The Way of the Gong™

This is a long piece I wrote in response to a Facebook question a few weeks ago asking about the Planetary tunings that are currently popular with Gongs, tuning forks, and other small bells, like trigons . It has been edited and expanded a bit because I've had more time to think about it.  Warning The following is MY OPINION based on MY OWN EXPERIENCES. With all due respect to my friends and colleagues who work extensively with the Planetary Tunings, it just isn't my thing. So you readers may feel otherwise and have a different sort of experience. If it works for you, then great. Run with it. Star Light, Star Bright First, he biggest problem I find here is that the Planetary Tunings are not based on any sound that the planets, sun, or moon actually make! They are based on the rotation on their axis, or revolution around the Sun of these bodies in space. The calculations are based more on time than anything, and then the resulting calculations are somehow transferr...

Today's question actually comes from the Q&A time after one of my recent sessions. “Are you counting?” was asked. I found it interesting that someone picked up on this.  I didn't have a chance to ask them, but I suspect they were also a musician. Yes, I count all the time. You can't be a musician/drummer for 50 years and not count! I count both consciously and unconsciously. When I'm not counting consciously, I'm feeling the time. At this stage of my life it's all innate and intuitive. Besides, I'm a counter. I count everything (well, not everything, but a lot of things. And that's a whole other story…). Time has come today “But you talk about working in no time, ” you say. “What gives with this counting everything?” Yeah, about that. For me, it works both ways. I count because I don't want what I do to be some sort of random pandemonium, because I've been to enough Gong events that I thought were just random  pandemonium  and ...

Today's blog question comes from Sonia, in Australia, who asked me: I was just watching your videos from the sound chamber and I was wondering whether would you be able to advise me of where I could purchase those beautiful bells / chimes and kyeezes??? I currently have hundreds of instruments, bells, bowls, and gongs, that I've collected over the past nearly 50 years now. I've picked them up from various places: music shops, eBay, 'new age' stores, online dealers, antique shops, flea markets & resale shops, instrument makers, and some have even been given to me by people who thought I should have them. In fact, my youngest son just gave me a bell this week that he found on his travels in California this summer. He thought it would fit my other sounds! Collecting instruments has been an ongoing activity for me. You wouldn’t believe all the new bells & kyeezes I collected in my travels this past summer! (insert my wife rolling her eyes yet again) I need...

Facebook is often a cesspool of false information and options stated as fact. But there are also pockets of wisdom and truth. There have been some interesting discussions as of late centered around healing frequencies and instrument tunings. Of course the idea of 432Hz and other magical tunings, as well as magical instruments, came up in these discussions. Recently, Thomas Orr Anderson asked the questions: If you were provided with one high quality tuning fork, tuned to some fundamental frequency between 80 Hz and 150 Hz, could you provide an effective therapy session with that tool... regardless of the specific tuning frequency?   Alternatively, if you were provided with one high quality bowl or gong... could you provide an effective therapy session with that tool... regardless of the specific fundamental tuning? Alchemy I take a very Alchemical approach to all this. Merriam-Webster defines Alchemy as: alchemy noun al·​che·​my | \ ˈal-kə-mē Def...