Events & Trainings
Trainings
Gong Training
Learn to Play the Gong and Develop Your Own Authentic Way of Playing — for Sound Healing, Gong Baths, Sound Journeys and Beyond.
“Learning to play the gong becomes a way of learning through the gong.”
— Dr Séverine Ringanadépoullé, psychologist and researcher, PhD in psychology, Les résonnances du Gong, study commissioned by the association Kabar Holistique, La Réunion, 2024.
Playing a gong does not mean trying to bring as many sounds out of it as possible. It means making a decision with every strike: When does a sound begin? How may it develop? When does it need a new impulse — and when is it better not to add anything?
The gong responds immediately to the way it is played by the person standing before it. Strength, restraint, restlessness, clarity, and attention can become audible in the sound. Those who learn to listen closely therefore discover not only the possibilities of the instrument. They also begin to perceive how their own inner attitude changes the way they play.
In this sense, learning with the gong becomes learning through the gong. This does not mystify the instrument. It is not the gong that decides what happens. The player gives direction to the sound through their attitude, their intention, and their way of playing.
Learning playing techniques forms an important foundation of this training. But technique alone does not give a gong player real confidence. Nor can the number or quality of their instruments replace trust in their own perception.
Real confidence develops when you learn to form a clear intention, to trust your perception and intuition, and to allow your own expression to emerge from them. This is why this training is not about adopting a fixed method or imitating the style of another player. You learn to use the different techniques as means of expression and, step by step, to develop your own way of playing the gong.
In dialogue with the gong, in playing together with others, and in the gong orchestra, you experience how sound becomes communication. You learn to listen, to respond, to allow pauses, and to find your own voice within a shared field of sound.
On this basis, you develop not only a personal playing style. You also gain the inner clarity needed to create gong baths and sound journeys in an authentic, attentive, and responsible way.
From Technique to Personal Expression
In the training, you learn how different playing techniques, striking points, mallets, and movements change the sound. The focus is not only on technical execution. Equally important is the question of how a technique is used and what expression it receives in that particular moment.
A single, consciously placed strike can express more than a long sequence of different techniques. This is why the aim is not to play as much as possible, but to understand what a sound needs and what you wish to express through it.
Technique forms the vocabulary. Your own language only emerges through the way you perceive these possibilities, connect them with one another, and use them at the right moment.
Intention Gives Meaning and Direction to the Playing
An intention is more than a goal that has been defined in advance. It answers the question of why you are playing and what you wish to connect with while playing.
In personal playing, an intention can arise from an inner question, an emotional theme, or a creative process. In a gong bath or sound journey with several people, it helps create a shared orientation and makes participants aware of why they are entering into this experience.
At the same time, the intention does not determine what the result must be. But it gives meaning to the playing and prevents a mysterious effect from being attributed to the gong itself. The player knows why they stand before the instrument and takes responsibility for the space they open.
A clear intention gives this process a frame. The gong player does not have to explain or interpret the participants’ experiences for them. But they need to know what kind of space they are opening and what responsibility they are taking on.
Perception, Intuition and Personal Expression
Intuitive gong playing does not mean following every spontaneous impulse without orientation. Intuition develops through precise perception, practical experience, and trust in one’s own response.
A player needs to hear how a sound unfolds, how long it remains in the room, and whether another strike supports or interrupts its movement. They need to perceive when something may continue to develop, and when the sound already contains everything that is needed in that moment.
The more refined this perception becomes, the less the player needs to hold on to a fixed sequence. They can respond to what is actually emerging. From this conscious interplay of perception and intuition, personal expression develops.
This expression is not something that is added only after the technique has been learned. It is developed from the very beginning. Every exercise therefore asks not only: “How is this sound created?” but also: “What am I expressing through it?”
Level 1
Learn the Foundations and Discover Yourself Through Sound
The first level takes place over one weekend. You become familiar with the most important foundations of the instrument, different types of gongs, and the essential playing techniques. At the same time, you experience how directly your own attitude and perception can become visible in the sound.
An important part of the training is learning to perceive your own playing and the playing of others more precisely. In this way, you learn to recognize differences in expression and, for example, to hear tension or restraint in the sound without judging the person who is playing.
Through playing together, you experience how sound can become a form of communication.
You develop your own expression while also learning to respond attentively to other players and to the group as a whole.
The experience of leading the interplay of several gong players — in a way similar to a gong orchestra — or consciously becoming part of this shared field of sound is also part of the first level.
After completing the first level, you will have the foundations to play independently for yourself and, in a safe setting, also for another person.
Afterwards, you can decide whether you would first like to deepen what you have learned in your personal practice, or continue your training with the second level.
Continuing Your Practice at Home with a Gong
After the first level, you receive a gong to take home for practice. If you continue with the second level, you can use the instrument throughout the entire practice phase of about three to four weeks.
