Hard or soft mallet? Pick by the sound you want them to hear

01At the start: call them back

The scan comes when the listener has just lain down. Sometimes they cannot relax right away. I guide them to notice each part of the body, with words or with slow strikes on a bowl. Only then do we start the main part.

They have just come in from the street. Their mind is still somewhere else.

Their mind may still be on many things, right? Then at that moment you can use the hard mallet.

What for?

So they wake up and come back here faster.

I think of it as a call. Calling them back to this room.

To hear how a hard and a soft mallet sound different, listen to two people compare them in Singing bowls in pairs. Here I only talk about choosing.

02At the end: wake them slowly

Walking bowl is almost the last part of a session. This part is to wake the listener.

And when you do the walking bowl, people are relaxed and drifting, and you want to wake them slowly, right?

I asked on: to wake someone slowly, what do you need? Then I answered myself: “Gentle.”

The same bowl. A different moment, a different way to strike.

03Tingsha, too

Tingsha are two small cymbals joined by a cord.

She asked: “Tingsha three times, is it this one?” I told her:

To focus them, you can strike a little louder. But when they are drifting … very gently.

Then how to hold them. She held them too close, her two hands almost stuck together. I asked if she was afraid the two would not touch.

I told her to hold the cord a bit longer and lift her hands higher.

See, it looks more graceful. Holding them tight down here is like holding two pot lids.

The whole room laughed.

Then I struck them to show her. Very gentle.

04There is no formula

She asked again to be sure: “So there is no fixed formula at all?”

Right. How could it be fixed?

The sample script helps you know the order. It cannot replace your listening.

I tell how to read the course notes and practise at the same time in Learning to lead a Sound Bath: follow the lesson, then try it.

Once you know what sound the hard mallet makes, and what sound the soft one makes, then you choose.

So there is one condition. You have to listen enough first.

If you have never struck the same bowl with both mallets, you cannot choose yet. You are only guessing.

So practise listening first.

05The person leading chooses the sound for the listener

When people learn to lead a Sound Bath, many want a chart: which mallet for this part, how many strikes for that part.

A chart is easy to remember. But the person lying in front of you today is not the same as yesterday.

I only want my learners to take home one question. Right now, what do I want them to hear?

To call them back, strike clearly. To wake them, strike softer and softer.

Listen first, then choose.