How to Choose A Singing Bowl
This is your complete guide on how to choose the perfect singing bowl. Whether it’s your first step into sound healing or you’re a seasoned practitioner, we love helping you find the perfect singing bowl that can play with you for a lifetime!
Choosing the right bowl or set is a personal journey so if you still have questions beyond this article, you can email Jordana personally (jordana@sukhasound.com) and she’ll guide you, or, sign up for our mailing list where we offer monthly zoom events for all things singing bowls, chakras and sound healing.
A Guide to Choosing Your Perfect Singing Bowl from Sukha Sound Healing & Singing Bowls
Authentic handcrafted singing bowls are not just musical instruments, they are sacred objects, works of art and an heirloom to pass down. Each bowl, with its unique shape and sound can bring up emotions and often a feeling of transcendence. Our handmade bronze singing bowls, skillfully created in Kathmandu, Nepal, preserves a lineage of artistic tradition and is exceptionally rare in the depth of their resonance and their tones.
How to Choose a Singing Bowl
Finding your perfect singing bowl is a personal process, and our "Bowl Finder" quiz can guide you by asking key questions to match you with the right one. Below we've outline a few other ways to guide your choice - it is our hope that this information gives you the insight you need to make a great choice for yourself.
Here are a few helpful approaches to consider when choosing a bowl:
Resonance with Your Intention: Select a bowl that aligns with what you want to focus on—whether it’s emotional healing, balance, something physical in the body or spiritual growth.
Below is a chart with some popular examples of what people might be working on and which bowl(s) they might select.
Astrological Correspondence: Choose a bowl that matches your sun sign and its “ruling sound” for healing, connecting you to the vibrations most attuned to your energy.
Everyone has a "ruling sound" and an associated chakra based on their sun sign or birth date. This ruling sound aligns with the natural energy you were born into and can serve as a powerful tool for self-healing. If you’re unsure where to start or don’t have a different priority, working with your ruling sound is always a beneficial choice to support balance, harmony, and personal well-being.
Below is a chart of ruling sounds based on sun signs:
Purpose: Consider your primary use for the bowl and select the appropriate bowl based on that. Purpose might be self-healing, sound baths or ceremonies - detailed below.
Self-healing: For self-healing we recommend going with the bowl that best matches your intention or sun sign. If you want to make sure you cover all bases with a single bowl, we recommend the Universal Healing Bowl. This is our largest bowl and it goes through the firing process six times, creating a thinner rim and lighter weight with big resonance.
Pictured with Universal Bowl
Sound Baths
For sound baths, we recommend investing in a synchronized, healing-grade set of all seven chakra bowls. This is the backbone of any sound bath, creating a deeply resonant and unique experience for participants. You can also use this to do 1-on-1 healing and play the bowls on the body if you are trained in doing so!
Choosing Your Set:
Our most popular option is the Matte Chakra Set—a beautiful, classic finish and the most budget-friendly choice at $1995 inclusive of shipping, a carrying case, 2 mallets, 2 strikers, 7 cushions, a tingsha ($55 value) and a video of your bowls being blessed at the temple ($77 value).
Classic Set with Laser Carvings: Upgrade to bowls featuring intricate laser carvings (as pictured). For a more personal touch, you can even customize your carvings—just email us at contact@sukhasound.com to get started.
Rare Chakra Mandala Edition: For something truly special, explore our Chakra Mandala Edition. These bowls are crafted by a single artist, making each one a rare work of art. Please note, due to the intricate design, these sets have a lead time of up to one month from order to delivery.
Ceremonies for the New or Full Moon
These sets are perfect for moon ceremonies, helping you align with the energies of the lunar cycles and create rituals.
New Moon Singing Bowl Set
The New Moon Singing Bowl Set is infused with the intention and energy of new beginnings. You can amplify this energy by playing the bowls on the New Moon, making them ideal for setting intentions.
Silver New Moon Singing Bowl Set
The Silver New Moon Singing Bowl Set features a rare silver-painted finish, a treasure in handmade bronze singing bowls. Infused with New Moon energy, these bowls are perfect for intention-setting.
Full Moon Singing Bowl Set
The Full Moon Singing Bowl Set carries the energy of release, completion, and illumination. You can deepen in this energy by playing the bowls on the Full Moon, supporting rituals of letting go and celebration. These can also be played at any time in the lunar cycle.
Aesthetic Appeal: Trust your instincts—sometimes the visual beauty of a bowl is what draws you in. Let its design and craftsmanship speak to you. One of our favorite bowls for aesthetic appeal is the Buddha Art Bowl.
Sound Preference: An important factor is how the bowl sounds to you. Choose the tone and resonance that feels most harmonious for your mind, body, and soul.
Want to listen now? Watch videos of each bowl on the product pages here.
Shop Individual Singing Bowls -->
The Curation Process
At Sukha Sound, each singing bowl is a masterpiece, personally handpicked to ensure the highest quality and resonance for you. Working closely with the family of Jordana's late teacher, Guru Ajay, we continue to honor his legacy by carefully curating every bowl we offer. This process involves striking and testing nearly 100 bowls to find the one with the best quality sound and resonance.
