Find more videos like this on School of Cymatics
The School of Cymatics has officially opened it’s doors with it’s first virtual classroom lesson “Cymatics 101″ going live today. The school already has 67 members and the doors are currently still open for free admission.

“Cymatics 101, Part I” is the first in a series of new “5 minute classes” that give students an easy way to learn about cymatics one lesson at a time. Each lesson includes a cymatics science fact, a cymatics art demo, featured correspondence from the “cymatics mailbag” and a quote from cymatics history. There will be more virtual classroom lessons as the video series is recorded, and you can be first to be notified of new video lessons in the series by enrolling at the School of Cymatics.

Inside the School of Cymatics you can watch cymatics video lessons, see what cymatics projects other students of cymatics are working on, view new cymatics images and beautiful cymatics photos, see cymatics videos by our students, and network with other “cymatic fanatics” around the world.

You can also see all the best cymatics YouTube videos all in one place streaming live at the School of Cymatics, by clicking on the “cymatics videos” tab once you are there.

If you have content that you would like to see included in the School of Cymatics curriculum, please first become a member of the Journal of Cymatics (enter your name and email in the upper right hand corner of this site), then leave a comment below, or write to me at the School of Cymatics.

Cover of WasserMusik by Alexander Lauterwasser

“WasserMusik” (2005) is as beautiful a book as “Water Sound Images,” the only drawback (for me) being that it is currently only in German.

However that does not detract from the beautiful new sets of cymatics images, and if you are hungry for more beautiful cymatic images, Alexander Laterwasser’s newer cymatics book would be the best place to find a treasure trove of cymatics images you have not seen before.

Alexander Lauterwasser’s most recent project is his newly published book about the turtle titled, “Das Geheimnisder Schildkrote” – which is also only in German currently. As he explained in a personal note recently, he wrote his new book about the turtle because it is what inspired his interest in Hans Jenny, and his own work in cymatics, in the first place.

You can view all of Alexander Lauterwasser’s books related to cymatics here.

Amazon is also a good place to find cymatics books by Alexander Lauterwasser; however you will not find his latest book about the turtle there.

You can watch my video review of Alexander Lauterwasser’s “Water Sound Images” here.

Handheld cymatics plate, built and played by Jodina Meehan in my studio downtown in Southern Vermont.

I had always dreamed of holding and playing a cymatics plate closer to the way a violin is played. There is something wonderful about playing a cymatics plate by hand, so close to the face, a very intimate experience with the sound and salt.

I will be making instructions available soon for this handheld plate – if you would like to be notified the moment they are available please sign up on this site as a member of the Journal of Cymatics. Or you can also get on the notification list by downloading free plans for your own cymatics tonascope here

There will be a multi-media presentation on cymatics at the Controversial Bookstore in Northpark in San Diego tomorrow, February 5th, 2010. Cymatics publisher Jeff Volk will be giving a demonstration and explanation of cymatics, live and in person, as well as discussing the creative potential of sound and vibration. An excellent introduction to the nature of sound waves for kids and adults.

What: Presentation on Cymatics and Resonance: Tuning In to the Subtle Vibrations of Sound Health. A multi-media presentation by poet, producer and cymatics publisher Jeff Volk

When: Friday, Feb. 5, 2010, 7 – 9 p.m.

Where: Controversial Bookstore (located in Northpark) 3063 University Ave., San Diego, CA 92104

Tickets: $20

Contact: 619-296-1560

Jeff Volk is the publisher of “Cymatics” by Hans Jenny, as well as “Water Sound Images” by Alexander Lauterwasser. He is also the producer of a series of videos based on Dr. Hans Jenny’s pioneering cymatics experiments, and has been working with and teaching about cymatics for the past 25 years.

Note from the editor: I have personally attended two of Mr. Volk’s cymatics demonstrations and they are both inspirational and infomative. This will also be a great demonstration of the nature of sound waves for kids, and would make a good educational outing for children (who are old enough to listen quietly). I would recommend if you are anywhere in the area, that you do what you can to see this wonderful cymatics demonstration.

Sound healing is closely tied to cymatics, and in fact I met several M.D. practitioners of sound healing at the Cymatics Conference in Atlanta.

Sound healing practitioners use cymatics, not necessarily in the sense that they are making sound visible (as with cymatics and art), but in that they apply sound to matter in order to shape and change it. For example a sound healing practitioner might use sound applied to the human body, and in recent years there has been an emphasis on scientifically record and report on the results achieved using cymatics for sound healing.

These sound healing practitioners range from doctors to chiropractors to yoga teachers, who state that using cymatics for sound healing often generates results that no other therapy could achieve. Some use highly researched frequencies stored and generated on a machine with specific frequencies recommended for specific diagnoses; others use their own voice and a more intuitive approach to sound healing.

If you are interested in learning more about cymatics and sound healing, here are three good places to start. I met all three of the following practitioners in person at the Cymatics Conference in 2008 and they are great resources for sound healing information:

John Beaulieu is the author of “Music and Sound in the Healing Arts” and uses tuning forks among other techniques for sound healing. Dr. Beaulieu also has a “BioSonics sound school” where you can learn about sound healing yourself. Watch my video interview with Dr. Beaulieu here.

Dr. June Leslie Wieder, Doctor of Chiropractic and author of “Sound of the Spine,” focuses on the “resonance of the spine” and applying specific vibrational frequencies directly to the vertebrae. Watch my video interview with Dr. Wieder here.

