The 8 Best Handpan and Hang Drum Options in 2023 (No Wait)

The handpan is a part of the idiophone household. It is among the most fascinating and mesmerizing devices of the twenty first century.

The sound it outputs is each charming and mystical in nature. Regardless of this instrument’s rising reputation, it may be troublesome to trace one down to purchase.

Most specialty firms have a 12-month ready checklist or longer! 

We’ve curated an inventory of seven handpans and different idiophones you possibly can order on-line immediately.

The handpan household consists of:

• Metal slit tongue drums
• Cling drums
• Metal pans
• House drums
• Tank drums

Whereas nearly unknown to most, cling drums provide drummers and percussionists a option to enter the world of melodic music with out the tedious activity of first studying how you can learn chordal music.

All of the devices on this checklist are very intuitive and could be performed with out understanding notes or concord.

Finest Handpans and Cling drums – A Fast Look

The desk above lists our favourite picks. These have been picked based mostly off of worth, price range, high quality, and playability.

If you wish to see a extra in-depth overview of every handpan, preserve studying on.

Handpans or Cling drums Devices

First up on our checklist, we’ve got the hand pan: primarily an inside-out metal pan. Most customized makers have you ever sit on a ready checklist, however right here’s some you purchase on on-line proper now.

1) Meinl Percussion Sonic Vitality handpan

I’ve been an enormous fan of Meinl Percussion ever since I heard drummers like Mike Johnston and Adam Tuminaro utilizing their cymbals. Meinl Percussion’s Sonic Vitality handpan is a top-quality handpan that’s handcrafted in Columbia.

It’s manufactured from German metal and comes with a nylon carry bag. The Meinl Percussion Sonic Vitality handpan has an attractive design and wonderful high quality. It’s good for solo or ensemble work. The Meinl Percussion Sonic Vitality handpan is a superb selection for anybody searching for a top-quality handpan.

Test it out under:

2) 13 Notice handpan in D Minor Professional Sequence

The 13 Notice handpan in D Minor Professional Sequence from handpan Guru is the latest design in handpans. 13 notes are organized in two-octave ranges, from D3 to E5, and the handpan is fantastically resonant with a vivid sound and plenty of maintain. The handpan is made to order, so it takes roughly 30 days to make.

You’ll be able to customise any of the 13 notes to your liking, and the high-quality stainless-steel is rustproof. The handpan is appropriate for professionals and novices alike, and it’s electronically tuned. In the event you’re searching for a terrific sounding and sturdy handpan, look no additional than the 13 Notice handpan in D Minor Professional Sequence from handpan Guru.

3) Novapans Handpans

Novapan Handpans are a number of the most immersive and intuitive musical devices obtainable available on the market. The 9 and 12 observe stainless-steel handpans present an attractive, angelic sound that’s good for any event. The D Kurd scale in 9 notes is ideal for novices, whereas the E Kurd scale in 9 notes is ideal for individuals who need a barely larger tuning.

The marginally larger tuning in E offers this handpan an much more outstanding, arguably much more “angelic” sound. The delicate circumstances included with the handpans are good for touring musicians or those that need to preserve their instrument protected.

The arduous circumstances bought individually are good for individuals who want further safety for his or her handpan. Novapans can be found in 440hz tuning and 432hz tuning. The Era 4s include a busking microphone and stool. Whether or not you’re a newbie or a seasoned musician, Novapan Handpans are an ideal selection.

4) Bali Metal Hand Pan

At slightly lower cost is the Bali hand pan. These devices are made by a small firm working in Bali by the names of Chris Andersen, Ketut Suda, and Neghah Resna.

As I solely meant to share with you locations you should buy handpans now, this firm additionally doesn’t have a ready checklist for orders.

Delivery could be very cheap. Bali’s handpans are available in eight totally different scales:

• D Dominant 7
• D and F Baru
• D Main
• D Mixolydian
• Integral D
• F Huge Bear
• F Minor

The sound of the Bali handpan

The instrument from Bali far surpasses the tone and high quality of the Tzevaot. It sounds a lot hotter and bigger than life.

On condition that this instrument is available in many extra scales and is cheaper can also be a win in our e book.

These fascinated about buying can electronic mail balisteelpan@gmail.com to put an order.

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5) Shamanicshop Rav Pan

At a dramatically lower cost is the hand pan from Shamanicshop. This instrument has a a lot totally different design than the earlier two. Notice how the instrument is minimize somewhat than simply hammered.

