singing bowl

[MooNiNite]

Trying to decode tibetab singing bowl.

[soaring crane]

Decode? That's an interesting word. Is it possible to be more specific?

[Nungali]

A real one ... a magical one made of 7 metal electrum cast during the appropriate astrological transits .... you would need a date first ?

[soaring crane]

be wary of 'real' singing bowls. Unless you bought it at the smithy directly, it's potluck.

 

But if if is sings long and sweet, and with many over and undertones, and it pleases you, then that's pretty good criteria.

[Eric23]

It took me almost a year getting to know my bowl. The striker has an important roll, I keep three around, each with a different diameter and covering. It was a matter of learning what pressure and speed to use for the singing. You can always start with a simple gong. Wonderful way to start each morning.

[silent thunder]

Mine sings daily, often and sometimes long...

[doc benway]

So important to take time and listen carefully, multiple times before choosing one.

Mine has helped me purify my house.

It has wonderful, complex tones.

[joeblast]

love a good chorus...I have picked out special ones I've come across over the years

 

[soaring crane]

very nice, Joe! This is the 'starter set' for a singing bowl therapist here:

 

 

with this set, we give a treatment that's based on the Flower of Life.

[thelerner]

Do all the bowls 'sing' after one has been tapped?

Interesting that you say Flower of Life, it can't be seen, but thats probably exactly what's forming sonically within the bowls.

[joeblast]

to the extent that there's sympathetic resonance, it is quite far exceeded by the primarily resonating bowl. moreso with the two larger ones (11" & 8") of course, but still relatively insignificant

[soaring crane]

Do all the bowls 'sing' after one has been tapped?

Interesting that you say Flower of Life, it can't be seen, but thats probably exactly what's forming sonically within the bowls.

 

Like Joe says, only insignificantly. But the overtones reach areas imperceptible to the ears. The value is in the frequencies more than the sound.

 

With that set, the four smaller flat bowls at the top of the pic are placed around the head - next to the left ear, right ear, crown and directly on the heart / chest.

 

The three taller bowls at the bottom are around the feet and the big bowl on the left of the pic is placed on the the knees, the one across from that goes on the stomach.

 

These are all points from the flower of life.

Edited March 29, 2014 by soaring crane

[joeblast]

the 11 is the cooest bathtub toy. vibrate your bones and guts very well, and there's these interesting wave patterns that form at the edge of the water when struck. I use an ol busted bass drum mallet for that.

[soaring crane]

yesssssss they swim

 

You can also put water in them, just a little warm water, and feel the resonance deeper.

 

I was engaged at a local thermal spa for a little while, once a week with singing bowls in the "meditation" pool (basically a smallish, warm pool in an enclosed area where no kids were allowed). The people would float around on swim noodles and I would play the bowls as they floated on the water. It was ok, sounds better than it really was because the place wasn't really the best atmosphere for this sort of thing and the people who showed up weren't really into the whole idea.

 

But bowls in the bathtub are awesome.

 

I used to have a 'foot bowl', one big enough to hang the feet in. That was pretty interesting.

[MooNiNite]

having trouble uploading photos

Edited March 29, 2014 by MooNiNite

[thelerner]

Gotta ask. Are you bowl guys into tuning forks? Different tools, but similar modalities.

[soaring crane]

Hi Learner - from my perspective, singing bowls are like the ant-matter to the tuning fork. They're not tuned and they're NOT (had to come back and add that important little word, oops) terribly useful as musical instruments (for normal music, lol). They're very, very overtone-rich, meaning they create many sinus waves that can be dissonant. But that's what makes them such effective enhancements to meditation and therapy. In the set and system I described, the very bottom bowl is placed at the foot chakra, we call it the 'breaker', and the bowl is specifically selected because it doesn't harmonize with the rest of the set.

