We've had lots of people ask us how to make their own didgeridoo as they haven't got the money to buy a real one.

If you can't afford a good genuine Didgeridoo, one of the next best things in sound quality is a plastic pipe - and its certainly the cheapest option. There is one source for a Didgeridoo, which can be even cheaper and that is the cardboard rolls used by fabric merchants to roll the material on. You can probably pick those up for free at fabric retailers. It's advisable to give them a coat of varnish or wood glue to harden them and improve the sound of the didgeridoo.

Fantastic Plastic

Back to the fantastic plastic. Here's some didgeridoo-making advice straight off my video:

I recommend you get a PVC pipe from your hardware store, with an internal diameter of 40mm. Get it cut or cut it yourself to exactly 104cm long and your PVC Didgeridoo will be in the key of E or 118 cm long for a D or 132 cm long for a C. These are the best keys to learn on. Sand the ends of the pipe smooth.

Then get yourself a small piece of natural beeswax from a beekeeper, hardware store, health food shop or saddler. Lay it inside a glass jar in the sun for half an hour (if you got any sun) or nuke it in the microwave for 10 seconds or put it into the oven at very low (~50-60°C).

When the beeswax is nice and soft make a snake out of it, that is about 5 to 10 mm thick. Press that beeswax snake in a circle onto one end of the pipe, smooth and seal the inside of the mouthpiece and then do the same for its outside. Then work the beeswax so you end up with a hole about 35 mm across. It can be slightly oval, but should be even without hills and valleys. The more even the hole is in both dimensions, the easier it is to get a good seal with the mouth.

That's all! Your didj is finished!

Give your didgeridu a blow!

Give it a go. If it doesn't feel quite right, try to make the hole slightly larger or smaller. That can make a big difference to how easy the Didgeridoo is to play.

To learn circular breathing, we recommend The Didjshop's one-hour How To Play the Didgeridoo video. In the tutorial video, half the time is spent teaching circular breathing - and there are lots of useful exercises.

Good luck and have fun!

Also see this Forum post