My name is Hidai Liberman, I am the founder of the COD project.

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I wish to share the story of how this amazing instrument came to life...

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The COD started with friendship

An amazing life-changing experience I had with a dear childhood friend back in 2014, During this adventure we ended up at Burning Man, Nevada, USA.

One morning, after 7 days of massive partying, my friend saw me play a steel tongue drum to a group of random people in our camp, a steel drum is an instrument I've been playing for years. What he could feel and see at that moment was the effect this kind of music and sound had on the listeners. It attracted people, the melodic metal sound captured their attention and mesmerized them all.

At that moment he asked a question that will change my life.

My friend is a psychotherapist, he studied for many years at the Barbara Brennan school of healing in Florida, USA. Dr. Barbara Brennan was an American physicist and a pioneer in the field of healing. A part of her knowledge and practice that was taught all over the world was referred to as TONING -  Vibrating sound (vocal) in the range of frequencies that create movement in each one of our chakras, our energy centers. Dr. Brennan's scientific skills, alongside her unique clairvoyant abilities, enabled her to measure and map the bands of frequencies that move and generate change in each one of our chakras.

My friend's question was – "What would happen if instead of tuning my steel drums to A B C... / Do Re Mi... (the ordinary notes in modern music), we tune them to those frequencies that actually move and generate energy in our emotional centers (Chakras)".

That question was the beginning of everything. 

We spent weeks researching. Listening to Dr. Brennan's recordings, toning the notes, and measuring the frequency ranges of each chakra over and over again. In order to tune an instrument, we needed to reach an accurate sound frequency for each of the notes. And so, after finding the range in which the Chakra moves, we took the middle of each range, Giving us the exact center of the range of each chakra. 

 

We got 7 very exact frequencies. Immediately I took them to a friend of mine, an artist and a maker of steel drums. I asked him to take on a challenge. “I’m giving you 7 new sound frequencies to tune on the next drum you build for me, they are not the ordinary notes you usually work with, but let's give it a try and see what happens" .

And so he did. And after 2 weeks I got to play the first Chakra Overtone Drum. 

 

In my long career as a percussionist, I played many different Hang drums, steel tongue drums, and other similar instruments. I can easily say that the effect I felt from that first contact with these sounds was INCREDIBLE. It was so unique and new that I felt this was touching deeper levels of who I am. As a musician, a listener, and as a human being.

A few weeks later we were on a plane to Austria, heading to the European branch of the Barbara Brennan School to present this new healing drum we accidentally created. The COD was accepted with such enthusiasm and excitement. The head of the European Brennan school, Mrs. Sherry Pea, opened the gates to the magic of the drum and allowed us to present it in many classes and gatherings for several days.

We had an immediate boom, over 40 orders of new drums, and we didn't even know how much to charge...  It was so crazy.

We went back home and figured out how to make batches and batches of drums. Word started to spread in the European Brennan community “A Brennan practitioner  and a musician came up with this new drum that synchs exactly with the Brennan frequencies.” 

Slowly but surely we upgraded our CODs, found better steel, and better ways of cutting and tuning them, changed the original design, and created different models. The more I dove deep into the world of sound healing I knew more what I’m looking for, and what my needs are. And because I had this amazing operation behind me, I could bring my dreams to life. I am very fortunate. Every time I had an idea for a new instrument,  I had someone to help me make it happen.

As the years went by we started working with aluminum tubes, realizing they generate a whole different effect on our bodies. One frequency, resonating for almost 2 minutes without changing... it was mind-blowing. I started discovering there are other ways to manipulate and move the energy field through sound.

So I tried drums and then various chimes instruments... what's next?

Strings.

Back in 2002, I studied west African drumming in Mali. I remember the sensation I got from listening to musicians play the N'goni – the African Harp. The way their melodies are repetitive and meditative, the softness of the sound, the incredible depth, and timber coming from the natural Calabash (the African pumpkin used as the resonance box) I wanted to have a COD instrument like that.

And so we designed a brand new N'goni - which is a traditional instrument, Adapted to hold the 7 Brennan frequencies. It came out AMAZING, I fell in love with the new COD N'goni instantly.

Some time passed and the next adventure was to find a maker of Native American flutes to try and take the challenge of making a COD flute. I was eager to bring the element of AIR into the COD instruments family.

And gladly it happened!

Today we have COD drums, COD chimes, COD N'gonis, and COD flutes.

Who knows what will come next...

 

For me, the COD project was, in a way, an evolution of myself as a musician. It is a platform in which I can grow and bring my dreams to life.

Throughout the lifetime of this project, parallel to the aspect of the actual products - the manufacturing, marketing, and selling of our instruments worldwide, grew and evolved the understanding of how to work with them. I realized it is also our responsibility to open people up to find ways of integrating sound work in their practice, to help people open up to playing music, to make sure COD players understand they hold something that is more than "just" a musical instrument... A real holistic healing tool.

And to bring people together!

When we play together – we connect on a different level.

We don't have to be professional musicians to enjoy making music, we don't need musical background or learn theory and notes... we simply need to show up, be present and let our hands move, be intuitive, be attentive to what we feel in the moment and let it out.

I truly believe the COD allows people to be in music and to find musical relationships. To take a moment and unwind, relax, recalibrate their nervous system, bring joy to their family, create peace in the environment, and above all – to be present.

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Only LoVe,

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Hidai