The Way of the Gong™

Two typical questions I get from people are: I want to get a Gong. Which one should I get? and I have a _____ Gong and a _____ Gong.  What should I get to go with them? Two good questions with no easy answer. There is no starter Gong , or add on Gong out there, so it's all a matter of context and personal choice. The first thing is context: do you want it for a rock band? A classical thing? Or a meditation thing?  In all 3 of these situations I would recommend a Symphonic/Chau type Gong between 24" and 32" as a good place to start. This will give you a big, full sound and fit a lot of musical situations. If you don't need as much volume, and perhaps something easier to carry, a 22" to 28" Wind Gong might suit your needs. A 22" fits in a standard cymbal bag and has a fairly full sound. But as always, what Gong resonates with you? If possible, play as many different types and sizes as you can before you make a decision. It's mo...

Another question I have received is,  “Do I need to break in my new Gong?”  This is a good question. From my own experience, there is no need to break in a Gong before you start playing it, but, a Gong will go through a period of breaking in as the sound and metal settles.  This breaking in has 3 distinct phases: 1) - The metal settling. The bronze, or nickel-silver, that Gongs are made of, has a crystalline structure that tends to settle over time. According to Billy Zildjian, from the SABIAN cymbal company, talking about cymbals, “The internal molecular structure has a tendency to float within the metal of the cymbal. After some time the molecules actually begin to bind together as the metal settles.” (from Modern Drummer magazine, November 1983) This is thought to change both the tone and the feel of the metal. There is also some belief that playing the cymbal or Gong helps the metal settle. There are various stories of jazz drummers, most notably Elvin ...

I get a lot of e-mail with questions from drummers & Gongers about a wide range of things. Today I'd like to address a question I received yesterday: I am seeking some advice with mallets.  A few of the yoga studios I play at are smallish, they fit about 20 people mat to mat and have short ceilings.  The gongs end up becoming intense in such small spaces, almost too intense.      Do you have any advice as to what kind of mallet might be a soft, gentle, roller that could work better than the paiste mallets in such small spaces? I have a few different kinds (paiste, chinese, and some z brand mallets) but they still get pretty big and tingy.  any suggestions on how to handle these spaces either with mallets or otherwise?  First thing: it's rarely about the mallets. It's all about the technique. I regularly play places that hold from 20 people, to places that can hold 100. In all situations I use the same instruments and the same...

Time does not exist—this is a new quantum physics theory that is gaining in popularity:  There is no past.  There is no future.  There is just the present moment, which is all possible moments existing at once. Thus by changing our perception, we can change our view of time . If you've worked with Gongs/Bowls/Bells for long enough, you know that the resulting vibrational fields can alter your perception of time. How often have you played for an hour and you, and/or your participants, have remarked that it seemed like 10 minutes? I hear this a lot from people at my sessions.  Another scenario is people who feel like they're been gone for hours, even though it was just 1 hour. Time shifting . Changing your perception of what time is and where it is, or perhaps more accurately, where you are in relation to time at any given moment. Yogis and Spiritual Masters talk about enlightenment, or nirvana, where you merge with the oneness of all. This is the po...

Recently there was a whole Facebok thread started by Dr. Mitch Nur. It was all about the validity of the often used quote: “Sound will be the medicine of the future.” This has been attributed to the famous sleeping prophet , Edgar Cayce (1877-1945). Cayce was famous for being able to give readings to people, and also answer various questions on things such as the future, Atlantis, reincarnation, etc. while in a trance. Much of what he said was written down by a stenographer and is available in various books or on the web. You can check things out on the official Cayce website, Association for Research and Enlightenment (A.R.E.) .  Edgar Cayce Now Mitch was questioning the validity of this quote and wrote to A.R.E. to ask if they could find it in their archives and verify it. There reply to him was: "Good Morning: thank you for your inquiry. I have researched the Edgar Cayce Readings and can find no reference to the quote on 'Sound will be the medicine of the...

There seems to be a sort of idea that to be spiritual , and to work with the Gongs/Bowls/Bells, you need to wear some sort of specific dress. For many people, they think of wearing white. White is often associated with purity, or harmony. If you like white, or you belong to a religious/spiritual group that prefers white, then wear it. But if you vibrate to a different frequency, to a different color, wear that.  I don't have any white clothes. I don't wear white. I don't vibrate with white. So don't expect me to wear white to fit your needs of me being spiritual . I have almost always worn black, maybe some red, gray, or blue. But I really like black. I feel comfortable in it. I feel its vibration. It works for me.  And I almost always take off my shoes when I play. That's not out of respect for anything, but more for practicality. 1) I can move around quietly, 2) I can feel the vibrations through the floor better. That's all. The Universe doesn't care...

I remember when I first started getting into Gongs/Singing Bowls/Bells back in the mid-1970s, it was difficult to find them. Yes, you could find Paiste Gongs, which were distributed by Ludwig, then Rogers Drums at the time, but to find real Chinese/Asian instruments was a challenge. You had to know someone, who knew someone, who had a cousin in California who had a few instruments for sale. It really was by word of mouth. The only place to reliably find Asian instruments of quality back in the 1970s was Carroll Sound in NYC. Carroll Sound was a big company that rented and sold all sorts of weird, strange, exotic, and hard to find instruments to the many TV and music studios in NYC. This was back when the major TV & radio networks still had house bands and orchestras, and the majority of the TV and commercial music was coming out of NYC. I still have the Carroll Sound catalog from back then, with such exotic items in it as the marching men effect, wind sirens, and instruments fro...