The “revolutionary” design was created by Andrew Remyannikov in Russia and contains a Celtic minor scale. To me, this one seems like a mixture of a tongue drum and a handpan.

The sound of the Shamanicshop hand pan

As acknowledged beforehand, the tongue drum design results in a sound like extra steely in high quality. It’s a lot thinner than the Bali, though the Celtic scale sounds very fascinating in its personal proper.

For a worth that’s about half of the opposite two pans, I believe this can be a nice entry-level possibility and could be very distinctive, to say the least. Simply to notice, Shamanicshop does provide extra pans in different scales.

Metal Slit Tongue drums

Subsequent up are metal slit tongue drums. These are usually extra manufactured than others. They’re an ideal different to handpans and are considerably cheaper. They normally embody mallets and are a lot smaller than the normal lap handpan.

6) Hapi Tongue Drum

Whereas this isn’t utterly genuine, the Hapi tongue drum is an ideal entry-level selection, offering a really enjoyable sound with intuitive design.

It’s greatest performed with the included mallets, although you need to use your palms.

I discovered that it was slightly too small to carry in my lap and thus, was higher suited mounted in a snare drum stand.

Regardless of the look within the product images, the perimeters of the notes are usually not sharp. The powder coating is thick sufficient to make this a non-issue.

The sound of the tongue drum

The instrument could be very well-made and does look great in look, although you encounter one or two notes which are slightly bit flat. For most individuals, you received’t even discover in any respect if yours has this difficulty.

The pre-tuned scale sounds loopy cool, although in comparison with different cling drums, it’s a bit skinny in its tone. I want the pan have been just a bit bit greater as effectively.

Hapi’s tongue drum is skinny and brittle, in comparison with others on our checklist. Whereas it might be a bit extra inexpensive, you’re lacking out on tone and high quality with this instrument.

7) Meinl Sonic Vitality STD1BK Tongue Drum

Meinl has grown to develop into an organization that creates inexpensive and costly merchandise on the highest degree of caliber. Not solely do they make nice cymbals, however now provide a wide range of devices in percussion and world devices.

I’ve mentioned it earlier than that Meinl is shortly changing into my favourite drum firm, creating a number of the greatest cymbals and different devices.

The sound of the Meinl tongue drum

If we evaluate the sound of the Meinl vs the Hapi tongue drums, it’s fast the Meinl sounds massively extra pure and hotter in sound. On account of the truth that Meinl’s drum is bigger in measurement, measuring nearly 14 inches, the tone produced is greater and fuller.

There’s a day and night time distinction for paying the additional C-note for this instrument. Meinl’s instrument sounds unbelievable. It’s by far our favourite tongue drum variant on the checklist. High quality at all times wins in our e book.

8) Pearl Tongue Drum

Pearl has been not too long ago experimenting with new product traces. This yr additionally they introduced a brand new mallet MIDI controller known as the malletSTATION.

The tongue drum is one other latest product addition to their catalog. The tongue drum is obtainable in a wide range of scales related to which colour you purchase.

• Gentle Blue – G Main with eight notes
• Purple – A Ake Bono with eight notes
• Inexperienced – A Minor with eight notes
• Pink – C Main with 9 notes
• Orange – C Lydian with 9 notes
• Darkish Blue – C Ake Bono with 9 notes

The tongue drums are constructed from hardened metal and the tongues themselves are minimize with a laser to make sure correct and correct tuning of every instrument made.

They’re extraordinarily constant from drum to drum, for instance, in the event you purchased two drums with differing scales.

The sound of the Pearl tongue drum

Once more, just like the Hapi instrument, the Pearl tongue drum suffers from the identical tonal points that one does. It simply sounds skinny to me.

I do perceive that the mallet selection could make vital enchancment so far as tone is worried, however even enjoying these drums along with your palms doesn’t produce the best sound to my ear.

In the event you do go along with the Pearl, I counsel shopping for softer mallets to get a hotter sound.

Pearl’s metal tongue drum sounds okay. Whilst you do get a bigger number of tunings with Pearl, I don’t assume the sound high quality justifies the value or choice.

What’s a handpan?

A cling drum, or handpan, is basically a convex metal pan that’s performed with the fingers and palms. It’s an instrument within the idiophone class and was created by Felix Rohner and Sabina Scharer in Bern, Switzerland.

That being mentioned, there’s some controversy surrounding the invention, however we’ll get to that in a while.

