1️⃣ Biggest Takeaway(s): There were many valuable insights shared during this third lesson, but my biggest takeaways were (1) working with the 5th as a complementary note and (2) the explanation of the sound event categories. (1) Using the 5th Complementary Note: While I’m already familiar with using the 5th and understand its importance, the way this was discussed really helped it "click" for me on a deeper level. Your guidance around simply counting up—counting five for the 5th or three for the 3rd—along with applying this within chord work, helped solidify the concept in a very practical way. Learning how to quickly identify the 3rd or 5th felt especially helpful. For example, when thinking through chord progressions, counting up to the 5th (A–B–C–D–E–F–G) made it much easier to orient myself musically. If starting with D, the 5th naturally lands on A. This method made the process feel more intuitive and accessible. (2) Sound Event Categories: The explanation of the different sound event categories was very helpful in clarifying intention and structure: - Guided Meditation — with or without imagery (for example, ocean imagery); taking people to a place or guiding them through an intention (trust) - Sound Meditation — silence with sound, no guidance - Sound Bath — more casual, relaxation-focused - Sound Journey — deeper and more intentional, guiding participants through multiple layers of experience This distinction felt very supportive in understanding how intention shapes the overall experience. Additional topics that stood out as important takeaways: 1. Root soul frequency and root soul chord frequency — discovering your own 2. Active versus passive playing — noting that individuals experiencing depression may benefit from more active sound 3. Room and sound awareness, and how bowls respond not only to the space but also to the energy of the practitioner and participants 4. Being mindful of sound projection and proximity, especially when playing near or around others 5. The idea that sound can guide us into deep silence 6. Silence and space are just as important as sound! 7. Understanding that thoughts arising during a session are normal and often part of stress release 8. Guided meditation examples — it would be wonderful to have a few written examples available, especially for those just starting out

Wow, another great class full of info I was needing. Takeaways: 1. During the opening meditation (which I love) I had a new focused sound journey session come to mind to offer to my networking group. That's happening next week. 2. I loved the explanation of activated playing vs. passive playing. This is something I'd never heard about but makes so much sense. I'd wondered how to play to heal others and to assist with their addiction to stress like Kalee mentioned. I like the activated playing to help those with depression, including myself. Great info! 3. How we need to trust our instinct, which I think is huge and getting inspired by feeling the room and picking up the energy of the group. I've gone into my sessions fully intending on presenting a specific way, then after speaking to everyone, going a completely different direction. I just did it. Intuition at work. 4. Being mindful of letting sound fill the space. How the facility can affect the sound, wood, glass, carpet, padding. I hadn't considered how those textures can affect the sound. I thought a big open space was best, but there's more to consider. 5. I like knowing that it's OK to let sound drift off and end before striking the next bowl. I guess I'm uncomfortable with silence to a degree. I'm a bit too quick to go on to the next sound, some silence is ok. 😁 6. It's OK to heal along with everyone else. I'm healing too, which may explain why I feel so tired afterwards sometimes. 7. I love the examples of different types of journeys. Healing, guided meditation, a sound journey. Can you touch on how to start a session that's just sound, no guided meditation, just an explanation of the session at the very beginning? Or maybe we'll discuss that Saturday. 8. I didn't realize the effect that the weather can have on the sound of the bowls. We're in a very humid area, that makes me wonder if that's why my root bowl can sound so different from one event to another. Also, how the size of the room can affect the sound, I hadn't considered that either as well as the placement of the bowl compared to placement of the other bowls we use. Very interesting. 9. Thank you for mentioning playing clockwise vs counterclockwise. I wondered about that. Sometimes I just change for no reason, I guess intuition comes into play here as well. I like better understanding how the directions can move energy or release it. I'm going to practice that more. 10. If anyone gets stuck on coming up with guided meditations, I use my imagination and come up with places/situations I enjoy. I try to write them down and use them in sessions. But another good starting point could be using ChatGPT. Just ask to provide you with a meditation for one of the chakras or a point you want to help others with healing. It will come up with a beautiful meditation you can use or tweak for the situation. Take what it provides and walk it through in your mind to help you 'feel' it. That helps with memorizing and presenting at your events. It helps me a lot.

For some reason, I think this may have gotten left out of the conversation. When purchasing a bowl to go with existing bowls, it's a good idea to know what tuning system you're in. There are two tuning systems: 440 Hz or standardized tuning, and 432 Hz. 440Hz is what the orchestras tune and is a good tuning to have if you play with other instruments. These two tuning systems are based on the note a being either for 440 Hz or 432 Hz, and then all of the intervals of that scale are measured in a way to create that tuning. So in purchasing bowls, it's good to know which tuning system you have then if you ever break one or want to add others, you can match it up. My bowls are all in 440 Hz, however, when I broke my A bowl, I decided to move toward 432 Hz. The tuning that you have already or choose to have doesn't really matter, except that what ever tuning you choose, it is nice to keep them tuned all together. Remember you're the healer not the bowls.

There are many important points in this week, but I only mention here what points are personally important to me at this moment in time. Takeaway #1: Use Passive technique to play bowls with Simple Melodies and in a Musical Flow because: • Simple themes help the brain relax and feel safe. • Musicality comes from patterns and repetition. • Slow, long sustains sounds will help clients get into the lower brainwaves (delta/theta) for calming and get healing in that state. Takeaway #2: The set list! Write a detailed set list and practice the set list daily! Call me paranoid but I put everything that I might forget on the set list 😅 Actually I created 3: - Packing items before heading to the venue - My introduction speech - The REAL set list for the actual playing I do it this way to calm my chatty brain 😅

This was such a rich class full of so much rich information that I needed to listen to this several times. • Biggest Takeaway #1: This confirms to me that this is a start of a long rich journey and made me feel comfortable with the idea that I do not need to rush to get there but enjoy every moment along the way. At least now I have landmarks to focus on. • Biggest Takeaway #2: The idea of having set lists with overall chord progressions for us to improvise upon helps me a lot. Having a map of the journey with a designated path to follow is definitely anchoring and will make me feel stable, thus making it much easier to get into deeper presence into every moment, kind of like smelling the roses along the hike instead of having the feeling of being lost and not sure where to go. The idea of repetition and small patterns is great and more along the lines of where i came from but in a bliss state I tend to forget what I just played. LOL • Biggest Takeaway #3: There are many more things to consider such as the surroundings around the bowl set up as well as the materials of the objects in the room which I did not expect to think about even though as a pianist I knew that. I played my bowl while placed on the tablecloth and then I played it without it and observed the huge difference so now I know why you suggested ear plugs in a previous session. I love that seat bolster you use. Thank you for sharing your years of experience.