Jan/Feb 2010

Interview with Kenny Kolter

By Willy Mathes

Over the past two and a half years, Kenny Kolter has been conducting gong meditation workshops and presentations throughout the Chicagoland area at major conferences, yoga studios, healing centers, Unity churches, mental health centers, and chiropractic care clinics to rave reviews and critical acclaim. And although Kenny is a 'local'(he resides in Buffalo Grove with his wife, Mara, and teenaged daughter), his busy schedule required that we exercise our own 'creative energy' to catch up with him for this interview.

Willy Mathes (WM): Given that the gong is such an exotic instrument, especially when used in healing and transformation of consciousness, how did you get your start with the gong, Kenny?

KK: Well, I have been playing drums and percussion since age nine, and I've been practicing Transcendental Meditation since age 12. I guess you could say those were two tremendously formative influences for me. In my mid-20s, I graduated from Maharishi International University in Fairfield, Iowa with a bachelor's degree in Comparative Literature. It was there that I was steeped in ayurvedic and gandharvaveda studies (Note: Ayurveda is India's ancient science of health, and gandharvaveda is an ancient Indian tradition bridging music and expansion of consciousness).

I have continued since then to be drawn to deepen my understanding and experience of how music can be used as a healing influence on people and as an approach to raising consciousness, both individually and in groups. Due to my having traveled and performed internationally as a professional musician, I've come to recognize that there is the potential to touch many people's lives with music, especially when the intention is to enliven higher consciousness. Playing the gong, for me, is a wonderful blend of exerting and expressing my spiritual self and my musical self.

WM: What was your first gong experience like, if you can recall?

KK: I attended a gong bath years ago hosted by The Wood Song Music Ministries in Frankfort, Illinois. I had an amazing experience. Several minutes into the event, I had this buzzing sensation, like low voltage current sizzling eight inches all about my head. It was invigorating and soothing and puzzling all at once. I thought to myself, Wow! There is really something to this! I wasn't sure what it was, but it was palpable. I tried to settle in or settle down, and I couldn't. I felt energized and aware, and tried to peek up front to see what the gong player was doing. I was so intrigued and fascinated by the whole thing. Being a musician, I was dumbfounded at the vast array of tones and harmonics that came out of the instrument. I had a second where 10,000 thoughts came into my awareness, and a light went off inside me--an moment. On the drive home, I said to my wife, That's what I want do! I know I can do it! I purchased a gong a few months later, and here I am.

WM: What was that first experience like of playing a gong?

KK: Actually, to answer that, I'd like to back up some. What first pricked my ears up to the gong was quite unique. Eight or nine years ago, I was working at a specialty import store that sold furniture and decor items from all over Asia. Part of the decor and accessory items were gongs that folks mostly used as ornamental pieces. What was interesting was that these were gongs made at the world-renowned Wuhan factory in China. Wuhan gongs are found in symphonies all over the world and are high-quality instruments with strong musicality, resonance, and tone. The store would receive shipments on a regular basis, and there would always be a handful of gongs. Of course, I would play them and identify certain gongs that had wonderful harmonics or interesting characteristics.

One day on a particularly slow afternoon a very pleasant woman came in and asked about our selection of gongs. I walked her through the store and showed her what we had on display. I told her what I knew about gongs and said that I was a percussionist of sorts. She played a few of them for a time and then asked if we had any more. She said she was a sound practitioner and was looking for gongs with certain tonal characteristics that were meditative or healing. Well, this piqued my interest, so I brought out every gong in the building. Together, we played all the gongs, separating them out into piles. Eventually, she purchased three gongs. When she left, I felt good inside knowing that these gongs were going to be used for healing or creating inner well-being for people I would never know.

This was my first exposure to the use of gongs for healing. Somehow that experience has stayed with me all these years later. This unassuming customer taught me a great deal in one afternoon about approaching the gong as a tool for vibrational awareness through sonic color, texture, and feel.

Life is full of surprises in that way... we never know who or what will show up on our doorstep with a new message or knowledge we can use to better ourselves. The key, in my opinion, is to stay open and that's a life-long lesson to be learned and integrated.

WM: What does the typical gong workshop consist of?

KK: The sessions are 95% experiential. I give a brief description and history of the gong and of the type of work I do. These workshops, though, are geared toward giving the participants a chance to meditate or pray, with the gong providing an energetic and sonic backdrop.

My goal as facilitator is to be a sound bridge between the energy and Spirit that lies within the gong, sonically drawing out or tuning into the energy and Spirit that resides in us all.

A gong meditation is an opportunity to bathe in the healing, resonant sound harmonics that a gong creates. Gongs embody the universal sound and basic chordal structure of the eternal Om. Participants can let go and just let the gong provide the Om mantra, freeing up the mind and the physical body to transcend.

The physical sound vibration of the gong is powerful and soothing, invigorating and relaxing, all at the same time. Gong meditations are becoming more and more popular, particularly in a yoga studio setting, as it is a perfect compliment to the mind-body connectedness that yoga provides. Attendees are amazed at the range of sound that a gong produces, and often comment about the powerful meditative effect.