Our bowls are crafted by master artisans in Nepal who bring generations of skill and tradition to their work. We source from the only place where artisans are still creating bowls in the traditional Nepali way.
Unlike mass-produced items, each bowl is a unique creation, reflecting the artistry and care of its maker. The collaboration between our team and these skilled craftsmen ensures that every bowl shipped to you is a one-of-a-kind instrument that is both beautiful and healing.
The Two Main Types of Handmade Metal Singing Bowls
Singing bowls are typically crafted in two primary forms: cast brass bowls and handmade bronze singing bowls.
Cast brass bowls are more affordable, often priced around $100. However, brass is a harder, more brittle metal, which makes it unsuitable for full hand-hammering, as it tends to crack under intense shaping.
At Sukha Sound, we focus on handmade bronze singing bowls, which have unparalleled sound quality and resonance. Each bowl is meticulously crafted and hand-hammered, a process that brings out its tonal depth.
The composition of our bowls is primarily 77% copper and 22% tin, forming a balance that produces the beautiful sound bronze is known for. An additional 1% includes trace amounts of 5 sacred metals, added more for their traditional energetic properties than for their acoustic impact.
For our New & Full Moon bowls, the silver content is slightly higher, aligning with ancient traditions where silver represents the energy of the moon—bringing a subtle yet powerful connection to moon energy in your practice.
The Singing Bowl Making Process
Each bowl starts with a disc of the metals that is held over an open fire and heated and hammered in a triple, sometimes quadruple firing process. Each bowl is hand-hammered hundreds of thousands of times to get it into the desired shape.
The bowl can be finished in a variety of ways that create different looks. The finishes are as you can see in our store: matte or shiny, darkening or lightening of the alloy (in full moon bowls, for example). Bowls can also be laser carved or hand-carved or painted.
The Carving Process
Each of our bowls is hand-carved by talented artists on the outskirts of Kathmandu. When Jordana met the team, she was inspired by how much passion and love they pour into their craft. One artist shared that, as a Buddhist who began meditating at an early age, carving mandalas is his favorite part of the process because it brings him a deep sense of peace.
We are honored to work with these artists, whose dedication and mindfulness infuse each bowl with the energy of peace—an energy that is passed on to you when you choose a hand-carved bowl.
Among our most popular designs are the “Buddha Art Bowl” and our New and Full Moon bowls. We also offer custom carvings to make your bowl truly one-of-a-kind.
If you’re interested in a custom design, email us with your ideas! We can collaborate on a design, create one for your approval, and provide a quote to craft something uniquely special for you.
Understanding the Tones and Frequencies of Singing Bowls
The unique sounds of singing bowls emerge through the craftsmanship, materials, and firing process involved. They are not “tuned” to specific frequencies or notes during their creation.
Here's a deeper look at the elements that shape their tones and why each bowl we select is so special:
The Art of Selection
To ensure that every bowl resonates with optimal harmony, our team personally strikes each bowl over 100 times during the selection process. This meticulous approach allows us to find the bowls with the richest combination of tones, overtones, and energy, ensuring our customers receive only the best.
Size and Frequency
- Larger bowls naturally produce deeper, lower frequencies (measured in Hz), making their tones grounding and calming.
- Smaller bowls create higher, more delicate tones, which are uplifting and clarifying.
The Triple and Quadruple Firing Process
Our bowls undergo a rigorous firing process, often triple or quadruple-fired, which thins the rims. This unique technique enhances the bowl’s ability to produce overtones, resulting in a richer and more multidimensional sound. The thinner rims allow the vibrations to flourish, creating a dynamic interplay of fundamental tones and harmonics.
Fundamental Tones and Overtones
- The fundamental tone is the primary, deepest note you hear when striking or playing the bowl.
- Overtones are higher-pitched, harmonically related sounds that emerge as the bowl vibrates. Together, these create a layered, meditative auditory experience.
Chakra Alignment and Energy Healing
Each singing bowl has a fundamental or primary tone that corresponds to one of the chakras, from C for the root chakra to B for the crown chakra. However, the presence of overtones means the bowl can also touch on other notes, supporting an integrated energy healing experience. This blend of tones allows the bowl to work holistically, addressing the energy flow across multiple chakras, not just the primary one.
A Journey of Discovery
When you receive a singing bowl, understanding its tones and frequencies becomes a personal journey. Factors like size, shape, thickness, and how it’s played all influence its sound. This unique interplay of tones and overtones makes each bowl a one-of-a-kind instrument, perfect for meditation, relaxation, and sound healing.
If you need additional guidance, we’re here to help! Email us for complimentary support, or schedule a 1-on-1 personalized consultation with Jordana to find the perfect bowl for your needs. The consultation fee is fully refundable with a purchase of $500 or more.
And remember—singing bowls are heirloom-quality instruments. They are a one-time investment that can last for generations, becoming a cherished part of your life and practice.
If price is a concern, we offer flexible payment options like Shop Pay, allowing you to purchase in interest-free installments at checkout.