 

A somewhat related anecdote:

 

Years ago, I was invited to a demo evening from an importer of Crystal Singing Bowls . They were beautiful and impressive, were perfectly tuned, rang clean and long and crystal clear ... and were totally unsuited for what we do. The salesperson had the mindset that more is better and he when rubbed the bowls with the hard rubber bowl-rubber, the sound was penetrating, searing, oh-my-God-loud. And this was supposed to be a group therapy session. He was trying to impress us.

 

In the feedback round, one person (no, it wasn't me), said the bowls were too 'American'. By that she meant that they strove for the superlative (over here, the USA is known as the Land of the Superlative), and by so doing, missed the heart of the art.

 

Speaking of overtones, I'm actually more of a Gong-addict lol. Especially the tam-tam style you see in the pic I posted. There's a similar scenario in the gong world. Paiste makes very impressive, tuned, concert gongs. If you attend a symphony performance and the percussionist has a gong (which he may bang once during the concert), it'll be a Paiste. I suppose there are other manufacturers of concert gongs out there, but it's a sure bet you won't see a hand-hammered, original Wuhan gong on a professional stage. They're not tuned at all, not tamed. They're wild animals that beckon you to play with them

Edited March 29, 2014 by soaring crane

[doc benway]

Any relatively easy way to upload sound files?

That might be interesting.

[soaring crane]

Any relatively easy way to upload sound files?

That might be interesting.

 

Well, speaking for myself, I've never heard a singing bowl or (and especially) gong recording that comes close to the original. I have many professional singing bowl recordings, I use them sometimes as background (waaaay in the background, very, very quiet) music during qigong sessions, but they don't, can't, approach the real thing.

 

If you're just interested in a general way to know what they sound like, youtube is your friend, my friend :-)

[doc benway]

Well, speaking for myself, I've never heard a singing bowl or (and especially) gong recording that comes close to the original. I have many professional singing bowl recordings, I use them sometimes as background (waaaay in the background, very, very quiet) music during qigong sessions, but they don't, can't, approach the real thing.

 

If you're just interested in a general way to know what they sound like, youtube is your friend, my friend :-)

 

Thanks - I thought it might be cool for us to upload clips of our own bowls to share.

Maybe I'll get industrious some day and make a youtube clip…

[soaring crane]

Ahhh... Ok, I misunderstood you - I had forgotten that you mentioned your own bowls on the first page of the thread. I do like the idea.

Edited March 29, 2014 by soaring crane

[joeblast]

Gotta ask. Are you bowl guys into tuning forks? Different tools, but similar modalities.

but of course I have two - one 50Hz that is good for vibrating bones, and a 4KHz one that pierces the sh*t out of yintang

[Captain Mar-Vell]

...

I am become a tuning fork upon the earth.

 

Lightning conductor.

 

Bang a gong.

 

Get it on.

 

Thus sayeth Metal Guru.

 

Those bowls look beautiful!

 

I bet they are expensive.

 

I used to love to sit and play with the singing bowls in the music department of a local musuem.

 

I'll have to save my pennies for some of those beautiful bowls.

 

I'm not sure the neighbours would appreciate a gong too much though.

 

...

Edited March 29, 2014 by Captain Mar-Vell

[Nungali]

Looove gongs ... I got to stand in and play 2 very large bass gongs in an Indonesian gamalan orchestra for a whole afternoon once. I was in heaven . I got a 20 min intro and the conductor would signal me when to play left or right (big and bigger ) by pointing at first, then later as I started to pick it up, just by eye movements and later again I was able to anticipate, which lead to a smile signal.

 

 

 

big gongs ( suwak) is at @ 1.56

 

Also the gamalan I got to play was the same one from the Sydney museum I used to admire as a child, it got given to Indonesia, restored and gifted back to the Sydney Uni Gamalan orchestra ... and I just happened to turn up on the right day.

Edited March 29, 2014 by Nungali

[doc benway]

Wonderful! I played in a Balinese Gamelan Angklung in college for a few years.

I played the jublag.

We even got to play at the Balinese embassy once - really a lot of fun.