Andrea Ferroni

 William Goldshmidt

Just 8 years ago I joined this association to know and study the Didgeridoo for the first time. The art of playing “freely”, without too many schemes and limits, was the factor that fascinated me mainly in its time and that still gives me the energy to experiment while playing. Later  I did begin to focus on rhythm and musicality, precision, timing because I felt the need to transmit this instrument to a wider audience. The art of the Beatbox, a fundamental part of my style, made me discover more about the high potential of the mouth and breathing. Didgeridoo today has become an extension of my mouth, amplifying and modulating every sound I produce. With this workshop I want to give many ideas as possible, helping to stimulate everyone’s creativity and artistic personality.

WORKSHOP program by Andrea Ferroni

Friday 31st July
– Acoustic possibilities of the didgeridoo –
This workshop was born from Andrea Ferroni’s experience in the field of acoustics related to the didgeridoo long almost twenty years. An often difficult topic if faced without real bases that can lead to trivial but expensive and misleading errors for the study and comprehension. This theme is generally dealt with in the tool building workshops held by Andrea. In this workshop we will review the same concepts under a more practical key.
Which instrument to choose (or to build easily) to obtain a specific color tone, to play a technique listened to by other musicians, etc., etc.
Maybe you might notice that some sounds and timbres or techniques are not attributable only to our way of playing but also to the type of instrument in our possession. After that there can be no excuses.
If you had more didgeridoos, take them with you. If you have many, choose from the most different ones.

Saturday 1st August
– Repertoire –
The main difference between a musician and a player lies in the repertoire.
The “repertoire” is the goal that can distinguish a musician who enjoys playing while growing and a player who is bored and leaves the music study. It is boring and harmful in music (but not only in music) to get stuck, to repeat the same actions waiting in vain for an imaginative idea which our passion can flow with.
With this workshop you can become the creators of your art, you will find methods to fix old ideas and embellish them.
In a few months you may be ready to record your first album.

Sunday 2nd August
– Home recording –
How nice would it be to be able to record a CD in a recording studio worthy of a modern pop star? Microphones of the value of a car, acoustically treated room to avoid external contamination and inadequate environmental reverberations.
But having limited resources it is possible to do an excellent job even at home, with a PC, a good but cheap microphone, a sound card, maybe free software and a little patience.
In this workshop we will combine what has been learned in the previous days to emphasize what has been learned in order to finalize it. From the beginning to the end in one workshop.
The satisfaction of finishing a job that took us months or years is first an important and personal achievement, a prize and then an excellent stimulus to continue.
This workshop is aimed for recording only one instrument at a time (for time and complexity limits) and will give the opportunity to make our recordings stereophonic (a microphone records in mono generally) and make it sound on any system with the same warmth that we listen live.

WORKSHOP program by William Goldschmidt

The didgeridoo is the pure expression of our mouth and our breath. I am an extremely contemporary player who respects tradition but tries to analyze all the uncommon nuances of this instrument. The Voice, the Beatbox, the percussive Toot and the didgeridoo Drone are factors that represent my way of playing.

Friday 31st July
In search of Musicality:

Do we want to introduce this tool to a wider community ?!
I believe that the key lies in bringing out the musicality that is within us, a completely subjective but essential quality to make a song more pleasant and harmonious with this very ancient instrument.

The basic didgeridoo is a fairly simple tool, however fueled by much more complex factors such as our mouth and our breath.
To increase musicality many times we need to detach ourselves from what the didgeridoo is like we are used to hearing it and to focus more on the various breathing techniques, singing and their dynamics.

In this first phase of the workshop we will observe the techniques that I have refined over the years to increase the musicality of my songs.

The Drone and its dynamics – the Drone has many different facets based on the vibration of the lips and the amount of air we let out. We will analyze what I call the “Sub Drone” and how we can emphasize other sounds above it.

Voice and Didgeridoo – The voice has enormous potential if we can get it out in a crystal clear way without too much drone interference, the right balance allows us to create melodies that further increase the dynamics of a track.

Percussive toot – Simulating another instrument with the didgeridoo is another interesting aspect to open the perspectives of this instrument. With the detached Toot we can simulate a lot of percussion of various kinds.

Saturday 1st August:
The art of the Beatbox

The didgeridoo is a filter – amplifier of our mouth and the Beatbox is definitely the art that experiments and studies most of all the sounds and ways of breathing that our body is incredibly able to make.
It is impressive to observe, in recent years, the enormous media development of this art, which by constantly transmitting new inspirations, is leading to rapid growth at a general level.
It is very important to be able to shape the beatbox and the didgeridoo in one thing, you must be able to tie them in such a way as to surprise the listener.

In this second part of the Workshop we will observe my approach to the Beatbox and how best to combine it with the didgeridoo.

The different Beatbox schools – The best way to learn is to observe the experts. As in the didgeridoo there are various schools created by level players, so we will observe them through some videos paying attention to some specific techniques.

Beatbox basic sounds – Kick, Snare and Hi-hats

Integrating the Beatbox with the Drone – we will observe and practice those crucial points on which to focus to better integrate the Didgeridoo with the Beat box.

Sunday 2nd August
Inward

We have always focused on those sounds due to the escape of air but not on those obtained from inspiration.
We have always been taught to breathe through the nose !! But what if we started to breathe through our mouths and above all making a pleasant aspirated sound at the same time ?!
A parallel world opens which highlights many new techniques and sounds.

So in the latter part of the Workshop we will understand:

– The various techniques that led me to develop inward sounds
– Get to know the inspiration and the various dynamics.
– Once the “suction pump” is activated we will observe which filters we can use to modulate the sounds: Inward Toot, Lip Roll, Click roll
– Balance in and out

Workshop conclusion

I will summarize all the techniques listed above and we will go to observe them in a completed track. So we will talk about how I create a new song and what are my main sources of inspiration.