Tibetan Singing Bowl (Medium)
256.00 Hz
Nearest note: C4, 38 cents below standard tuning
A typical pitch for a singing bowl of this size. Real bowls vary, and each makes several tones at once.
How well is this supported?
Part of a musical, cultural or practitioner tradition. Included because people use it, not because it has been tested.
This entry gives a typical pitch for an instrument. Real instruments vary.
The button plays a plain tone. Start with the volume low.
About this number
Medium Tibetan bowls typically resonate around 250-400 Hz. They give a warm tone. Several overtones sound at once and beat against each other, which makes the wavering "singing" sound. The bowls are made of bronze. Sellers often describe a seven-metal alloy; no published analysis was located. They are sold as Tibetan singing bowls; the first written record of their use as singing bowls is from 1972.
What is said about it
What is said, not what was measured
Sellers and practitioners often present these bowls as part of Tibetan and Himalayan meditation and healing rituals.
Facts
- Frequency
- 256.00 Hz
- Wavelength in air (20 °C)
- 1.34 m
- Nearest note
- C4, 38 cents below standard tuning
- Kind of statement
- Instrument
- Filed under
- Instruments & gongs
Sources
- History of “Tibetan” singing bowls
An account of where the bowls come from and when they were first described as singing bowls.
Grimes, Tricycle: The Buddhist Review.
View source: History of “Tibetan” singing bowls
More about the pitch
The same note in every octave
Each step doubles or halves the frequency. Tap one to hear it.
Entries close in pitch
Within 35 cents of this tone, in any octave. A cent is one hundredth of the step between two neighboring piano keys. Being close in pitch does not mean two things are connected.