After three prototypes and lots of wonderful feedback from all of you at festivals the past few years, the BOD Udu is now in stock!

The word “Udu” means “pot” in the language of the Igbo people of Nigeria, and what musicians know as an Udu is a ceramic percussion instrument in the form of a bellied pot with a neck, typically with one hole at the end of the neck and one on the side of the belly.

The BOD Udu is made in a traditional form of a spherically bellied pot with a short neck, but has been spun of 3mm thick aluminium and  finished with a tough automotive quality powder coat finish with a slightly grainy texture, in a warm orange terra cotta colour.

What Can You Do With a BODUdu?

You can sit with the Udu cradled in your lap, either sitting in a chair with your feet on the floor or with one ankle crossed over the opposite knee, or sitting anywhere you like cross legged.  You can also play it standing or sitting with the Udu on a stand in front of you.

There are two sorts of sounds you can make.  First, by stopping or un-stopping either of the holes with the palm of your hand, fingers arched back slightly, you create a suction effect which pushes out or draws in the air through the pot, making all kinds of lovely bass notes which bend.  There’s your bass line.

Second, treat the Udu as you would any kind of hand drum and use all the different parts of your hand in all kinds of ways to work the surface of the pot for your melody or treble line.

Slap it with all four fingers and then the heel of your hand like a conga or djembe player, use your fingers like individual mallets (think of drumming your fingers on the desk when you’re stuck on hold!), rap it with your knuckles, rock your hand side to side to strike the drum with the outer edge of your palm and then with your thumb as hand drum players do. You can gently brush the flat surfaces of your palm or fingers over the surface of the Udu to create a brushing or shakey kind of sound. Use these techniques on the belly, the bottom, on the neck or along the lip of the neck hole.

If you have headphones, pop them on now!

Have a listen to John playing the BOD Udu:

In this sound bite, John narrates how he is making each type of sound:

In short, the BOD Udu is a lot of fun to play, and there isn’t much you can do wrong to get a sound out of it. Everyone has had fun playing around with it out at the festivals, and now we hope you will decide to have some fun with it too, at home, at a gig or down the pub, wherever you play your music.

The BOD Udu is available in the shop now.  Buy just the BOD Udu together with a free jute covered display base, or buy the BOD Udu Kit: Udu and base together with a Protection Racket case to carry it all in.

We look forward to hearing what Yu Du with your BOD Udu.