Crystal 'Singing' Bowls

I wasn't sure if I should put this in 'crystals' or 'chat.'

Does anyone have a 'crystal singing bowl'? Does anyone USE it?

I have a large one - salad bowl size (14 inches). I have had it for about 20 years. It can sit for years in it's protective box and then I take it out to show someone, bang the edge and draw the mallet around it to show them the sound. Then it goes back in the box. It cost $150 at the time.

Does ANYONE use theirs?

In case you don't know what I'm talking about: http://www.crystal-singing-bowls.com/

I have a very small metal singing bowl as I couldn't afford any more. I use it for clearing, and when I'm in need of calming healing, that sort of thing.

I am envious, in a good way, of yours, how wonderful. I can't believe you don't have it out all the time?

PW

I envy you being able to use your singing bowls, tarotbear and PW too!

I want to be able to use one, but the sound they produce makes me feel like shrieking, because that is what they sound like to my ears - too high and too piercing, it makes me feel like my ears are bleeding...

Once on an excursion to the local new-age bookstore here, someone was trying out every single bowl in the store to see which one they wanted to purchase. I was obliged to leave the store till they were done, as the sound was making me nauseous...

And yet Tibetan temple bell gongs work very well for me.

I love singing bowls, although I don't own any as of yet, and my experience has been pretty much exclusively with the metal variety so far. I've recently started pricing both bowls and tuning forks, as I feel like I need to have some of these sound-generating items here in my collection. As PathWalker noted, they ain't cheap, but I love the effects of them, and I really want to explore using them. I add my envy, too -- how do you not have that bowl out and singing on a daily basis??

frac_ture said:

-- how do you not have that bowl out and singing on a daily basis??

Click to expand...

For one thing - 1) something that large would always get full of dust - could flip it over until ready to use I suppose; 2) at the time I had several cats and would be afraid they might tip it over; 3) unless you had a table to put it on as an object d'art, it is a big thing that takes up a lot of space. The store also had ones large enough to bathe a baby in.

Have any of you filled it about 1/4 way with water and watched the ripples the sound waves form?

Musical people out there among us - there is a musical term for these instruments that are both instrument and sound chamber in one - what is it?

Oh...very valid points all around! I can especially sympathize with the dust thing -- I guess you'd almost be obliged to create some kind of decorative dust cover for it if you wanted to keep it out (assuming you had the space, and the cats would honor its need for not being knocked over repeatedly...).

Never tried the thing you mention with water, but now I want to!

And I'm a musician, but I don't know the term you're after...although you're right, there must be one that means exactly that...

Ask tarotlyn. I believe she has some.

We've got brass singing bowls. My husband is wonderful with them, but the sounds infuriate the cats and they start biting each other.

"Crystal Bowl Choir"

I found this on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMWgmV-w6SE

My friend has quite a few. He uses them in his healing practice. I love them!

I have about a dozen or so metal singing bowls and just absolutely love them. I have a HUGE 16in one that has a real deep tone to it. I got into them about 15 years ago and now get one almost as my birthday gift to myself every year.

As for the crystal ones, I never got into their sound. To me they sound harsh and I never liked the thought that the crystal was melted out of it's natural trigonal crystal shape. I know that the metal was manipulated too, but the quartz has a much more delicate structure to me. anyway I digress. They always sounded like big wine glasses to me, the metal ones tend to have a more layered sound.

Several of them I store on a very shallow shelf I made over my herbs jars.