Desert Mountain Didgeridoos

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Home – Welcome! [jj-ngg-jquery-slider gallery=”5″ html_id=”home” width=”640″ height=”480″ center=”1″ order=”random” animSpeed=”1000″ pauseTime=”4000″ shuffle=”true”] I am pleased to offer some of the finest handcrafted agave didgeridoos. Agaves are known for their amazing sound quality, ease of play, light weight, and beauty. Enjoy the site and contact me with any questions. Thanks, — Kyle Bert
Didgeridoos
About Me – About Me [singlepic id=76 w=200 h=400]I first heard the didgeridoo being played at the Fourth Avenue Street Fair in Tucson. I was in junior high school at the time. The deep, rhythmic music had an instant impact on me. I remember telling my friends that modern music needed this powerful instrument. Several years later, I purchased my first PVC didgeridoo which ended up breaking before I learned how to play. When I was 22, I purchased another didge — this time bamboo. I learned the drone, basic sounds, and how to circular breathe with the instrument but it met the same fate as the PVC didge thanks to an incident with my huge Newfoundland dog. I then decided that maybe it would be better if I started making my own. I had no idea that it would become such an important part of my life. Over the past eleven years, I have crafted over 200 agave didgeridoos and played them at many shows and open mics, both solo as well as with a wide variety of other instruments. I continued to collect the agave stalks in the Arizona desert and then make the long drive back to Montana, where I…
Craftsmanship – Craftsmanship [singlepic id=79 w=200 h=400] Agaves are perhaps best known as a source of tequila. If allowed to live to their full life-cycle, certain agaves produce a large flower stalk which is perfect for making didgeridoos. They work so well because of their thickness, tapered shape, and resonance. The flower stalk turns to wood after about a year baking in the Arizona sun. Some of the extremely strong can survive numerous years through extreme heat, rain and cold and comprise my “old soul” collection. I am extremely careful in the harvesting stalks in the wild. I collect only those that are old enough to have dropped their seeds. This helps insure their future survival. Collecting the best stalks is extremely rigorous — hiking up and down mountains, passing up many along the way, and only collecting those perfect for didges. For the didges with bells I have to pull off leaf after leaf from the base of the plant in order to expose the bulbous base (the part that would have produced tequila). The collected agave stalks are later analyzed and individually cut to the length best suited for use as a didgeridoo. I carefully bore out the softer interior…
Customers Say – “I’m fortunate enough to have had the pleasure of meeting Kyle in person and to have sampled most of his current inventory of astounding didges. All of them were unique instruments with a wonderful sound and all were crafted to perfection. I honestly could not choose the best one and so I had to buy two! And I would have bought more if I had more money; heck, I wanted them all! I don’t think you could make a bad choice on any of Kyle’s didges. It’s obvious that Kyle invests much of himself in creating his instruments and he cares deeply that they find a good home and that their owners are pleased. I have several aboriginal didges, including some by Djalu himself, and Kyle’s agave didges can proudly stand out among instruments crafted by the masters.” Brian, Missoula, MT I want to let you know that the agave didg. I bought from you is my favorite of the ones that I have. I play each of them every day. I always gravitate back to the agave since it clearly has the finest tone and resonance. I particularly like the big bell volume I can get from it. Dave,…
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Didgeridoo Playing Tips – Didge Playing Tips Drone: First is positioning your mouth. I play on the side of my mouth because I feel it creates a better drone with the air being focused closer to the side of the didge. Many players play straight on, which also creates a strong drone. Whatever feels comfortable for you. Buzz your lips while blowing out. Many try to blow too hard but agaves don’t need much to produce a drone. The tighter the buzz the better the drone. You will get better and better at tightening your lips with time as your muscles get used to the new exercise. Vocals: Any sound that you can make will exit the didgeridoo in a cool way. I love hearing people when they first start playing because they create vocals that I would never think of. That is one of the beautiful things about the didge. Bird sounds, such as that of the kookaburra are popular and so are dingo bark sounds. I rarely use these but rather try to create unique sounds or sing along with the drone. Nothing sounds bad so experiment with a variety of sounds. Tongue: I use my tongue probably the most when playing.…
Links to Friends – Links to FriendsAmazing Grass – www.amazinggrass.com Lara Hill – www.larahill.net Castro-agaven didgeridoos – www.agavendidgeridoos.de Rueben Munoz-ranchoreubidoux.wordpress.com/ Bill Leppert-www.myspace.com/leppertguitars

Links to Friends

Transforming agave (short documentary by Bryan Nelson about my craft) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MhdtQA04dqM

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Amazing Grass
Lara Hill
Rueben Munoz-Agave Didgeridoo Article
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Castro-agaven didgeridoos

Email: desertmountaindidges@gmail.com

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