My Instruments

The didgeridoo originates from Australia and has been played by the country's native people, the Aboriginals, for a long time. It's a so-called aerophone, a wind instrument. A traditional didgeridoo is made of eucalyptus and was hollowed out by termites.

Playing technique

The drone is achieved by vibrating the lips loosely. Several different sounds can be created by moving the tongue, using the voice and the diaphragm, by puffing up the cheeks and changing the tension of the lips (just a few examples). The characteristic continuous drone can be achieved thanks to the so-called circular breathing. You puff up your cheeks and while you press the air out of the mouth, you breathe in through the nose. 

This simple "tube" has so much more potential than you might think at first sight. Even for me, after more than 10 years of playing the didgeridoo, it is still lots of fun and, believe it or not, I still discover new things.

The handpan is a recent instrument, at least in comparison to the didgeridoo. The mother of all handpans, the Hang, was invented in the year 2000 by Felix Rohner and Sabina Schärer in Bern, Switzerland. It basically combines two instruments: the Steeldrum and the Ghatam. 

Simply said, handpans are two metal shells glued together (sometimes also welded together). On the upper shell you can find all the tone fields, that are placed in a circle around the Ding in the middle, usually the lowest tone of the scale. The tone fields are hammered into the metal. But every tone field doesn't just have one note, there are usually three notes: the base note, the fifth and the octave. On the other shell you can find the Gu, a hole with a tuned rim, at least on high quality handpans. Today, there are more and more instruments that also have tone fields on the lower shell, to extend the possibilities and to be able to put more notes on one instrument (I've seen up to 21 tone fields!).

The handpan is a very intuitive instrument and accessible to everyone, but it is quite expensive. You just have to stroke a tone field slightly to create a soothing sound. To me, handpans have something very calming, they touch your soul.

The cajón is the most widely used Afro-Peruvian musical instrument since the late 16th century. Slaves of west and central African origin in the Americas are considered to be the source of the cajón drum. (source: wikipedia)

Cajons are not just simple boxes, they can get pretty close to the sound of a real drumset. Inside the box, there are either snare wires or guitar strings to create a snare-like sound. By adding accessories (as you can see on my cajon on the picture), you can extend the percussive possibilities of the instrument. The cajon is usually played with the hands, but I often use a foot pedal when I play it together with the handpan.