Making an ICONTEC Didgeridoo in Popayán

When I arrived in the city of Popayán

the first thing I wanted to do, was to go to the French restaurant called "La Semilla Escondida" (The Hidden Seed) located near "La Ermita" church.  Here is the street in front of the restaurant:

Popayán is called "La Ciudad Blanca" The White City

Here is the colorful lunch plate with a little bit of a lot of things: beans, mushrooms, rice, cabbage, carrot, tomato, carambola, etc.:

The light green star shaped fruit is carambola.

The second thing I wanted to do was to make a didgeridoo. But instead of making it from natural materials, like wood, bamboo, or guadua, I decided to make it from PVC. Of course, the idea came from a Web search for instructions on making a didgeridoo and PVC seemed the fastest and cheapest way to go.

ICONTEC is the Colombian national standards institute, kind of like ANSI (American National Standards Institute) in the USA. When I went to the hardware store in Popayán I discovered that the PVC tube I needed was approved by ICONTEC NTC 382 "Resolución 1166" PVC Agua Potable -- Presión (Pressurized for Drinking Water) 200 PSI. (In the USA it is simply called Schedule 40 PVC pipe.)

It was a thing of beauty! A long white tube 1.5 meters long and 1.5 inches inside diameter. 1.5 inches is too big to serve as a mouthpiece, so I had planned to use bees wax to fashion a smaller mouthpiece. But then I got the idea to attach a reduction to narrow the tube from 1.5 inches to 1 inch. Here is what happened:

1.5 to 1 inch reduction ... but I forgot to buy the union!

After another trip to the hardware store I had the three pieces I needed: the tube, the 1.5 to 1 inch reduction, and the union to fasten them together. Here is what the mouthpiece looks like:

With the reduction to 1 inch no beeswax mouthpiece needed.

Of course, it still has to be painted. And I still have to learn how to play it. If I can't learn circular respiration, then I am out the seven dollars the PVC parts cost. But I had fun with the process of putting it together and trying to make it sound like a didgeridoo.

My internet connection doesn't permit a big sound file, but here is a short clip of me playing the ICONTEC didgeridoo: