Tap a bowl to strike it. Then circle its rim slowly, about one turn a second, and feel the note swell as the stick drives the bronze. Too fast and the stick chatters; hold still and the bowl falls silent. Pour water in to lower the notes, and watch the surface ripple and leap when a bowl sings loud.
A singing bowl is a bell you can play two ways. Both work here, with the same physics that makes a real bowl sing.
Tap a bowl and it rings like a bell, a long tone that fades over half a minute in the large ones. Circle its rim and the stick catches and slips on the bronze hundreds of times a second, feeding the note until the bowl sings. Each bowl has its own pointer, so two fingers can play two bowls.
Around one turn a second the bowl locks on and the song grows. Faster, the stick starts to bounce and chatter, and the page tells you to slow down. Stop moving while you touch it and the bowl falls silent, just as a still hand damps the real thing.
No bowl is perfectly round, so each of its notes is really two notes a hair apart. Together they beat, the slow pulsing that gives singing bowls their breath. Every bowl here has five such pairs, the low ones ringing long, the high ones fading fast.
Slide the water up and the notes drop, slowly at first, then faster as the bowls fill. When a bowl sings loud, the surface breaks into ripples along the rim, and droplets leap out, as physicists have filmed in real bowls.
Pick 1, 3, 5, 10 or 20 minutes and press Start timer: the large bowl rings once, the countdown runs, and three slow rings close the session. Leave the page in the background, the timer keeps going.
Keys 1 to 6 strike the bowls from the largest. Hold Space to circle the last bowl you played, or press Keep singing to let it sing on its own while you strike the others over it.
Tap the large bowl, or press 1, and listen to the long ring and its slow pulse.
Press on the bowl and draw slow circles around its rim, about one per second, until it says Singing.
Slide the water up a little at a time and hear the notes sink; make a bowl sing loud and watch the surface.
Choose a length and press Start timer: one ring to begin, three to end.
| Type | Six singing bowls (standing bells), playable on this page, free |
|---|---|
| Notes | D3, F3, G3, A3, C4, D4, from the largest bowl to the smallest |
| Playing | Strike (tap), sing (circle the rim), mute (touch and hold still) |
| Sound | Modal synthesis: 5 modes per bowl at the measured ratios of a real bowl, each as a beating pair, plus stick friction and chatter |
| Sticks | Suede-wrapped mallet (soft) or bare wooden stick (bright, grittier song) |
| Water | Empty to full: the notes drop with the fourth power of the depth, about 20 percent when full; ripples and droplets |
| Timer | 1, 3, 5, 10 or 20 minutes |
| Keyboard | 1 to 6 strike, Space held circles the last bowl; mouse, multi-touch and pen with pressure |
| Requirements | Any modern browser with Web Audio - Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Safari |
A singing bowl is a standing bell: a bowl of bell metal, an alloy of copper and tin, that rests on its base with the rim up. Struck standing bells have marked time in Buddhist temples across Asia for centuries, such as the rin of Japan and the qing of China. The bowls sold today as singing bowls are mostly made in Nepal and northern India, cast and hammered by hand or turned on a lathe.
Rubbing the rim to make a bowl sing, and the name Tibetan singing bowl, became popular in the West from the 1970s, after records such as Tibetan Bells (1972). Historians find no trace of the singing technique in older accounts of Tibetan music, and many stories told about the bowls are recent. Today they are used for music, meditation and relaxation; this page makes no claim about health effects.
The stick sticks to the rim, slips, sticks again, hundreds of times a second, exactly at the bowl's lowest note: the rim flexes into an oval that turns with the stick, with four points moving most, shown in light on each bowl. Water adds weight to the walls and lowers the note; a full bowl measured by physicists dropped from 236 to 188 Hz. For more resonant metal, play the handpan or the bronze gongs of the gamelan, and find every instrument on the world music studio map.
Yes. The six bowls at the top of this page are free, with no account and nothing to install. They run in your browser with the Web Audio API, without any sound file.
Press on a bowl and circle its rim slowly, about one turn a second, keeping the pointer down. The note grows over a few seconds. If you go too fast the stick chatters, and if you stop moving while you touch the bowl, it falls silent.
A bowl is never perfectly round, so each of its notes splits into two very close frequencies. Heard together they beat, rising and falling a few times a second. It is the characteristic wah-wah of singing bowls.
Water lowers the notes, little at first and much more as the bowl fills, up to about 20 percent for a full bowl. When a bowl sings loud, the surface ripples near the rim and droplets jump, as in real bowls.
Yes. Choose 1, 3, 5, 10 or 20 minutes and press Start timer. The large bowl rings once to begin and three times at the end. Press the countdown to stop it early.
The singing bowls are free, with no account. GOONS Studio adds a looper, synths, drum machines and a sequencer that play together - free for 7 days, no card required.
Free on this page, no account. Play the online handpan →