Mallets and Beaters for Tibetan Singing Bowls

Clear all

With a mallet and beater for Tibetan singing bowls suited to your instrument, you can bring out your bowl’s full voice: these tools make direct contact with its surface. Bare wood produces a clear tone rich in harmonics, while felt gives it a soft, warm, rounded sound. At Instruments du Monde, we’ve gathered bare wooden mallets and felt-tipped mallets, along with beaters and strikers, so you can make your bowl sing just the way you like.

Tibetan singing bowl mallet

Tibetan Bowl Mallet

€12
Tibetan singing bowl mallet

Tibetan Singing Bowl Mallet

€19
Singing bowl mallet

Mallet for Singing Bowl

€29
Singing bowl mallet

Singing Bowl Mallet

€19
Tibetan singing bowl stick

Tibetan Singing Bowl Stick

€49

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Felt, leather, suede, or bare wood: What sound does each mallet produce on a Tibetan singing bowl?

A woman meditating with a Tibetan singing bowl and mallet

Without a covering, a wooden mallet produces a clear, metallic sound that is high-pitched and rich in overtones, with a slight tap on impact. Felt, by contrast, produces a soft, rounded tone with more low frequencies. Suede or leather gives you a warm, balanced sound between the two.

A small, hard head brings out higher frequencies, while a soft head favours lower ones. With the same bowl, though, your technique matters just as much as the material.

On a Tibetan singing bowl large enough for it, a large felt ball keeps the sound soft while producing powerful vibrations you can feel in your hand and up your arm. Shape matters too: a ball-shaped head touches the bowl over a small area and can produce a pronounced attack, while a cylindrical head provides a larger striking surface.

Striking or rubbing the rim: Do you need the same mallet for both?

Rubbing the rim works best with a leather-covered wooden mallet that grips it. The same mallet isn’t necessarily the best choice for both striking and rubbing. You can strike your bowl with any mallet, but a felt or wool head is only for striking: it’s too soft to grip the rim and make the bowl sing when rubbed around it. An uncovered wooden mallet produces a bright sound when rubbed around the rim. It is more likely to squeak or buzz than a leather- or suede-covered stick, though, and it may leave dark marks on the rim that do not affect the sound. If you want just one tool, a common choice has a bare wooden end and a suede-covered end, each of which produces a different tone when used to strike the bowl.

A woman receiving a sound bath with a Tibetan singing bowl and mallet

The mallet must be proportional to the bowl’s diameter: large, heavy bowls call for large, heavy mallets, while small bowls need small, light ones. For example, a Tibetan singing bowl 15 to 20 cm in diameter calls for a stick about 18 cm long and 2.5 cm wide, or a mallet about 25 cm long. These are general guidelines that can vary from bowl to bowl. The bowl’s weight is also a useful guide. A mallet weighing about 30 g suits a bowl weighing a few hundred grams, while a bowl weighing more than 1 kg calls for a much longer, heavier mallet.

For the head, aim for a diameter of about 20 to 30 mm for small bowls, 35 to 50 mm for medium bowls, and 50 to 60 mm for large bowls. The same principle applies to padding. A lightly padded mallet is enough for a small bowl, a thin layer of felt suits a medium bowl, and a large bowl calls for a heavily padded mallet. A large felt mallet used on a small bowl will produce a dull, muffled sound. As for firmness, very soft felt suits thin-walled bowls, while thick-walled bowls can handle firmer felt.

Most Tibetan singing bowls come with a basic mallet that may be too small for a bowl more than 18 cm in diameter.

The bowl buzzes because the mallet bounces off the rim as the vibrations build. This happens when your speed or pressure is uneven, or when you move too fast as the bowl grows louder.

If the bowl squeals at higher pitches, you may be pressing too hard or holding the handle too flat, causing it to rub against the side of the bowl instead of the rim. Relax your grip, then straighten the handle.

If you move too slowly or use a mallet that’s too light, the sound won’t build.

For beginners, a suede- or leather-covered tip is the easiest to control. If you prefer to start by striking the bowl—the easiest technique—a soft felt head will prevent an overly harsh sound on impact.

A gentle strike with a padded mallet will give you a fuller, rounder sound than a sharp strike, with less buzzing from the bowl. Next, try striking your bowl firmly and then gently, using a hard head, then a medium one, and finally a soft one. This exercise will quickly help you develop an ear for your bowl and a feel for the right technique.

Not at all. Having several mallets for one bowl does, however, let you vary the sound, making it louder or softer as you wish. Different mallets bring out different overtones, but the bowl’s note stays the same; only its tone changes.

If you have several bowls of different sizes, it’s a good idea to keep two or three mallets with heads of varying sizes. For a single bowl, a common setup is a leather-covered stick for rubbing the rim, plus a soft felt head and a firm felt head for striking. Still, a soft mallet and a firm mallet are enough to bring out a range of tones from your bowl.

When the felt becomes fuzzy, brush it gently. Store your mallets in a dry place away from dust to keep the felt from clumping. Between sessions, a pouch or a simple cloth will protect the heads. For the bowl itself, a case is one of the accessories that will protect it when you travel. Felt and wool wear out faster than wood and suede with regular use. Over time, leather becomes smooth and slippery, which can make it harder for your stick to get the bowl singing. You can restore its grip by gently rubbing it against a rough cloth.

A gong mallet is best suited to heavy Tibetan singing bowls: large bowls weighing several kilograms or more, and very large bowls you can stand inside. Gong mallets are generally much longer and heavier, sometimes have large heads, and often have two heads. Their head materials, such as felt and rubber, are similar to those used for singing bowl mallets, and larger mallets can be used for both bowls and gongs.

A heavy gong mallet will muffle a small bowl and produce only a dull sound. Some lightweight gong mallets with small, soft heads can, however, play smaller Tibetan singing bowls without overwhelming them.