to continue breathing or inhaling air ... BY KEEPING YOUR LIPS TIGHT AND ONLY ALLOWING EXHALED AIR THROUGH THEM,YOU CAN NOW INHALE AIR THROUGH YOUR NOSE IN BETWEEN YOUR REPEATED BLOWING EXHALATIONS... You might have done this naturally without even noticing it ...you are on track if you can do this.

Now do this exercise into the palm of your hand and you will notice that you can feel the exhaled air pulsing into your hand ...IF YOU ARE ALSO INHALING AIR THROUGH YOUR NOSE DURING THIS PROCESS YOU WILL NOTICE YOU CAN FEEL A CONSTANT FLOW OF AIR AGAINST YOUR SKIN... IF YOU CAN, YOU ARE CIRCULAR BREATHING ... yippee yaay...

To better control and balance your circular breathing cycle YOU MUST LENGTHEN AND SLOW DOWN BOTH THE CHEEK EXHALATION AND THE NOSE INHALATION ... practise this using your hand until you can feel a constant and firm flow of air on your skin ... congratulations !!!!!!!

Try doing the same thing down the didjeridoo WITHOUT CREATING THE DRONE SOUND JUST THE AIR SOUND... be patient ... NOW EXPERIMENT DOING THIS WITH THE DRONE TONE ... your journey really begins now !!

NOTE: If you are experiencing difficulties with steps 1 to 4 you might like to try doing the following:

Exhale all the air out of your lungs(as much as possible)...........this will of course create a growing desire for you to breath again........stay like this until you are forced to inhale air again and do so through your NOSE........ do this a few times to get the feeling.

Do the same as above but this time after having fully exhaled, puff up your cheeks fully with air which is available in your mouth and hold your breath for as long as possible again...........NOW WHEN YOU MUST INHALE, DO SO THROUGH YOUR NOSE AND AT THE SAME TIME SQUEEZE THE AIR OUT OF YOUR MOUTH USING YOUR CHEEKS............you can use the palms of both your hands to help squeeze the air out of your cheeks if you need some extra stimulus.................. try to make this mouth air expulsion as long as possible by keeping tight lips and a small mouth aperture for the exhalation.

Keep practising the above until you get the feel of slowing breathing in through your nose and slowing expelling air our of your mouth using your cheek muscles at the same time........with some practise you will be able to do this without having to first empty your lungs.

When you are able to do this (a to c) return and continue with steps 1 – 6.