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How to Choose a Singing Bowl

Tuning in to which Tibetan singing bowl to buy involves some self-discovery, a bit of education, and a journey into the wide range of choices available.

The best way to choose an antique singing bowl, really, is to fall in love with the sound. That feeling is a measure of your affinity with the vibrations coming out of the instrument. There are many different sounds available in the high quality singing bowls for sale on this website and you may find you have a preference for tones in a specific range. That is the self-discovery part, feeling the resonance between you and a bowl’s soundscape.

There is more than a bit of education available on this website. You may find it helpful to start on the Tibetan singing bowls page where the singing bowl essentials are discussed. The singing bowl types page provides an overview of all the different styles, sizes and shapes along with the range of tones for each. In that most essential area, sound, Best Singing Bowls has you covered. All the singing bowls for sale here have been selected for the quality of their sound and internal harmony. Singing bowls range over five octaves so you have quite a bit of choice high to low.

Along with the sound you are going to get a unique beautiful looking object. Do you want a small or large singing bowl, one with an ancient patina or a bright cleaned surface? Some antique singing bowls have inscriptions or extensive markings. Virtually all the bowls have some amount of incuse (carved in) workmanship. Bowls can be well-worn or crisp.

Selecting Your Singing Bowl

If you dive right into our selection of singing bowls for sale please take advantage of all the filtering and sorting tools we have. They are designed to allow you to narrow or widen your focus. Especially helpful is narrowing your choices down by choosing a singing bowl Octave (how deep or high is the main tone) type, size, and price. There are many more filters as well if you have a specialized interest. Once you filter at the top of the page is the sort box. You can display bowls by tone, size, and price among other choices. The default display is a bit of a random walk.

Don’t get fooled by all the pictures being about the same size – a big Jambati singing bowl can be 10X the size and weight of a tiny Manipuri.  Our high quality sound clips are very good at conveying the full range of sounds in each singing bowl. We do no sound processing or digital enhancement, just straight up recordings. You can be confident the Tibetan singing bowl you receive will sound exactly the way you hear it on the clip.

Each bowl has a Details page with more information, photos, and a second sound clip. That second clip is with a ringing stick, teasing out individual tones. I have been surprised how some of my customers have been able to use the sound clips to discern that a bowl has a special resonance with another already in their sets.

Use our Features to Keep Track of Your Choices

It is really important to keep track of the numbers of the bowls you like. The easiest way to do this is to hit the COMPARE button.  This way your choices are recorded. With compare you can play bowls side by side. More importantly you can email yourself the compare list which will have a link in it so you can go back to your choices at a later time.

Let Us Choose For You

Maybe you don’t want to do the deep dive into dozens of singing bowls. When you order our specials we take care of the selection. You can guide us a bit by sending a note with the order.

Maybe you’ve looked and aren’t sure or haven’t found exactly the right bowl. Please contact us! We have great success matching bowls and people. Check out some of the comments on how to pick and choose Tibetan singing bowls from our customers

Use Suggestions

Playing Tips

Care Instructions

Making a Singing Bowl