The area drum, as different firms discuss with for authorized points, has an identical sound to that of a metal pan. It’s a a lot softer and hotter sound, nevertheless, resulting from being performed with the palms.

Mallet-based metal pan devices are typically a lot brighter and brittle. Throughout the instrument lie totally different tone markers, all tuned to totally different notes. These spots are struck with the palms or fingers.

Every instrument has a selected scale it’s tuned to: aeolian, ionian, harmonic minor, hijaz, mixolydian, simply to call just a few. The hand pan creates many layers of sounds. It’s very melodious has a definite percussive tone.

Gamers are usually seen sitting down whereas enjoying this instrument, although, I imagine you might mount it in the event you have been intelligent sufficient. You’ll be able to choose to put on gloves whereas enjoying the pan, as enjoying for a lot of hours at a time can probably be irritating to the palms (assume starting guitar gamers and blisters).

The handpan is the “road musician’s” instrument. Whereas it might appear very advanced to the listener, the cling pan is surprisingly straightforward to be taught.

It’s a really intuitive instrument being that it’s tuned to a particular scale. Any notes will sound good when performed collectively.

In line with this PANArt documentary, many individuals dwelling in Europe make a dwelling from enjoying the instrument on the road.

Factual? You make the decision on that one.

Modern teams and bands like Bumcello use the handpan together with a conventional drum set on stage. You might have seen that they share an identical look to that of a kitchen wok or an alien spaceship. Many individuals all over the world are touched by the instrument and its mystical qualities.

The Origin of the handpan

There may be supposedly one creator of the cling drum: Felix Röhner. Within the early Seventies, the metal pan was all the trend in Trinidad and Tobago, and this ignited a surge of recognition for Afro-Caribbean music to Western musicians.

The cling drum is basically a metal pan flipped over. Felix is dubbed the unique creator of the cling. Being a metal pan participant himself, it’s no surprise how he got here up with the idea.

He based PANArt in addition to the “Cling” in Berne, Switzerland alongside his associate, Sabina Schärer. “Cling” interprets to “hand” within the native Swedish dialect. Reto Weber, a jazz and metal pan musician from Switzerland, approached PANArt inquiring about enjoying a metal pan instrument along with his palms.

That is the inspiration. By flipping the normal metal pan over, altering it from concave to convex, the handpan was born.

Now you is perhaps considering, “hey, that’s not that inventive of an concept to warrant a complete new invention of a musical instrument!” Dr. Anthony Achong would agree with you. Whereas I don’t personally declare to know what’s truth versus fiction, he goes as far as to say that the complete PANArt documentary is a propaganda piece.

However we’ll get into that later.

The cling pan is successfully the identical as a metal drum, however there’s an extra middle observe known as “the ding.”

The tuned convex drum is sealed along with a powerful glue and a thick resonant chamber manufactured from metal. As soon as assembled, the hand pan does considerably resemble that of an alien UFO. There may be additionally a gap in the course of the again piece, much like that of most hand drums.

The opening is known as the “Gu.” This a part of the instrument will also be performed to get a deep bass tone.

The copyright title “Cling” and termination of manufacturing

Ferlix and Sabina have held the authorized proper to the title “the Cling” since 2001, once they introduced the instrument to the general public in Frankfurt, Germany.

The instrument turned in style instantly and the market demand started to extend.

Felix and Sabina are true artists and imagine the cling is a murals, thus refusing to mass-produce the instrument.

The Cling shouldn’t be one thing to place in a store window. It belongs to circulate of the reward. That is the concept we wish to be communicated. -Felix Röhner, 2013

Whereas I’ll not personally agree with one of these sentiment, that is their official assertion. If a musical instrument is one thing of worth, why starve the world of such an exquisite factor?!

In December of 2013, PANArt introduced that the Hand would not be made. This transfer was made to protect the mystique and worth of the instrument. PANArt has since been targeting creating new devices, just like the Gubal, which is extraordinarily much like the Cling.

Handpan are Nonetheless Tough to Discover for Sale

There actually weren’t plenty of firms producing handpans and like acknowledged earlier, the proprietor of PANArt wasn’t involved with mass-market enchantment. Discovering an genuine cling was very troublesome, even simply ten years in the past.

After they dropped their documentary in 2006, there was just one store in Frace that bought these devices. In line with the documentary, solely 80 hand pans have been made a yr at the moment. The demand was and nonetheless is giant since there are so few locations to purchase them in particular person.

