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
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