Mandara Cromwell is President of Cymatherapy® International, and Director of the Board of the International Sound Therapy Association (ISTA), and director of the International Conference on Cymatics. Her focus is the use of a machine called the Cyma®1000, which generates specific sound frequencies. You can learn more about Mandara Cromwell’s work here.

This is a clip that John Stuart Reid just sent me of a cymatics demonstration at the International Sound Healing Conference. Watch it and you will see the cymatics form of throat singing (overtone singing), a dove, a coyote, and a cello, as well as others.

In the video John is doing the speaking, and Erik Larson can be seen standing to his left. John and Erik are co-creators of the world’s first CymaScope, which you can also see in front of the film screen.

You may remember from previous posts that John Stuart Reid is working to create a “dolphin alphabet” using images from cymatics. He has also informed me that he has recently completed an image of the “song of the sun” which was recorded by the SOHO spacecraft, then transferred to the CymaScope to create the image. I will be featuring this image soon so keep your eye out!

P.S. You can build your own DIY cymatics device to see sounds similar to the footage you see here in about 30 minutes. Download free instructions here.

The band Seven from Illinois has recorded a new album called “Cymatics,” and I was very pleased to find, after listening to it on Amazon, that I like the album as much as I did Sun 0)))’s album of the same name.

This album and Seven’s overall sound is both very different from and yet does have similarities to the album “Cymatics” recorded by Sun 0))) last year about this time.

There is definitely a metal edge (or maybe that’s a metal base) to Seven’s tracks, and a trance metal quality pervades; but unlike true trance metal, Seven incorporates full lyrics prominently. There is a definite “Tool” sound coming through in the vocals and song structure, but for me that only enhances the appeal.

You can read a full review of “Cymatics” by Seven here, and you can purchase or listen to the album here

On the popular TV show “Heroes,” the character called Emma Coolidge is portrayed as being able to “see sound” as her “superpower.”

The theory has ties to cymatics in that sound is represented as sound waves being viewed as visual patterns – but how much the authors of the show understand about cymatics is unclear. Take a look at the photos of Emma from Heroes “seeing sound,” then take a look at the picture of the cymatics sound bubble around a woman playing a violin here. Did they get it right? Leave a comment and let me know what you think.

See more photos of how Emma Coolidge “sees sound” on Heroes, on the Heroes Wiki page…and, if you want, you can even add a “theory” about Emma and cymatics to the “Theories” part of the Heros Wiki. Be sure to leave a link to http://www.cymatica.com when you do (so they can see what you are talking about).

Cymatics: polishing plate with alum, originally uploaded by Cymatics.

Here are 3 tips for preparing a cymatics plate surface for creating cymatics patterns using sound waves.

1. Your plate should not be too thin; 1/8″ is the thickness of the plate shown in the photo.

2. Paint or spray the surface of the cymatics plate with black glossy enamel.

3. Before you sprinkle particles on the surface of your cyamtics plate to play it, you can use a small amount of alum or aluminum sulfate and a cloth to polish your plate lightly. (Don’t press too hard or you will create scratches.) This will remove any remaining resistance on the surface of the paint.

To read 4 more tips on playing a cymatics plate, click here

Whether you are interested in the physics of sound yourself, or want to teach about the physics of sound waves for kids, one of the best ways to experience sound waves firsthand is to play a cymatics plate and see the sand or salt transform from chaos into geometric patterns formed by sound vibrations right in front of your eyes.

The of Cymatics will be making a video course available on “how to make a DIY cymatics plate” for those who want to build a Chladni-style cymatics plate of their own.

In the meantime, for those who already have (or are building) a DIY cymatics plate and have had some difficulty learning to get the sound vibrations going properly, here are some tips for playing your cymatics plate, and a set of cymatics images that will illustrate some tips on playing a cymatics plate visually for you:

Tip #1: Make sure the surface of the cymatics plate is smooth and free of obstructions or “stickiness.” There are two things you can do to reduce resistance on a cymatics plate surface. One, wipe the surface with a ’static cling’ dryer sheet (like Bounce) to remove any static electricity. Two, take a bit of the powder crystals you are using for cymatics patterns and put some on the surface of the plate, then take a soft cloth and polish the plate lightly with them, before cleaning the plate and applying sound waves.

Tip #2: Make sure your bow is tightened enough. I personally tighten my bow with a pair of pliers, but be careful not to tighten it until it breaks. Also, be sure to loosen your bow afterwards and never leave it tight when you put it away.

Tip #3: Be sure you have enough rosin on your bow. You want to have a really good coating, and you can recoat it each time you play to increase stickiness. In my experience, the more stickiness, the better the cymatics images you will get.

Tip #4: Hold the bow very firmly and press in on the edge of the plate very hard, then pull slowly and firmly, not quickly and lightly, along the edge of the cymatics plate. Get the bow to “catch” and the vibrations to start, then keep going, keeping your bow hard against the cymatics plate’s edge.

Tip #5: Use a sieve to pour your salt or sand through onto your cymatics plate before you play. This give you a nice, even coating of particles to start with, and eliminate any “pouring pattern” that gets left from applying particles by hand, which might show up in your cymatics design and make it less “pure.”

Click on this set of cymatics images to see the tips I’ve offered here illustrated in photos.

And be sure to put your name in for a subscription to the Journal of Cymatics in the upper right hand corner here, so you can get an announcement as soon as the new “cymatics how to” plate instructions become available.