Level I here
Graduates of Level I
Level II picks up where the thirty two hours leave off.
Advanced Level II
Forty hours to find your own voice in it
For practitioners already working with sound, with Hamid Jabbar. Two weekends in person, in Arizona, four integration calls after them, and a practicum you design. Capped at eight people.
Who it is for
You should already be playing for other people
This assumes a foundation: Level I here, or equivalent training somewhere else. Level II takes it as given that you can already play the instruments, so the time goes on everything after that.
Trained elsewhere
Practitioners who trained somewhere else
And who have been holding sessions for a while. For anyone who has not trained with Hamid, there is a twenty hour online course that covers the ground Level I does.
See the online courseNot running sessions yet
Start with Level I
It goes deep and it asks for experience. For anybody not yet running sessions for other people, Level I is the one to take first.
See Level IHow it came about
For years he told people not to wait for it
Graduates of Level I used to ask Hamid when the Level II was. He would joke that Level II is learning how to load the car with all the instruments, and then he would tell them the real answer, which is that most of Level II is going out and doing it. Practising, refining, listening, learning to hold a room.
That was true and it was not the whole answer. He kept working on a curriculum he believed in, and after about seven years of giving people the same reply it became a real training in 2025.
The syllabus
What the forty hours cover
Five areas, and a sixth that the group in the room decides.
You leave with
| Technique | Advanced gong technique, and friction mallets past the basics. |
|---|---|
| Soundscape | A soundscape built in layers rather than one instrument after another. |
| Your voice | Meditation guided in your own voice, with a script and without one. |
| Silence | A clearer sense of when to leave the silence alone. |
| Your practice | A way of running this that supports you. |
Area 1Mastering your instruments
Advanced gong and bowl technique, where playing less gets you more. Nuanced mallet work, extended friction mallet technique, vocal range and presence, the overtone flute, and the quiet end of the collection: artisanal bells, rattles, chakapas, shakers.
Area 2Composition and soundscape
Building layers and textures that carry people somewhere, rather than playing one instrument after another. The crossing from sound work into music, harmonic theory at the keyboard and harmonium, and weaving in wind, ocean and rain.
Area 3Facilitation
Guiding a meditation with a script and without one until it sounds like you. Holding space with real boundaries, the power of the silence between sounds, and designing a session around a theme rather than around a playlist.
Area 4Professional practice
Cultural context and appropriation, honoring where these instruments come from while finding your own expression. New instruments and where the field is going. How to run this as something that sustains itself.
Area 5Integration and expanded states
How sound meets non ordinary states, what is measurable about this work and what is not, helping people process and ground what came up, and sound as something that catalyses rather than only relaxes.
Area 6And whatever the group brings
Every cohort turns up with its own questions and its own curiosities, and those become part of the curriculum. Eight people is small enough to follow them.
After the weekends
It carries on after you drive home
Four integration calls
Four integration calls run after the in person weekends, once the material has had somewhere to land. That is deliberate. Most of what is hard about this work turns up the first few times you do it on your own.
A practicum you design
There is also a two hour practicum, designed with you rather than handed to you. It might be teaching a class, writing or research, or running an offering of your own that uses sound. You and Hamid agree what it is together.
“By Level II the technique is mostly there. What is left is knowing when not to play, and that is the part that separates a session that lands from a session that is merely loud.”
Hamid Jabbar
Dates and places
How to get one of the eight places
Dates go on the events page as they are set, and you can ask about a place before a date is announced.
The terms
| Places | Capped at eight people. |
|---|---|
| Structure | Two weekends in person, four integration calls afterwards, and a two hour practicum of your own. |
| Where | In person, in Arizona. |
| Tuition | Covers all materials, and is not refundable. |
| Deposit | A deposit holds a place. The deposit is non refundable. |
| Price | Each run is priced when it is scheduled, and the figures are confirmed in writing before anybody pays. |
| Your place | Stays with the run it was booked for. If Hamid cancels or moves a run, you choose a full refund or a place on the next run. |
The full terms for every training are on the legal page. Finishing carries a certificate of completion and Yoga Alliance continuing education hours, for anyone who needs the documentation for a studio or a venue.
Questions
Before you ask about a place
Do I bring my own instruments?
All the instruments are in the room. By Level II most people arrive with their own as well, and the work is on what you actually play. If you are looking to add something, Hamid will help you choose.
If bowls are what you are adding, the long version of how they are made and what separates a good one is written out on the crystal bowl page.
Read about crystal bowlsWhat should I call this work?
Anybody already working with people has had to decide what to call this, and the decision is worth making on purpose.
Read the red flagsWhy only eight places?
Eight is small enough that the work is about what you already play rather than about the syllabus.
What if I would rather work one to one?
Sound Mentorship is the one to ask about if what you want is shaped around you rather than around a cohort.
See Sound Mentorship