Even if you first decide not to continue with the second level, you will receive a loan gong for one additional week. This allows you to deepen what you have learned in your own time and to explore what place playing the gong may have in your life in the future.
You therefore do not need to own or buy a gong before beginning the training. The practical experience will also help you later to decide more consciously which type of instrument suits you and the way you intend to use it.
Level 2
Facilitating Gong Baths and Sound Journeys with Attention and Responsibility
In the second level, the focus turns more strongly toward playing for other people. You learn how a gong bath or sound journey is prepared, structured, and facilitated responsibly, and what inner attitude a gong player needs to bring to this role.
A session does not begin with the first strike. The gong player creates a frame, prepares the participants for the experience, and helps them connect with a shared intention. During the playing, the player needs to remain attentive and perceive how the atmosphere in the room changes.
Participants create their own gong baths for the training group in pairs. The feedback that follows helps them refine their perception, develop greater confidence, and use their own expression more consciously.
Another focus is the handling of volume, sound density, and intense frequencies. You learn why certain sounds can become unpleasant or demanding for the ear, and how powerful, deep gong playing is possible without placing unnecessary strain on the participants’ hearing.
The so-called White Sound is also explained as a special playing technique and placed in the context of its possible effects. The main point is to learn how to assess for which people and situations such intensity may be suitable, and when it may become overwhelming.
In this level, techniques are always connected with the responsibility of the player. What matters is the ability to adapt one’s playing attentively to the people present and to the situation at hand.
Certificate After a Practical Gong Bath
After the second level, the final certificate is not issued solely on the basis of completed training hours.
Participants first organize and facilitate a gong bath together, which I attend as an observer. Alternatively, one person may facilitate a private gong bath for me.
In this way, I can perceive whether the techniques learned are applied safely and whether the necessary attention, empathy, and responsibility have been developed.
The certificate therefore confirms not only participation in the training, but also the ability to facilitate a gong bath attentively and responsibly.
Level 3
Deepening Your Practice Through Your Own Experience
The third level is intended as a later deepening and can be attended no earlier than about one year after the second level.
By this time, participants will have facilitated their own gong baths or sound journeys and gathered practical experience. From this, difficulties and new challenges may have emerged. There may also be a wish to enter more deeply into playing the gong, to further develop one’s own expression, or to adapt one’s way of playing more consciously to specific groups of people.
This may include, for example, working with companies, private groups, or people with cognitive or physical challenges.
In the third level, the actual experiences of the participants therefore form the starting point. Difficulties are looked at together, playing situations are analyzed, and possibilities are developed to further refine personal expression and the way gong baths or sound journeys are facilitated.
This level does not simply teach additional techniques. It offers the possibility to work with what can only become visible through a longer period of personal practice.
Individual Gong Training
Personal Guidance on Your Own Path of Playing the Gong
In addition to the trainings in small groups, I also offer individual gong training.
The basic content and pedagogical approach remain comparable. However, since my full attention is dedicated to one person, the training can be adapted more closely to their previous experience, learning pace, professional background, and personal goals.
Certain content can therefore be worked through more quickly, while other topics can be explored in greater depth. The dates can also be arranged more flexibly and adapted to the person’s individual situation.
Individual training is especially suitable for people who wish to follow an intensively guided learning path, or who would like to discover the gong for a specific personal, artistic, or professional use.
Who Is This Training For?
This gong training is generally suitable for anyone who is interested in the gong and would like to discover this instrument through their own experience.
No previous musical experience or knowledge of musical notation is required.
Many of my previous participants were already involved with music and sound, relaxation, meditation, or yoga. Artists, as well as professionals from education, social work, and care, also use the training to discover new forms of expression and possible ways of applying the gong.
This may include people who work in institutions with children, young people, or adults with particular physical or cognitive needs.
These professional backgrounds, however, are not a requirement. What matters is the willingness to listen attentively, to perceive oneself in sound, and to develop one’s own way of playing the gong.
Later, the gong can be used in many different contexts. The training makes clear, however, that learning the instrument does not replace any medical or psychotherapeutic qualification. Anyone working with particularly vulnerable people needs to know and respect the limits of their own professional competence.
Learning in Small Groups
The group trainings take place with a maximum of six participants. This leaves enough space for personal feedback, individual questions, and practical experience.
Each person brings their own way of approaching the gong. The small group makes it possible not to standardize these differences, but to use them as a starting point for developing one’s own playing style.
At the same time, learning together offers an experience that cannot arise in individual training alone. Participants encounter different forms of expression, learn to play together, and develop greater sensitivity for the shared field of sound.
Handout and Ongoing Guidance
All participants receive a detailed handout that accompanies the theoretical and practical content of the training. It serves as orientation during the training and later as a reference for their own practice.
Even after the training has been completed, I remain available for questions and feedback. I accompany many of the people who have learned with me over a longer period of time and support them in continuing to develop their own way of playing.
