New video: Working With Gongs - Part 8

Here's another in my series of Gong videos. This time I feature a composition I wrote for Gongs, Spiritual Resonance. This was actually the 1st thing I wrote for my newly expanded melodic Gong set up back in 2001 or so. It has evolved over time as I've added other Gongs to my set up, but the main structure has stayed the same. 

The song was inspired by the 3 small Wind and 2 small Chau Gongs that I found at a local music store. I was on a side of town I don't normally hang out in and drove past a store that I rarely went to because it was more of a guitar store. But something compelled me to stop there. So I went in and made my way upstairs to their small percussion department and was surprised by finding a a selection of Gongs. I started playing with them, rearranging them into a pitched based order, then bought the 5 best small ones that made a nice melodic set.I used that set for about 4 years until one of the Chau Gongs lost its pitch, which made the compositions I had written not work anymore. Fortunately, I was out east and stopped at Steve Weiss music in Philly—they are one of the biggest Asian Gong importers—and they were nice enough to accommodate me. I had brought the bad Gong with me in hopes of finding a replacement. The folks at Weiss brought out a whole box of small Chau Gongs for me to try. I went through all of them and found an exact match for my bad Gong! I also found 3 more pitches to add to my set up. My thanks to all the Steve Weiss guys!

If you are looking for great hand picked Asian Gongs, please check out Steve Weiss Music, and tell them the Gongman sent you…


~ MB

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