One to One, Shaped Around You
Sound Mentorship with Hamid Jabbar is for practitioners already working with sound, and for people who want to start. There is no set curriculum.
Practitioners and Beginners
Some have taught for years. Some have never held a mallet.
Together you work on what you play, what you are stuck on, and what you want to be able to do.
Almost nobody who comes for mentorship has a musical background, and it has never been the thing that decides how well someone ends up playing. The gong in particular is for everyone. There is nothing to read and nothing to count.
The Instruments Are the Easy Part
What takes time is knowing what a room needs, and being willing to leave silence in it.
How somebody describes this work to other people is part of the same question.
The Usual Ground
The gong, from the first stroke to holding a room for an hour. Himalayan and crystal bowls, and playing the two together.
Native American style flute and overtone flute, which is a breathing practice as much as a playing one. Frame drum, the shortest way in for anyone who thinks they are not musical. Overtone singing, and using it with the bowls.
Building a session of your own and pacing it, and choosing instruments before you spend money on them.
What a Session Is
Hands on the whole time. You play, with a teacher listening and adjusting what you are doing as you do it.
Starting where you are. The first session is mostly spent listening to you play, starting with whatever you can already do. If you already play an instrument, you play it, and if you are starting from nothing, a mallet is in your hand in the first ten minutes.
Technique. After that it is technique for a while. Technique takes a few sessions.
Judgment. Then it is judgment: when to strike, when to wait, how to end. Judgment is the long part, and it is the reason to do this in a room with someone rather than from a video.
What to Buy, and When
Bowls vary enormously and the difference does not show in a photograph. A lot of poor metal and poor crystal gets sold as meditation instruments to people who are new enough not to hear it yet.
So part of this is learning what to listen for before you spend anything. Instruments are on hand for sessions, which means you can play a good one for months before you own one.
When you are ready to buy, mentorship points you to where to look. For bowls that is usually Soundtopia, and the code JABBAR15 takes fifteen percent off. You can also get help sourcing instruments that are hard to find. If that is what you are looking for, get in touch. Most of the buying advice is actually about what not to buy yet.
Most of what a session would cover about crystal bowls is also written down.
The Soundtopia links are affiliate links, which means Hamid earns a commission if you buy through them, at no extra cost to you.
Arranged Individually
One to one, in person, with no cohort. It lasts as long as it is useful. Some people come once. Some come for a year. Both are normal.
Sessions happen in person, where the instruments live. With your own room and your own instruments, the work can happen there instead.
Terms are agreed with each person, and confirmed in writing before payment.
Where You Are with Sound
There is no application and no intake form. Send a paragraph about where you are with sound and where you want to take it, and you get an honest answer on whether this is the right way in.
To learn in a group, Level I runs over two weekends and Level II is the advanced training.
Advanced Level II, or Sound Mentorship
Yoga Alliance continuing education hours and a certificate come with the online course and the in person trainings, for anyone who needs the documentation for a studio or venue.