This ongoing guidance is especially important to me. A training can create a foundation, but a personal style only develops through regular playing, one’s own experience, and the possibility to ask questions when they actually arise.
An Active Community of Gong Players
From the trainings held so far, an active community of gong players has developed on La Réunion. I continue to work with many former participants to this day.
We meet for regular rehearsals, develop shared sound projects, and create concerts and events together. Participants of the first and second levels can take part in these rehearsals and, according to their experience, become involved in the creative projects of the association.
In this way, what has been learned is not limited to the training period itself. Participants can gain experience in playing together, discover different ways of playing, and continue to develop as part of a living gong community.
About the Instructor Jens Geese
Before I dedicated myself fully to the gong and sound art, I worked for many years as an engineer in Germany. Later, I consciously chose a different path, one that was more closely aligned with my personal expression and my own development.
For more than ten years, I have dedicated myself intensively to the gong. My way of playing did not develop through the adoption of a single method, but through continuous practice, gong sessions, concerts, recordings, and collaboration with other artists and gong players.
I am internationally connected with gong players and in regular professional and artistic exchange with them. At the same time, I have helped build an active community of gong players on La Réunion.
When I came to La Réunion in 2017, I was the first gong player to offer regular gong sessions on the island and to make the gong known here as an independent sound instrument.
From these first offerings, trainings, shared projects, and a local gong community gradually developed. Today, around 80% of the active gong players on La Réunion were trained by me or were introduced to the gong through my work.
I remain a pioneer of the art of the gong on La Réunion. To support this development, I founded an association that connects gong players on the island. It creates a framework for rehearsals, shared sound projects, concerts, and the possibility for each player to develop their own style and personal way of playing.
I continue to work with many people who completed their training with me. We meet regularly for rehearsals, develop shared sound projects, and create concerts and events together.
Today, my work with the gong has become a broad artistic and pedagogical practice. I regularly offer up to ten gong baths per month, alongside trainings, workshops, rehearsals, cultural projects, concerts, recordings, and collaborative work with other gong players.
These different fields of experience continually nourish both my way of playing and my way of teaching.
My empathy and sensitivity help me perceive subtle changes in body posture, attention, and the atmosphere of a group. This allows me to adapt my playing and guidance very individually to the people present and to the situation.
This perception is also an essential part of the way I teach. I do not guide all participants according to the same fixed pattern, but try to perceive what each person needs in order to develop more trust in their own perception and expression.
Even after the training, I remain available for questions and feedback. I support former participants in their first own experiences and accompany them as they continue to develop their personal style.
My aim is not to create copies of my own way of playing. I want to give participants the technical foundations, perception, and inner confidence they need in order to find their own authentic language with the gong.
Personal Conversation and Further Information
If you are interested in the gong training and would like to learn more about the content, the structure, or the next dates, you are warmly invited to contact me personally.
I prefer a phone conversation, because this is the best way to clarify your questions, your previous experience, and your expectations for the training.
For participation in a group training, this conversation is a personal invitation, but not a requirement. Before an individual gong training, a personal conversation is always required, so that the content, the goals, and the schedule can be adapted to your personal situation.
Fees and Registration
The gong training takes place in small groups, so that there is enough space for personal guidance, practical exercises, and individual feedback. The price includes the training handout and — depending on the chosen training path — the possibility to continue practicing at home with a loan gong.
Level 1
Foundations of gong playing, personal expression, and first playing experience for yourself and, in a protected setting, also for another person.
Dates: 18–20 September 2026
Location: Piton-Saint-Leu
Fee: €400
Level 2
Deepening of the practice, creation of gong baths, group practice, and responsible facilitation.
Dates: 16–18 October 2026
Locations: Piton-Saint-Leu and Saint-Denis
Fee: €450
Level 1 + Level 2 Together
This combined fee applies when registering directly for both levels.
Fee: €800 instead of €850
Individual Gong Training
The content, dates, and learning pace are arranged personally. This form is especially suitable for people who wish to receive intensive individual guidance.
Fee: €850
Early Bird Advantage for Group Training
For confirmed registration by 20 August 2026, you receive a 5% reduction on the group training.
Level 1 | Early bird fee: €380 instead of €400
Level 2 | Early bird fee: €427.50 instead of €450
Level 1 + Level 2 together | Early bird fee: €760 instead of €800
The early bird advantage does not apply to individual gong training, as dates and content are arranged personally.
Payment and Personal Contact
Payment in several installments is possible on request.
If you are interested in the gong training, you are welcome to contact me personally. I prefer a phone conversation, so that we can clarify your questions, your expectations, and the most suitable form of training together.
For group training, this conversation is recommended. For individual gong training, a personal conversation beforehand is required.
Tel.: (+262) 0692 65 04 62 | E-Mail: [email protected]
The training can be conducted in German, French, or English, depending on the participants and the chosen training format.
