We all love the bowls and we all want to know how to play them well so let me share a few tips with you, on how to play the tibetan singing bowls.

I am no expert, you know that, I am just a passionated collector and I am always on the intrent trying to find good information and some videos to share with you and maybe we can all learn a lilte more about out favorite tibetan bowls together. I have recently found a website that published an axcellent article teaching how to play the singing bowls and you shoul check it out. Its the http://www.bodhisattva.com/ site and they have a great article teaching how to plya.

HOW TO PLAY TIBETAN SINGING BOWLS _ click it and read a very interesting article about it. Hope you enjoy and talk soon

A few months ago a reader left me a comment to one of my posts, where she asked me to please include the videos from her website anda link to her Tibetan Bowl Sound Healing School (TBSHS). I have been checking the site out and I must say I am very impressed by the quality of the info about tibetan singing bowls that you can find there.

It also seems like a wonderful place to learn how to play the tibetan bowls and learn many more neat facts about the sinining bowls we all love so much.

Here´s one video from the Tibetan Bowl Sound Healing School (TBSHS), later on I will be posting about her other site, the Sound Enegry Healing site, also oriented towards healing bowls and how to use the tibetan singing bowls to perform healing.

Tibetan singing bowls are used for healing and to induce deep states of meditation. If you are looking for a sound that will soothe both your mind and soul, listen to the sounds of a Tibetan singing bowl. In a word, it’s amazing! It is pure sound and will rapidly induce a relaxed and meditative state for anyone who listens to them.

Tibetan singing bowls are classified as standing bells where the bottom of the bell rests on a surface, and it is inverted instead of the way bells are traditionally placed. The sides and rim of the bell vibrate to produce sounds and have long been used in Southeast Asia, Tibet, Japan, China, Nepal and India, Bhutan and Korea. Used as a part of the Tantric Buddhist sadhana, which is Buddhist spiritual practice, they are integral to practice and meditation. 

There are debates concerning the use of the singing bowls, and many stories have been woven around these sacred bells. Some feel that they are simply a prop to use during prayer and chanting, while others believe they possess magical transformational powers that can alter both self and matter. While they are universally utilized as part of religious practice, their sound also makes a great background for meditation, trance-induction, relaxation and personal well-being. Of all of the singing bowls out there, the culture best known to employ them is Tibet. They are part of the Himalayan region and referred to as “Tibetan Singing Bowls”.

Tibetan singing bowls make sound by friction created by rubbing plastic, wood or leather wrapped mallets along the rim of the bowl which produces a natural harmonic resonance or tones which resemble a singing sound. There are all levels of quality when it comes to Tibetan singing bowls and each one produces a unique sound. Singing bowls can also make different sounds by using different instruments to strike the bell. 

Yesterday, having dinner at a friends house, I was talking about my never ending love for this mystical musical object, our glorious Tibetan singing bowl, when I found out how few did I knew about it, in practical. Sure I know the composition, the form, the esthetical look…I have many, I have books about them, I go to galleries to look at ancient Tibetan singing bowls…but some practical knowledge in actually “handling” The singing bowls is lacking.

Yes, I do own a few Tibetan singing bowls, many hand-crafted in Tibet itself, and many which are replicas of ancient ones. I even have a few crystal Tibetan singing bowls in my collection. But I do NOT KNOW HOW TO USE THEM PROPPERLY!!!

I felt so ridiculous, going on and on about the objects, and their endless mysteries, and how the arrived to Tibet from India and etc, but when the daughter of my friend asked me to play a little for her…. :

“Please auntie, go get your Tibetan Singing Bowls and put them to sing a little for us.”

This was when I decided I had to learn how to play them!! It could not be any other way …my pride does not allow me to keep with this tremendous gap in my education!! Hehe

So, as off now, I am on a quest to find the best Tibetan singing bowl master I can;

I will keep you posted on my journey to finally learn hot to play this instrument. I have already checked out a few online schools that will provide you with video tutorials- this can be an hypothesis for me, since I already have a lot of contact with the Tibetan singing bowls, I think I might pull this all right….We’ll see.

If you or anyone you know has learned how to reasonably play the Tibetan singing bowls on an online school, please do let me know.

Historians believe the most ancient Tibetan Singing Bowls to have appeared around 2.500 years ago. There is not much written data about their manufacturing in the old days to make it possible for us to know exactly the age of the ancient art of the making of Tibetan Singing Bowls – the records state that Tibetan Singing Bowls have been around from the 8^th Century AD.

Luckily for us, Indians have a very strong oral tradition and with all their beautiful lore love have managed to pass around stories which relate to the usage of the singing bowls. Those stories also teach us that the singing bowls arrived to Tibet, from India, just around the same time the Buddhist master Padmasambhava, introduced Buddhism to the country. - In Tibet they perfected the art and gave way to the famous Tibetan Singing Bowls.

The Tibetan Singing Bowls have a striking curiosity around them- no matter how hard modern manufacturers try, they have not yet been able to emulate the fabrication and the mysterious sounds of the ancient singing bowls. Thus, the fabrication of the original Tibetan singing bowl is considered a lost art!

Aside from the well know 12 different metals, used in the fabrication of the Tibetan singing bowls, lore tells that in some ancient bowls, metals taken from meteorites could be found.

Tibetan Singing Bowls are basically simple metal bowls. What makes a tibetan singing bowl special is the sound it can produce - its wonderfull and unique sound, whihc is so soothing that the tibetan sining bowls are often called of the voice of the gods. This varies according to materials and design, you can buy deep tone tibetan singing bowls or one with a higher tone according to taste.

“The bowl - which is usually between 5″ and 13″ in diameter - “sings” by resonating in much the same way as a glass does when you run a finger carefully around the rim. The bowl is usually played with a wooden mallet that is run around the outside. It can also be struck to produce a bell like sound.” in WYRDOLOGY

Antique tibetan singing bowls were usually simple and practial in design and rarely have more decoration than a few lines and circles. Modern versions of the tibetan singing bowls often have more representational artwork, usually tibetan motifs.

I just came accross those two tips on playing tibetan sining bowls, I thouhgt you might find it usefull.

#There are two basic ways of playing a singing bowl. Resting the bowl upon the palm of your hand, you can either strike it with a mallet for percussive pulsating tones or you can rub around the edge with the wooden wand (puja) for a sustained effect. The pressure that you use to apply the wand onto the rim of the bowl will affect the sounds the bowl produces as also the speed with which you rotate the wand. Too much or too little pressure or the wrong speed will cause a rattling sound that most people dislike.#

Just another tip on learning the tricky art of playing the tibetan singing bowls

Hre is a video I found on youtube, it is delightfull. Hope you enjoy the mellodies of those enchanting tibetan singing bowls.