Didgeridoo Retroflexed Tonguing

Lesson Overview

Subtle changes in the movement of your tongue leads to new and interesting sounds. In this lesson we explore retroflexed tonguing, a new tongue movement to add to your repertoire

Lesson Goals

• Become confident with the retroflexed tongue movement
• Notice the different harmonics generated by this tongue movement

Training Tips

• Keep a gentle, consistent and clear drone when practicing this technique
• While playing the drone, start by putting the tip of your tongue behind your top front teeth
• Keep your tongue touching the roof of your mouth and slowly move the tip of your tongue backwards along your pallet, keeping contact with the roof of your mouth
• Listen for subtle sound changes in the harmonics and focus on the areas that make the most noticeable sound changes
• Having your tongue touching the roof of your mouth, forces the air to split in two paths to go either side of your tongue, resulting in the new harmonic sounds
• Alternate between this new retroflexed tonguing technique and the wee-or-wee-or technique to distinguish the two different sounds

Give it a try, let us know how you go and if you get stuck, post a question in the comments section below.