Even More Interesting Sounds: Tongue Droning

Tongue Droning

Here is an interesting technique I have been working on: tongue droning where you stick out your tongue between your lips and produce the drone by vibrating your tongue INSTEAD of your lips. While this technique is easier to do with front blowing, it can also be done while side blowing. Here is a sample mp3 with alternating lip and tongue drones using my wooden Australian tourister didge in F:



I'm sure many people do tongue droning without realizing it. The easiest way is to stick out your tongue and do a "Teeeeeeeeeeeee" but without using the vocal chords, just as a mouth shape. You start to feel the vibrations transferring from your lips to your tongue, and your tongue tingles.

A drawn out "te" as in "tender" seems to work somewhat better than "tee" as in "tea". You can hear this on my above sound sample, which is played on my first didge, by the way. This one was bought for me in Australia by my friend and band mate, Jethro, who hauled it all around Australia with him. It is an inexpensive one, just a straight cyclinder made from some kind of wood and with paintings of a emu and a platypus on it. I found this one difficult to learn on, but I do play it now from time and time, and enjoy it's sound, particularly when tongue droning.

Here is a sample of some tongue droning effects on my high G didge: