Welcome to the handpan
Everything we play with in a first lesson, in one place. Tap the notes, try the grooves, and come back to it at home whenever you like.
- Meet the instrument
The ding, the tone fields, what a note is - Sound and touch
Nine ways to play, and how soft you can go - Slow grooves
Pulse, counting, four calm patterns - A little theory
Scales, intervals and chords - Every handpan sings differently
Scales, steel and makers, with videos - Improvising
Four small games, no wrong notes - Keep going
The 8 week beginner course
One scale, ten voices
low to high, zigzag: 1 right, 2 left, 3 right…
Every handpan is tuned to one scale. Around the ding sit nine tone fields, and the notes zigzag from one side to the other as they climb, so both hands share the work. In class we call them by number: the ding is 0, the lowest tone field is 1, and the highest one, far away from you at the top, is 9.
- Ding
- The dome in the middle. The lowest, deepest note.
- Tone fields
- The dents around the ding. One note each, hammered and tuned by hand.
- Shoulder
- The bare steel between the fields, for taks and soft percussion.
- Gu
- The opening underneath. It turns the whole shell into a little room where the sound resonates.
So what is a note?
A note is steel vibrating. How fast it vibrates is the pitch, counted in hertz (Hz): vibrations per second. Twice as fast sounds like the same note, only higher. That's called an octave, which is why the ding and note 4 share a name.
| # | Note | Hz | Speed |
|---|
Tap a row to hear it. The bar shows how fast each note vibrates compared to the highest.
Each note sings three notes
A good tone field is tuned so you hear the note itself, its octave, and a fifth above that, all at once. That shimmer is why a single note already sounds like music.
A bit of history: the Hang was born in Bern in 2000. Today trusted makers around the world build handpans in many scales and sizes.
A light bounce, never force
I always say: imagine the steel is hot. You touch it and you're gone. The quicker you leave, the more the note can sing.
Same note, five volumes
Start soft. It's easier to find control at a whisper, and your hands stay relaxed.
On your lap or a cushion, tilted a little towards you.
Down and soft. Breathe out before you play.
Loose, like shaking water off your hands.
Near the edge of the field that faces you, not in the middle.
Unlock the full lesson, for free
Leave your email and the rest opens right here. We also send you the full lesson, so you can come back to it whenever you practise.
- Slow groovesPulse, counting and four calm patterns to play along with
- A little theoryScales, intervals and chords, on your own handpan scale
- Every handpan sings differentlyScales, steel and makers, with videos
- ImprovisingFour small games, no wrong notes
- The Musical CircleThe 8 skills our course is built on
Slow grooves
We don't need to be fast. Most of what we play sits on a slow, steady pulse, a bit like breathing. Pick a groove, listen once, then play along.
start slow. slower than you think.Tap a square to change the groove. Dark squares are notes, clay squares are soft taks on the shoulder.
The steady heartbeat under the music. You can feel it before you play anything.
We count in groups of four. One group of four is a bar, and the 1 is home.
Between two beats lives the “and”. Counting 1 and 2 and gives you twice as many places to play, or to leave empty.
Speed, in beats per minute. 60 is one beat a second, about a resting heartbeat.
Why every note fits
Your handpan only holds the notes of one scale, so nothing you play can really clash. Knowing a bit about how those notes relate makes it easier to find what you're looking for.
The scale ladder
A scale is a set of notes climbing from low to high. What gives it its mood is the size of the steps in between. A half step is the smallest step in our music, a whole step is two of those. Bigger jumps leave room and sound open.
Look at where the half steps fall. They pull the music in a direction, and they're a big part of why one scale sounds dreamy and another sounds sad or bright.
Intervals: two notes at a time
An interval is the distance between two notes. Each distance has its own feeling. Small ones lean against each other, a third sounds sweet, a fifth sounds open and strong, an octave is the same note again.
Play two notes at the same moment and you get harmony. Play them one after the other and you get the start of a melody.
Chords
A chord is three or more notes that belong together. The simplest way to find one on a handpan: take a note, skip one, take the next, skip one, take the next. So 1, 3, 5. Those stacked thirds are a triad.
Major sounds bright and settled. Minor sounds softer, a bit melancholic. Diminished sounds tense, like it wants to move on. Your scale gives you a mix, and moving between them is what makes a song breathe.
Tap a chord to hear its notes one by one. Hold the strum for a moment, then let it ring.
Every handpan sings differently
Put five handpans next to each other and they'll all sound like themselves. That comes down to four things.
Which notes the maker chose. This sets the mood more than anything else.
Nitrided steel sounds warm and focused with a shorter ring. Stainless rings longer and brighter, with more echo.
From 8 notes up to 15 or more, sometimes with extra notes underneath. More notes, more range, more weight to carry.
Every field is shaped and tuned by hand. How the overtones are set gives each maker a recognisable voice.
Hear the steel
Same note, two kinds of steel. This is only a rough imitation on the computer, so listen to the real comparisons too. You'll notice how much longer stainless keeps ringing.
Just play
You don't need to know a lot to make music. A few notes, a bit of space, and you're already improvising. That's where we start, from the very first lesson.
Question and answer
I play a short question of three or four notes, you answer with three or four of your own. Don't think too long about it.
Three notes only
Pick three notes and stay with them. With fewer choices, ideas come quicker.
Leave some space
Play for one bar, then rest for one bar. The silence makes what you play sound like you meant it.
Duet
One of the slow grooves keeps going underneath. You play whatever comes on top. Recording it on your phone is a nice way to hear yourself back.
Stuck? Only play the ding and the note next to it, and change the rhythm. Add one note every half minute.
All ten notes are open.
The Musical Circle
The course follows the Musical Circle, a set of 8 core skills that grow side by side, so no part of your playing falls behind. A first lesson already touches most of them, and improvising runs through every class.
Tap a skill in the circle to see what it's about.