Facts on Singing Bowls

 

Music has been used since time immemorial to soothe our spirits. The surprising thing with music is that it can come from the simplest of instruments or even natural phenomenon. One of the most ancient and simple musical instrument is the singing bowl. The singing bowl is not only used for entertainment purposes to produce music but also provides healing physically, mentally and spiritually. Singing bowls are used for many purposes ranging from music therapy, meditation, sound healing, religious services and even for personal enjoyment.

 

Singing bowls produce sound by rubbing the rim with a plastic, wooden, or leather wrapped mallet. Singing bowls are not only used traditionally for meditation, but they have also been used by neurologists to show that brain waves change when listening to their calming sounds. Another interesting fact is that the metals used to make the silver sky imports bowls vary from one religion to another, and there are about twelve different metals traditionally used, but the main ingredient remains copper. Some religions even used precious metals like gold and silver.

 

The sound produced by a bowl depends on the metal that was used in creating it. Copper has one of the purest sounds among the metals whereas crystal singing bowls produce a higher pitched sound as opposed to their metal counterparts. The sounds produced have been proven to have a varying effect on the nervous system. Apart from the type of metal affecting the kind of music, other factors influence the sound such as the thickness, weight and size of the singing bowl. Other external factors that affect the pitch include the following: the force of the tap, hardness of the tap and the point of the rim that was struck.

 

The origins of the singing bowls from this link can be traced back to Northern India, but the exact place is unknown since so little is known about them. There is little information regarding how they were created and who are the people that discovered that they could be used for spiritual practices. The only known fact is that they date back to 3000 years ago and even finding out the traditional mixture of metals that was used to create them took many scientific investigations. Singing bowls are used in sound massage and are placed near the person's body and tapped gently with a felt hammer. The sounds produced can help a person relax while creating a state of well-being.