Selecting Tibetan Singing Bowls for use in Sound Healing Therapy

Tibetan singing bowls generally have a sound very much like a bell. They come in different sizes from a few inches to 2-3 feet in diameter. Sometimes called standing bells they are played with a mallet or beater with the open rim upwards. Tibetan singing bowls occasionally called medicine bowls produce a beautiful calming sound full of high and low harmonics overtones.

Tibetan singing bowls can be played by tapping the sides or top rim using a mallet, stick, or a beater. They can also be played by rotating a mallet or stick around the outside rim which produces a long sustained continuous musical note. It is believed that the original Tibetan singing bowls were manufactured by combining seven metals together but most bowls found nowadays have been found to be a combination of two or three metals such as bronze, copper, tin or iron.

The Tibetan singing bowl has its own tone, resonant frequency and key. Many sound healers will have at least one Tibetan singing bowl but generally they may use many different singing bowls in a variety of sizes and sounds during a sound healing session.

On our online sound healing training course we give many examples of sound healing instruments being applied for different health issues.

When buying a Tibetan singing bowl it is important to look out for a bowl which will create nice overtones and harmonics and a good way to select a bowl is to tap it and listen to how long it sustains or how long the sound will carry on after it is tapped. As a rule of thumb when purchasing a bowl of this kind - the longer the sustained sound, the better the bowl.

Tibetan singing bowls have been in used for thousands of years and were traditionally used in Asian countries such as China, Nepal, India, and Japan. These bowls were commonly used by Tibetan monks in Buddhist practices and for meditation sometimes accompanied by chanting. It is believed that Tibetan monks had their own personal bowl which they used for begging, eating their food, carrying water, meditation and self healing.

Tibetan singing bowls are now widely is use with sound healers, music therapists, and yoga practitioners and can be used for self healing and to help with meditation and relaxation. These are demonstrated in our online sound healing training course for use in a therapy situation and in our self healing course for personal use. The sound of a Tibetan singing bowl may help to induce a sense of peace and calm.

Selecting a sound healing instrument will very much depend on what the therapist / practitioner / healer is looking for or is guided to purchase. Generally speaking the larger the instrument, the bigger, louder and deeper the sound, and also the more resonance it will create. 

Also in selecting a sound healing instrument such as a gong or Tibetan singing bowl, you are likely to pay more for a better quality instrument. By this I mean that it is important to check out an instrument before purchasing, and to listen to the sound it creates and how much sustain the instrument might have. By ‘sustain’ I mean how long the note from the instrument continues after it is tapped or after you have stopped rubbing its edges. A longer sustain invariably means a better quality instrument.

Intuition

More importantly allow yourself to be guided by your intuition when choosing a sound healing instrument. When you tap a gong or a bowl you can immediately sense if you can feel a connection with that instrument. It is the same if you are buying a guitar or violin or any instrument. Firstly you must feel a connection with that particular instrument. If it doesn’t intuitively feel like the correct instrument to purchase, it’s not likely to resonate with you in a way that will allow you and the sound you create to connect and resonate with your client.