Maybe you’ve heard of Crystal Bowls, maybe you’ve even heard them in a meditation and felt the profound effects. However, many people wonder how to produce sounds from such quartz bowls.
There are many different playing techniques that are often even performed with different mallets. By playing different techniques, many different sounds and overtones can be coaxed out of one crystal singing bowl. (Unfortunately, this is only possible with handmade crystal bowls, such as AkashaBowls®; machine-made singing bowls inherently have lower frequencies and overtones).
The most important playing techniques are:
1. BLOW/RING: Hit the bowl with a leather mallet. You can experiment with the force with which you hit the bowl: But always be careful and do not hit directly on the edge first, but about 3 cm below it. You can also strike different parts of the bowl and feel how and if the sound changes.
2. “WHIRLING” also called CIRCULATING: If you simply run the hammer around the rim (with or without hitting the Crystal Bowl first), you can create a vibration of the bowl and nice frequencies. Again, experiment with the pressure and the areas where you move the hammer. Glass mallets with a rubber coating are good for this.
Task: Hold your hammer upright like a pencil and place it at a 45 degree angle on the edge of your Crystal Bowl. Guide the hammer around the edge of the bowl with gentle pressure for 1-2 cycles. Release the hammer when you feel the Crystal Bowl begin to vibrate and allow the sound to spread. You can do this after “hitting” when the bowl is already vibrating, or you can create the sound from silence by rotating the bowl.
Turn clockwise: brings energy/play for yourself.
Turn counterclockwise: purifies the energy / facilitates letting go / playing for others
3. BUOY: bending creates a softer energy. Hold your hammer like a pencil, but so that it is horizontal/parallel to the floor. Place the hammer about halfway up the outer surface of your bowl and begin a “sawing” motion, moving the hammer back and forth with light pressure, as if you were playing a violin or cello. (You can also stroke a horizontal figure eight here.) You can also rotate the hammer around the entire outside of the bowl, keeping it horizontal but never touching the edge of the bowl.
This technique usually works very well with Practitioner Crystal Bowls (e.g. the Dove Spirit AkashaBowls® Crystal Bowl or Chalice Crystal Bowls, e.g. Chalice Bumblebee Spirit AkashaBowls® Crystal Bowl, i.e. hand-held crystal bowls.
Floor-standing Crystal Bowls usually require some practice and fingertip feel. Just keep at it and practice diligently and it will definitely work!