Didgeridoo Musical Annotation

This is an idea I've been toying with for several years now, moreso since I began studying phonetics a few months ago. As of now, there does not exist any standard notation for the different noises on the didgeridoo. Lessons are taught informally through demonstration and the use of a handful of didgeridoo colloquialisms -toots, screams, "taka-taka", drone, bounce breath, etc. - that refer to specific sounds or articulations. Among didgeridoo players, these sounds are understood, and the colloquialisms serve just fine. However, that's because everyone has already made those noises before and can reliably recreate them. The "notation" for didgeridoo is really nothing more than lingo for those who are already in the know. It does not serve to help others understand how to make noises that they have not yet made.

Imagine telling someone how a word is spelled with no alphabet.

My idea is to create a standard system of didgeridoo articulations based upon the International Phonetic Alphabet. I think this is the perfect foundation for such a project, since many of the diagnostics that are defined by IPA are exactly the types of distinctions that are made between didgeridoo noise: voicing, aspiration, tone, place of articulation, to name a few. Interestingly, I learned a great deal of new noises on didgeridoo when I began studying phonetics! I would take a familiar articulation and change one aspect, such as the place of articulation, and produce a noticeably distinct sound. This is what led me to believe such a system was possible.

Even just thinking about such an endeavor shows me just how important a systems approach is to a project like this. While the IPA does a pretty good job of grouping sounds based upon their manner of articulation, I have a feeling that is one side of the chart I will need to revamp. It's true, there are noises that you can make on the didgeridoo employing the Trill, Plosive, and Fricative manners of articulation (among others), but these are relatively few and do not warrant the entire top half of the chart. Likely this will be replaced with a system that determines air pressure, based upon the manner of air exhaust (using the diaphragm, pharyngeal muscles, cheek muscles, tongue, etc). Other factors I will have to take into account are whether or not there is a continuous drone to a segment, or whether it is divided up into individual sounds. Indeed, there will be a good number of additional phonetic categories that apply to playing the didgeridoo but not necessarily to speech.


For those of you who are not familiar with the IPA, here is a link to a site that does a good job of explaining the different distinctions it makes, and how different sounds are categorized.

http://www.omniglot.com/writing/ipa.htm