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What makes the best sounding didgeridoo, according to science

A didgeridoo may look like a simple, hollowed-out branch, but a study of the acoustic interplay between the instrument and our vocal cords has revealed the complexity involved

By James Woodford

12 December 2023

A man playing a digeridoo

Didgeridoo players can use their vocal cord reverberations to manipulate the resonances produced by the wood

Kate Callas

The traits that make the best didgeridoos have now been identified, and it has also given us a better understanding of how people use their vocal cords to make sounds with the instruments.

Didgeridoos, used by the Indigenous peoples of northern Australia for at least 1500 years, are “the principal musical instrument of the world’s oldest continuous culture”, say John Smith and Joe Wolfe, both at the University of New South Wales in Australia.…

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