Too Many Gongs? Is it possible to have too many gongs in your life? Have you ever said during a gong relaxation where more than one gong was playing: “Stop! Stop! There are too many gongs! I can’t hear them all.” Can you have too many gongs of your own to play? Do you...

The Sound of Earth  “It has dimples!” she said as she looked at my gong. The Earth Sound Creation Gongs certainly look different from any other gong. They are distinguished by a pattern of small nipple protrusions all over the front of the gong, producing a seemingly...

Magical Moon Gongs Of all the planetary gongs played by yogis, sound healers, and therapists, the Moon Gongs may be most divinely human of them all. Even more the Sun, and especially in non-Western cultures, it is the Moon of all the heavenly bodies that has had the...

True Gong Love: 5 Countries, 3 Weeks I am writing this on the day after completing a 21-day Gong Training tour of Europe with my wife.  We met the most amazing gong friends, students and gong makers in Germany, Norway, Sweden, Denmark and England. It was a whirlwind...

Take This Gong Outside! With the approach of Summer Solstice, I got the following email: “I was invited to a yoga festival to play the gong during relaxation. Any advice about playing the Gong outside?” First of all, playing the Gong outside is amazing. The ambient...

A Small Gong Is Good to Hold Many people start their gong playing career with a mid-size gong that can produce a wide range of sound. The 24” to 32” gongs are the friendliest to learn to play, not as hard to control as a small gong and easier to manipulate than a...

THE SOUND OF THE GONG When we hear the gong for the first time, it challenges us to experience sound in a surprising and almost totally unique way. It is unlike any other musical instrument, both in how it behaves and how it interacts with the listener. All musical...

Writing about what you love is easy. After writing three books about the Gong, and working on my fourth, I’m passing the 100,000 word mark about this amazing instrument for healing and transformation. Yet in some way, all that really needs to be written about the Gong...

The Gong From Another Planet Planetary Gongs, or gongs that are tuned based upon the orbital considerations of the planets, are very popular with people I teach. The planetary gongs are said to bring the various astrological attributed of the planets into our lives...

The Mysterious Chakra Gongs Yoga teachers and sound healers often work with the chakras, or energy centers, in their sessions and classes with students and clients. And of course the Gong is also often used in these healing environments as well. There are many ways to...

Gongs Are Priceless I train people all over the world how to play the gong. And by the end of first day of training, everyone wants to buy one. And then everyone finds out how much a nice gong can cost. The reality is that for a higher quality European made gong (the...

The Chau Gong: Honorable Ancestor The Gong that has the longest history of continuous use, as well as being the most prolific and popularly played, has its origin in the Han Dynasty of China (206 BC to 220 AD). This was the Golden Age of China, comparable to the...

Sleeping with the GONG Have you ever heard anyone snoring during a gong relaxation? It can be a little annoying, especially if it turns out to be yourself. Yet it does seem natural to zonk out during a deep relaxation. But if you do sleep with the gong, you may be...

Gong On the Run: Moving Into Sound For most people, listening to the gong is a static experience. You relax on your back, a single gong is played in one position, and of course magic happens. But what if you could hear the gong in a different way? What if the gong...

Gongs for Cats, Dogs, Whales and Eagles Yes,  I am finally doing it – writing about Gongs and pets (and actually all other beasts). After all, why should only humans get to be gonged? In my gong training courses, I almost always get the question: “Will my cat or dog...

Gong with the Wind, Roar like a Lion The most common and widely available gong in the world sometimes gets no respect. I’m referring to what is popularly called a “wind gong” or perhaps more properly called a “Feng” and sometimes referred to as a Lion Gong. The wind...

Gong Breath Do you have gong breath? We hope so. Gong breath allows you to deeply experience the effects of the gong. Here’s how to get it: Breathe and Listen Gong relaxations are sometimes misnamed gong baths which imply that the listener should passively and simply...

Go Gong Yourself Warning: If you do not own a gong yet, you may soon. It is a wonderful thing to be gonged, to show up and relax and hear the sound of one or many beautiful gongs played for you. And truly it would be amazing to hear the gong every day and receive its...

The Ultimate Gong? Everyone who plays or listens to the Gong wants the best frequency, the purest sound, and the ultimate vibratory experience that the Gong can produce. Is there such a thing as the Ultimate Gong, a gong so perfectly designed that it does it all?...

Be Quiet – It’s a Gong For most people, the Gong is a loud musical instrument, capable of producing crashing, splashing sounds of color and penetration. And indeed, sometimes the Gong is played that way, with its sound becoming at times overwhelming to the listener....

THE GONG AS ART In some of the ancient writings on the Gong, it was said that even “the sight of a gong could cure all ills.” One interpretation of this is that when you are within proximity, or sight of a gong, there is a constant healing field being generated by the...

Yogi Bhajan and the Gong It is not an overstatement to say that Yogi Bhajan, the master of Kundalini Yoga, was the most influential individual in spreading the use of the Gong, from India to the Western world, as an instrument for meditation and healing. Beginning in...

The Two Sounds of Your Gong The Gong is renowned for its complexity and multiplicity of sounds, and its ability to create an incredibly rich soundscape. Yet there are are only two basic sounds the Gong produces: Fundamental Tones and Harmonic...

Gongs – Not Bongs My first experience is using the Gong was in a Kundalini Yoga ashram in 1974 where it was played by teachers for recovering drug addicts. Our ashram served as a half-way house for ex-drug users, primarily heroin and cocaine. They lived a yogic...

The Moody Blues Rock and Roll musicians “discovered” the psychedelic Gong in the late 1960s and 1970s. I think my first exposure to the sound of the Gong was at a Moody Blues concert when they performed “Knights in White Satin/Lament.” At the...

Dying to Hear the Gong The Gong has been used for centuries in almost every ritual, ceremony, and rite of passage known to humankind. In Buddhist monasteries, gongs call the attention of the gods. In ancient Greece, they open the realm of the dead. In Borneo, they are...

The Octagong When does a gong have eight sides? When it is made by Martin Blase, master gong maker in Germany. I obtained this gong from Martin last summer in his studio after hearing its amazing sound. My wife says the sound of the Octogong...

A Gong for Every Chakra! Many people experience healing and relaxation from the sound of the Gong. And the gong has been used therapeutically for a wide range of applications, from treating addictions, balancing the emotions, and even reducing inflammation in the...

Put On Your Gong Ears: How to Listen to the Gong How do you listen to the sound of the Gong? Most people simply relax on the back, with their feet pointing toward to the gong player, and let the sound pour over and through them. And that’s nice. But it may not be the...