How a Gong Actually Sounds When Played With Real Technique

Ben Irons is the lead instructor of The Ohm Store's Gong School, the architect of the 7 week curriculum and foundational processes leading to being able to wield this sacred sound, skillfully. Ben is a conservatory-trained percussionist who has performed with symphony orchestras, and he has spent the better part of three decades refining his understanding of the gong as both a musical instrument and a therapeutic tool.

Watch this, and then I'll share some thoughts below.

The thing that stands out to me every time I watch Ben work is how little it resembles what most people think of when they hear the word "gong." Most of us have been in a yoga class or a sound bath where someone hits a gong and it gets loud. Real loud. Ben refers to this as "Gongzilla."

Volume and wash, without the absolutely stunning nuances possible when skillfulness is applied to this instrument. 

A gong is one of the most acoustically complex instruments in existence. A single strike activates dozens of simultaneously interacting frequencies. The fundamental tone anchors the sound, and above it, a layered series of overtones bloom across the spectrum. Which overtones emerge, how loud they are relative to each other, how they interact and beat against one another, all of that is determined by measurable physical variables. Where the mallet contacts the surface. The velocity of approach. The mass and density of the mallet head. The alloy composition of the gong, its thickness, its diameter, whether it has been lathed and how. These are engineering variables, and they produce specific, repeatable acoustic outcomes.

The reason this matters, beyond musicianship, is that the human nervous system responds to complex acoustic stimulation in well-documented ways. Sustained, layered, low-frequency sound encourages the brain to shift from beta-dominant activity (alert, analytical, stress-responsive) toward alpha and theta states (relaxed, meditative, restorative). The parasympathetic branch of the autonomic nervous system activates. Heart rate decreases. Breathing rate drops. Cortisol output diminishes. This process, called brainwave entrainment, has been studied and measured in clinical settings for decades. It is a function of how the auditory cortex processes rhythmic information, and the gong, with its extraordinarily dense overtone structure, delivers that information in a form the nervous system responds to powerfully.

Ben understands all of this at the level of a working professional. Beyond this, Ben's experience as a conservatory-trained musician has allowed him to pull specializes teaching and learning modalities from that world, and apply them to new gong players. 

He talks about playing the gong as a conversation rather than a performance, because the instrument is genuinely responsive. What the gong gives back depends entirely on how you approach it. A soft mallet drawn slowly across the center zone produces deep, warm fundamentals. An articulate mallet near the edge opens up bright, shimmering upper partials. A friction mallet held against the surface creates sustained harmonic blooms with no percussive attack at all.

A skilled player moves between these voices with intention, building arcs of sound that develop, layer, recede, and resolve over the course of a session. That is what you are seeing in the video above. It is the product of years of disciplined practice and deep study of how the instrument actually behaves.

Ben is the lead instructor of Gong School by The Ohm Store.

It is a 7-week immersive mentorship covering the intellectual, practical, and technical foundations of gong playing. The curriculum begins with fundamental mechanics (grip, stroke, posture, mallet selection), progresses through advanced technique and acoustic theory, and concludes with a capstone project where each student designs and records their own gong meditation. Weekly live sessions with Ben. Guest presenters from the global gong community. A private student cohort. All sessions recorded for lifetime access.

Gong School 2.0 begins in May 2026.

Early enrollment opens at the end of March, and people on the early bird list get first access along with an exclusive enrollment discount that won't be available to the general public.

If the video resonated with you, or if you've been curious about the gong and want to learn it the right way, from someone who has actually spent a career mastering the instrument, we'd love to have you.

Frank Mocerino and Ben Irons
The Ohm Store