I make chimes

I started sometime in 2003 or maybe 2004 to make chimes. I can't even remember why anymore. They were all wrong since I was using a formula for organ pipes not struck bells. I kept going and going because it had a metaphysical bent to the journey. I was learning about music and music theory. Sacred Geometry, Feng Shui and much more. I began to put the pieces together and my chimes were getting closer to where they were supposed to be. One day while I was standing out back thinking the vision came to me. I was already aware that period and frequency are inversley related but I realized that I could take any period of time and calculate a frequency for it. The vision I had was that since my Dad (who passed on in 1998) had existed for a definte period of time. I realized I could calculate a frequency from his period of existence and then build a chime in memory of his life. It was a long process of learning to very accuratley estimate the length of tube and the suspension points. I have written a huge spreadsheet program with all sorts of calculations for different scales, chords etc. It was not until the summer of 2008 that I truly grasped the concept of micro tonal tuning. This was needed because the tones are almost always not that of the common 440 A concert tuning of which most normal chimes are tuned to. My "Masterpiece" was the "Uncle Jerry" chime you can see below. I had long used Jerry Garcia instead of my Dad. This was because Garcia's life finished close to an "E" in standard tuning and my Dad was between a "B flat and an A" and I didn't have the skills back then so I more often perfected my skills with Uncle Jerry. Once I tuned and put together the Uncle Jerry chime and listened to it I almost cried. It was first strung up on wood parts painted green I think. Sometime later I thought that this chime needs to go somewhere special. I contacted the Rex Foundation, which was founded as a charity by the Grateful Dead. I explained the whole thing to Sandy Sohcott the director of the foundation and she graciously accepted the gift. Of course I couldn't just send along my Masterpiece in a cardboard box so I crafted a special storage box to ship it in. It was kinda sad sending it along after so many years of work but it is where it is supposed to be. I have not made an Uncle Jerry chime since. I have been mostly using Chakra tunings for my chimes these days. Though I am probably going to make a IV and V chord for the Uncle Jerry chime and send them along to Rex. I have sold a few chimes over the years but I always held back because I knew I didn't know enough and that there was more to learn. I now feel that it is time to start sharing the beauty and offering my chimes for sale. This is a whole different game than the creating and I am trying to learn the skills to market and sell.

Thanks for taking the time to visit this blog!

Sincerely,

Bill