Level I. Thirty two hours in person, in a small group at my place in New River. History, theory and practice, with real time on gongs, crystal bowls, Himalayan bowls, shruti box, flutes, chimes and overtone singing.
Everybody gets time on every instrument, and nobody watches from the back of the room.
You spend the hours playing rather than watching me play.
Four days across two weekends, with the whole collection in the room.
Taught at my place, north of Phoenix, where the instruments live.
Two weekends at my place in New River, with the whole collection of instruments in the room. History, theory and how sound actually behaves, then your hands on every instrument the training covers.
By the end you have run sessions rather than watched them, for a group and one to one. Teachers of yoga and meditation spend part of it working on how sound fits a class they already hold.
A full color manual comes with it, written to be something you keep and go back to rather than notes you throw away.
Two kinds of people take this. Yoga and meditation teachers who want to bring sound into a room they are already holding, and people with no teaching practice at all who are simply drawn to the instruments and want to play them properly.
There is no audition and no prerequisite. Everything starts from the beginning, and the group is small enough that I can see what your hands are doing.
Six areas, and every one of them ends with the instrument in your hands.
Where sound sits in yoga and in shamanic practice, how harmonics and overtones behave, why non equal temperament matters, and how to talk about this work without overclaiming what it does.
Types of gong and where they come from, the thirty nine strokes, friction mallets, hand techniques, gong meditation, caring for one, and how to choose your own.
Crystal and metal, playing techniques and styles, holding a drone, binaural playing, toning and chanting into a bowl, and how to assemble a set that works together.
Frame drum technique and rhythm, drumming for journeying, playing for yourself and for a room, and the rest of the percussion: shakers, rattles, ocean drums, rain sticks.
Finding your voice even if you are certain you cannot sing. Mindful singing and chanting, overtone singing, and singing over a shruti box or a bowl.
Where flutes come from, how to play the Native American style flute, an introduction to the overtone flute and bansuri, and playing flute with another person.
Crystal bowls are where most of that money gets spent badly, so I have written out what to listen for before you buy one. Read what a crystal bowl is
Every instrument is provided for the weekend. If you already own a gong, a flute or bowls, bring them and we will work on those. If you are thinking about buying, I will help you choose.
Gongs on stands, crystal and metal bowls, frame drums, chimes, shruti box, harmonium and flutes, laid out where you can reach them. You are not passed one instrument at a time.
That is most of the reason the group stays small. Twenty people cannot all have their hands on a gong, and a training where you queue for a turn is a training where you go home having watched.
I run Level I a few times a year. Dates go on the events page as the calendar firms up, and registration opens from there. When a run fills, the waitlist is real and people do come off it.
If a run is full you can join the waitlist. Finishing the training carries a certificate of completion, and Yoga Alliance continuing education hours, for anyone who needs the documentation for a studio or a venue.
Beyond Gong is its own weekend rather than a run of Level I, and it is the nearest thing on the calendar to being in this room again. Two days of playing that take the holding of space and the song circle from this training and the gong technique from the advanced one, with cymatics and the newest instruments in the field alongside them. My online sound course comes with a place, which is what opens the weekend to people at either end of this work.
Saturday and Sunday, September 19 and 20. 9:30am to 5:00pm both days. My place in New River. Sliding scale, $333, $444 or $555.
Two days of playing together, built around the gong and the power of overtones. I will be teaching advanced gong playing throughout, in a way meant to be accessible to everyone in the room, and around that there is a song circle, cymatics, time with the newest instruments in the field, and the kind of conversation about sound that practitioners rarely get to have with each other. Eight places, and my online sound course comes with every one of them, so it is open to beginners and to people who have been playing for years.
Over 20 hours of self paced video covers the theory, and it comes with a place on Level I rather than being sold on top of it. Start it now if you would rather look at the material before you book a weekend, and you arrive at the in person days already fluent in it.
Already working with sound? Advanced Level II goes further, and Sound Mentorship is built around where you actually are. If you run a studio and want this taught in your room rather than mine, get in touch.