Right here’s one thing wild I nonetheless can’t wrap my head round.

PANArt launched a coverage whereby potential clients needed to submit a hand-written letter as to why they wished to purchase a cling from them. Discuss a ridiculous coverage for enterprise. Those that visited the workshop with out an invite have been merely despatched dwelling with out welcome.

The State of the Fashionable handpan

Starting round 2007, instrument makers in Europe and america started creating their very own variations of the cling, underneath a distinct title.

Since “the Cling” is copyrighted by PANArt, firms needed to get slightly inventive. The time period handpan, is born, together with different phrases like spacedrum, cling drum, and tongue drum.

Whereas not all the identical, these devices do match into the identical class, resembling that of a convex metal pan from Trinidad and Tobago.

I perceive the necessity to trademark a particular instrument title, just like the malletKat, however isn’t it higher to surrender the generic title of the instrument for the higher good.

For instance, the primary manufactured guitar was most likely made by Gibson or Rickenbacker, they usually undoubtedly don’t maintain a copyright title on the phrase guitar.

High line makers nonetheless have ready lists

Orders for the devices are nonetheless typically pushed again for months and even years. Second-hand gross sales are quite common. The demand for these distinctive devices remains to be very excessive.

Whereas it’s a advanced instrument to supply, we’ve got seen firms who’re actively creating these devices sooner for musicians.

PANArt Controversy Between Felix and Dr. Anthony Achong

The views introduced by Dr. Achong are usually not ours and don’t symbolize our beliefs. We’re not accountable for inaccuracies from studying choose weblog posts on the web. That is merely commentary from fascinating info discovered from researching hand pans.

Upon shopping the Google search outcomes for cling drum, I discovered a very fascinating article.

On Dr. Anthony Achong’s weblog, he claims that the documentary shot for PANArt on the cling is crammed with propaganda and is a dissemination of lies.

Dr. Anthony Achong is a metal pan tuning extraordinaire and is the creator of “Secrets and techniques of the Steelpan.”

Achong initially focuses on the terminology of drum vs pan, which I can get behind. Technically, the metal pan shouldn’t be a drum.

In a while within the article, I’ll discuss extra in-depth concerning the correct terminology however for now, we are able to all agree that these devices are within the percussion household. Hopefully, we are able to all get alongside. 🙂

In a while, within the weblog put up, Achong focuses on an announcement that Michael Paschko made in a distinct weblog reply. Paschko makes a declare that…

Trinidad doesn’t play the Pan with the palms. In the entire world persons are seldom enjoying with the palms on iron or metal.

Dr. Achong goes on to answer to this assertion, saying that that is factually inaccurate.

Within the early days of Pan enjoying in Trinidad, many musicians performed Pans with their naked palms or wrapped their palms with material.

He has first-hand expertise in seeing this actively when he was a toddler, some 65 years in the past in Trinidad and Tobago.

He makes a really legitimate level in a while about modifying timbre if that in itself really creates a brand new instrument.

For instance, by including a mute to a trumpet, does that create a brand new instrument or only a totally different sound? Whereas the argument is subjective, it is extremely convincing.

So, whether or not or not you imagine the hangpan is an precise instrument or only a modified metal pan is actually your name. I’m within the “it sounds good and I’m cool with no matter it’s known as” camp.

Why Not Name it a Cling Drum?

Since we’re on the subject of names, why shouldn’t we name it a cling drum, regardless of me utilizing the time period throughout this put up?

For the needs of this text, I’ve chosen to additionally use the time period cling drum, as extra persons are conversant in it verbally and usually tend to discover the article somewhat than simply saying cling or handpan.

Technically, the instrument must be known as handpan. This controversy is much like that of calling a metal pan a metal drum.

The so-called creators of the cling, Felix and Sabina, reject the expression handpan.

To state it clearly and exactly: we don’t make percussion devices, handpans, or cling drums.

Cease being so wishy-washy! What precisely do you make?! In fact “Cling” refers simply to at least one model from PANart.

However it’s unusual that they appear to be avoiding classifying their instrument as, effectively, something actually.

Do you personal your personal handpan or have you ever ever tried any of the devices we’ve listed above?

We’d love to listen to from you under within the feedback with any questions or issues.

In the event you imagine we’ve got any factual inaccuracies, please attain out to us under or use the contact kind and we’ll have issues corrected in your behalf.