What Are Our Standards For Exactness Of Pitch?
The frosted bowl industry has wide standards for exactness of pitch for crystal bowl sets. Many sets you find on the internet, that are chakra sets, are not tuned, so that the bowls don’t play harmonic transitions in sync with each other. Our standards for exactness of pitch is for each bowl in the set to be within 5 cents of one another, and no further than 5 cents from perfect pitch. At this standard, variation from perfect pitch are inaudible, and you are guaranteed to receive a very well-tuned set of crystal singing bowls.
What Are Our Standards For Playability and Tone?
We care that your frosted singing bowls play easily, with a good quality tone. When you run the striker around the bowl, the bowl should respond with a growing and sustaining tone, that is almost completely singular. We are available to help customers with their playing technique, if they are having trouble playing a bowl. Or if there is an issue with a bowl, we work with the customer to make sure they are satisfied and receive a bowl that truly supports their meditations.
Which Frosted Crystal Bowl Set Should I Buy?
Playing more than one bowls adds great potential to meditations, either by adding more tones to attend to, richer harmonies or binaurals.
Purchasing a 2, 3, 4, or 5 Bowl Harmonic Set
By purchasing just 2, 3, 4 or 5 bowls, you receive rich harmonies that create environments of beautiful uplifted joy. Harmonic intervals between notes having been used for thousands of year to create peaceful and happy melodies, and it is proven that a harmonic interval can automatically relax the nervous system. This shows that harmonic sets are potent for deepening meditations, and bringing greater clarity and revelation to your practice. We almost exclusively use harmonic sets when leading meditations. You can hear sound files of all the harmonic intervals, and learn more about these sets, in the Harmonic Chord Crystal Bowl Sets page.
Purchasing a 7, 8 or 9 Bowl Chakra Set
With a 7 bowl set, you are purchasing the whole major scale Do-Re-Mi-Fa-So-La-Ti. Typically this scale is sold in the key of C, and you receive the bowls C, D, E, F, G, A, B. There is plentiful educational material on the internet, and here on this site, that shows how you can pair each one of these notes with a different chakra, to do a chakra meditation. Having an individual note for each chakra can help bring greater attentiveness to that chakra in meditation. The 7 bowl set is also rich in harmonic potential, as the major scale has been designed specifically to create beautiful harmonic melodies. Most of western music has written in the major scale, and with these 7 bowls you can as well create beautiful music to play in a sound bath or lead a meditation with. You can hear sound files for the 7 bowl set on our All 7 Bowl Frosted Crystal Bowl Chakra Sets page.
An 8 bowl set adds a higher note, a High C. This high C adds strong harmonic potential to the set. The 7 bowl set sings Do-Re-Mi-Fa-So-La-Ti, which ends without a sense of harmonic completion. The 8 bowl set sings Do-Re-Mi-Fa-So-La-Ti-Do. By adding the last Do note, you are adding a strong sense of completion to the scale. The last Do note creates a full circle of harmony, and as well creates much more harmonic potential when playing the full set. We by far recommend adding this 8th note to your crystal bowl set over the 7 bowl set. For a chakra meditation, the 8th bowl refers to the Bah or Soulstar center that is located about 6 inches above the top of the head. The Soulstar is, in many traditions, the seat of our higher self, and helps with our connection to the Universe. You can hear sound files for the 8 bowl set, on our All 8 Bowl Frosted Crystal Bowl Chakra Sets page.
The 9 bowl set adds a low 14” F bowl, which create a lower harmony for the rest of the major scale to play above. The effect of this is that you are playing a low bass note, that fills the environment with deep penetrating sound, and then all the other notes in the set are higher harmonic complements to that bass note. Many people are attracted to these lower notes because in general we find lower notes to be more relaxing and grounding than higher notes. While higher notes can bring us into senses of elation, lower notes can bring us into senses of concentrated awareness. In terms of chakras, the low F note can be used to work with the earth star chakra, located below the bass of the spine, and is our connection to earth energies. Through working with the soulstar and earthstar, we can create an open channel between the upper and lower poles of our energy field, helping us to become an awakened channel of clear coherent energy. You can hear sound files for the 9 bowl set see our Premium Heaven and Earth 9 Bowl Frosted Crystal Bowl Chakra Sets page.
Purchasing a 6 Bowl Minor Pentatonic Set
Typically, crystal bowl sets are in the major scale, such as the 7, 8 or 9 bowl set; however, one could argue that the minor pentatonic scale is more ancient and more meditative than the major scale. In fact, the minor pentatonic scale is used by traditions all over the world, in instruments that are considered meditation and ceremonial, such as the Japanese Shakuhachi or the Native American Flute. We have also uncovered ancient bone flutes, that seem to be tuned to the minor pentatonic scale. The minor pentatonic scale offers incredibly rich harmony, with a much more grounding concentrative quality than the major scale, and should be considered when purchasing a crystal bowl set. Full sound files of the minor pentatonic scale can be found on the Minor Pentatonic Scale Frosted Crystal Bowl Sets page.
Adding Binaurals/Monaurals
A binaural, or monaural, beat occurs when you play two crystal bowls that are very close together in hz value. They typically almost sound like the same note, though when you play them together an oscillation is created. This oscillation, or beat, can be felt strongly in the body and the mind, and cuts straight through the thinking mind, to help allow for deeper meditation. It is more difficult to hold onto thinking and feeling patterns when listen to a binaural/monaural. Through our Create Your Own Binaural Beat Repatterning Set! you can choose a binaural that you most like the sound of. Or if you already have one or more bowls, you can contact us and we can sell you just one bowl which will make a binaural connection to one of the bowls you already have. You can also hear sound files and experience the binaural in the Create Your Own Binaural Beat Repatterning Set! page.
Purchasing A Just Intonation Set
The Just Intonation Scale is an older version of the modern major scale Do-Re-Mi-Fa-So-La-Ti-Do. Hundreds of year ago, when musical scores were becoming more complicated, and spanning from very low to very high notes, the mathematics of the scale needed to be altered in order for the notes to all play in harmonic with each other. The modern major scale then, while capable of maintaining harmony between low and high notes, has lost its connection to its simple mathematical roots. The Just Intonation Scale is the predecessor to the modern major scale, and plays Do-Re-Mi-Fa-So-La-Ti-Do. However, in the just intonation scale, the notes are all tuned in perfect simple mathematical ratio, or sacred geometry. When notes are in more simple mathematical ratio to each other, they play more coherent and beautiful harmonies. The Just Intonation scale is designed to achieve slightly richer harmonic relationships between the notes, than you would find in the 8 bowl chakra set. You can learn more about the Just Intonation scale and tuning in the Just Intonation Tuned 8 Bowl Frosted Crystal Bowl Set page.