WM: Assuming that each audience is different, how do you make the gong experience fit who you're playing for?

KK: This is a great question, Willy. I always tell folks who attend the gong meditations that I feel like a kid with a new box of crayons every time I sit down to play. I feel that my role as facilitator is, in essence, to get myself out of the way; by that, I mean to get fully lost in the experience. My internal definition of "lost in the experience" means to release the ego, release the sense of self, release any sense of control, and know that there is an infinite universe of sound all around us that is full of healing or Spirit.

For example, my wife and I took a walk recently on a beautiful summer morning at a nearby community park that has a swimming pool. We arrived near the pool area at the same time as a school bus packed with eager young swimmers ready to immerse themselves in the splash and frolic of the day. I closed my eyes for a second, and the sound of excitement, joy, anticipation, friendship and rambunctiousness filled the air. I was swept up into an explosive can-opener of remembrances from my childhood--I was nine years old again and thrilled that I was going to the pool! I felt eager to jump off the high dive with my older brother, smelling chlorinated water on concrete and thinking about my favorite summertime snack of cheese nachos and a Slurpee! You see, sound has that ability to trigger cellular memories that are dormant or forgotten. And just as those children were ready to get lost in the experience of the pool that morning, focused only on the adventure and delight of the moment, I try to get lost in the energy of the room and the energy of the attendees at any given event?or even if I'm working with one person. I feel that my 30 years of practicing Transcendental Meditation enables me to get lost and be fully present and pliable to the moment.

WM: What do you do (if anything) to tune into the "spirit of the gong" (i.e., before playing it for an audience)?

KK: It starts for me on the ride over to the event. Here in the Chicago area, there's always plenty of driving! I'm fortunate to have engagements all over Chicagoland, so I try to give myself plenty of time and not rush. I look at the drive time as an opportunity to focus, relax, and get myself in the right frame of mind to be of service to the facility where I'm playing, to be of service to the participants (again, even if it's a single person who wants a vibrational awareness session), and to be of service to Spirit or Source or God, or whatever you want to call it. I am truly fortunate to be able to share this sonic journey with people, and feel blessed every time I get an opportunity to play.

WM: You're both an accomplished gong player and an accomplished drummer. How has your drumming informed your gonging, and how has your gonging informed your drumming?

I think the biggest benefit that being a drum-set player has afforded me is that I have the familiarity of striking something while eliciting tones and texture with sticks or mallets in my hands. There is a certain inherent delicacy or velocity that drums and cymbals (or gongs) need to be played with in order to coax out either soft, sensitive timbres or intense, boisterous sounds.

Playing drum-set off and on since age nine has enabled me to build the proper muscle groups in my hands and wrists to be able to play the gong for extended periods without getting fatigued. Speaking of drumming, I have incorporated the use of a large-frame drum in the gong meditations. I start the majority of the sessions with some soft, sonorous, tribal-like drumming for grounding purposes. As you know, the drum is also an ancient spiritual tool that has been around longer than the gong.

I experimented quite a bit with various tunings of the drum, and I stumbled upon a sound that is extremely resonant, soothing, and vibrant. I play the drum and the gong simultaneously for awhile, and the sound is amazing. It's as if the gong and the drum are talking to each other in some ancient language.

Playing the gong has changed my drum-set playing in a profound way. I'm hearing things differently and approaching the kit more musically. The gong is an entire world in itself. I try to more or less melt into the gong, and oftentimes it's as if the gong is leading the way, directing me towards what to play next.

Because I interact with other musicians when playing on a drum-set, I'm listening more to the overall dynamic of the band and trying to play to that, instead of solely focusing on my instrument. In a nutshell, it has become more expansive.

WM: Can you please describe what you experience when you're really in tune with an audience and the gonging you're doing?

It's always new and different, really. Sometimes I see colors bouncing off the surface of the gong, or I have vivid impressions of the ambiance, altitude (of consciousness), and attitude of the room. I often tell folks that the gong starts to play itself. I know that sounds a bit esoteric, but it's true.

This is a wonderful segue way to a very important point, actually. The gong meditation experience is not about me. It's about the fact that we all have the ability in our own unique way to meditate or pray or self-heal. The gong (or the drum) is a sonic backdrop for folks to get into that space to allow Source energy, God, or pure consciousness to flow. In that sacred space, miracles can happen. Whether it's a walk on the beach, going to temple, laughing with a close friend, or the gong, it's all about the expression and the allowance of the Divine in our lives.

I feel that if in some small way I have a part in providing a reverberation, a thud, a swish, or a delicate piece of silence so someone can experience a piece of quiet or centeredness within themselves--that is a life worth living.

I love this quote:

"God respects me when I work, but God loves me when I sing."

Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature 1913

The gong is my way to sing.

Willy Mathes lives in Tampa Florida and is a free lance writer, editor, and writing coach. He can be reached via E-mail at bookeditor_coach@yahoo.com.

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reprinted from Yoga Chicago
http://www.yogachicago.com/jan10/elginmental.shtml