Interesting Sounds: Intooting

Inhale Tooting

Before I learned to circular breathe I used to toot while taking in a breath THROUGH THE MOUTH. It was a desperate alternative. I gave it up after I learned to circular breathe, but it is an interesting technique that I call Intooting.

Here's a little example of some intake toots (and an intake pop). Great way to hyperventilate:  

Here's another example that is fuller in sound and closer to the first overtone:

Both these examples were recorded with Quartz Studio Free using my ABS Pseudoconical Didge in D.

This might explain why sometimes it's hard to detect a player's circular breathing. Maybe they aren't circular breathing at all, but breathing in during a toot!

Intoot Technique: loosen your lips, curve them inward JUST SLIGHTLY around your teeth, exhale deeply and as you inhale draw your lips closer together till you find the sweet spot. Without the didge it sounds a bit like someone rubbing a balloon or a balloon letting some air out. Try to take long, slow breaths in and out so you have plenty of inhalation to experiment with. With practice, you can intoot without deep inhaling. In learning to intoot you will pass through the following stages:

    1. Whimpering Wombat: little or no sound and wandering
         about in the dark.
    2. Sick Elephant: heart rending sick elephant sounds combined 
        with crazed kisses goodbye.
    3. Angry Emu: lots of short uncontrollable emu sounding toots.
    4. Intooters Anonymous: too late to turn back now!  You're      
        making great sounding toots and drones and are totally 
        hooked.

The great thing about intooting is that you do not have to attempt to circular breathe while tooting. You can do a series of toots and catch a breath by making some of them intoots.

Intooting is handy for those times when you've blown yourself into a corner and don't have enough air left to circular breathe. This seems to happen from time to time, especially if you are using the tongue piston method of circular breathing or are bounce breathing from the diaphram.

Since intooting involves taking air in through the mouth, it is not recommended if there is a build up of dust and debris in your didge. Intooting does not require much intake of air. When practicing you should not be straining your lungs!

Here's a fun little example of using intoots to echo drone rhythms:



Here are the spectrums for a toot and an intoot at the first overtone on my D didge: 

I thought that there might be some differences, particularly in the harmonics they pick up, but they are virtually identical.

Here is a sound sample of alternating toots and intoots: