Explanation of tuning and coding system for crystal singing bowls Silver Sky Imports
Quartz crystal singing bowls tend to be very specific in frequency making it a breeze to put together mathematically harmonized sets based on the frequency alone. The octave range of quartz singing bowls is fixed between the second and fifth octave. The various styles of crystal bowls will have a more narrow range of frequency. Very few bowls will be in the second octave range, with the majority of styles of crystal bowl starting in the third octave and ending in the fifth. The lowest frequency in the third octave is 127.2Hz a third octave C note. This is not a “perfect pitch” C note however the frequency is still in the range that is considered a “C” note. For classification we use the system of musical cent values, meaning the note is divided into one hundred musical “cents” with 50 points of reference above and below the exact center or perfect pitch point of the note. For simplification we use the 440Hz A note as the tuning specification for our website. This allows classification and division of the frequency into segments of the note without having to make individual categories for each frequency. For people working with the 432 Hz A note system, an easy way to do the conversion is to note the frequency difference of 8Hz which will appear in the listings as minus thirty to minus thirty five as the perfect pitch center. For ease the bowls that meet this tuning criteria are listed as 432 Hz Perfect Pitch and can be searched as such in the search bar. Perfect pitch is considered anything between ten cents below to ten cents above perfect pitch zero or exact perfect pitch.
Frequencies that are above the frequency of perfect pitch for the note in question are noted as plus. This info is found as part of every crystal bowl product title. For instance:
Frosted F Note Crystal Singing Bowl 11" #C11Fp15
The code c11fp15 indicates this bowl as plus 15 musical cents. A complete breakdown of the code relates to all frosted crystal bowls and can be used to decipher many of the codes found in the titles of quartz singing bowls.
The C in this case stands for crystal frosted. The 11 indicates the size, in this case 11”. F is the note and the P indicates it is on the plus side of the F note. This bowl is 15 musical cents on the plus side of the F note and will perfectly harmonize with other bowls with a matching sku, for example:
Frosted D Note Quartz Crystal Singing Bowl 13" #C13Dp15
The above bowl is going to be the perfect match to the F note bowl in 13” D note. By following this simple set of rules you are able to put together 2, 3 or 4 bowl harmonic combinations based on chords or 7,8, 12 or more bowl sets based on whatever note you would like.
No matter the tuning you have chosen, to choose a harmonized set of bowls you simply need to match the last three digits of the code found in the title.