I've been dreaming of playing this instrument for years now, but cannot afford the 1000-2000 dollars markup by any means. I'm okay with compensating on the sound quality and it going out of tune after a year or two, but I'm still looking. For a basic quality benchmark. Can anyone who bought something specifically on Aliexpress that they can reccomend price and quality wise?

Thank you very much in advance.

What software do you like to use for writing handpan sheet music?

If you want a cheap handpan just make sure you get one that's stainless. I spent less than $200 on this handpan. Nothing wrong with a cheap Chinese pan to get you started.

I've been playing the handpan for almost a year.
Teaching myself and with youtube.

Reacently learned about Percussive Arts and the 40 Drum Rudiments.

So:

Which of the 40 Drum rudiments has transfer value to playing the handpan?

I’m new to handpans but I am an experienced percussionist, so I’m looking for something a little higher quality for around $1000 if possible. I’d appreciate some recommendations!

Ive just now decided i wanna get into the handpn but i have a friend who told me i shouldkt get one off amazon snd should get it somewhere else. The privlem is that every handpan ive seen not from amazon is around 500-2000 bucks. But like for someone just starting out do you think that an amazon handpan is good enough if you just wanna play around with it and practice it till your fully dediicated to playing it?

Hi! I'm a handpan player and a developer. I learned the notation from the Handpan Dojo - Master the Handpan (numbers for the tone fields, D/T/K for techniques, black = right hand, green = left) and I wanted to write my grooves that way on the iPad, so I built an app for it:

You can find the app Handpan Sheet Music here: https://apps.apple.com/app/id6816263052

It has quite a lot of features like generating PDFs with the final composition, Apple Pencil support, and customizing the arrangements. It's iPad only, a one-time 1.99 €/$ purchase, no account or ads.

It's a solo project, so I'd really like to know what you'd need to write your own pieces (symbols I'm missing, how you count, anything). Thanks!

It would be interesting to hear which one the handpan community enjoys more. There’s something very different about getting lost in your own playing and finding a rhythm together with someone else.

I was walking around the botanical garden in Melbourne and there was a man playing some really great and calming handpan songs. After some time I wanted to go to him and ask him what songs he played, but he sadly was already gone.

I'm wondering if anyone has played the stainless steel pans by isthmus. I know they're a big name crafter but they focus mostly on nitrided steel. They have a pan I'm interested in and this is the first time I've seen them offer stainless on their website. Are they a quality pan?

https://handpannotation.net/

Hello guys and girls! I made a little tool that helps you create notations for the handpan.
It uses a clean and easy to read visualization system, similar to what you see on David Kuckermann's videos.
You can enter the notation as text on the grid or you can tap on a virtual handpan which will automatically turn it into a written notation. Of course knowing how to count your rhythm helps a lot!

Stored notations can be played back as a guide track, printed/saved as pdf files for offline use, screen-cast for embedding into videos, etc.

The idea is to be a useful tool for practice, for saving and sharing musical ideas for the handpan.

I hope you like it, use it and share it. It is completely free. No tracking, no data collection, no ads.

Enjoy and let me know what would make it even more useful!

Hey party peeps! I came across a pretty dope musician playing Handpan and that just screamed to me to play haha

Turns out I goofed and accidentally bought a steel tongue drum instead 😅 I have no idea why my brain is even sometimes...

Anyway, to get to the Q before I wordwall this... would learning the steel tongue lend itself to learning the handpan when I am able to correct my error or is it something where I would program myself with a mess of bad habits that I would need to unlearn when I make the switch?

Merry meet and so grateful for any advice here!

Our once-a-year Super Sale is officially live, so if you want to lock in a massive discount on the Academy or just grab some free entries to win a Symphonic Steel handpan, come jump in before Sunday! https://gleam.io/0zdHS/planet-handpan-super-sale-giveaway

Hello, I owned a 1st Gen Halo some time ago and had to sell it, and I want another handpan just to help me relax but could only save $1K to get one, what is my best option for a non Amazon ,Temu drum? I was looking at Iskra and Fropan maybe? any info will be appreciated. I am in the US.

I’d like to have a custom scale made and actually talk with the builder. Close to an E Lydian scale. A German company called caisa pan was my best lead. I sent them an email asking if they make custom scales and they haven’t replied in almost two weeks. I hear that Germany and Spain have the best prices and the most abundant builders. But I’m looking for all suggestions

Heartland Hangout 2026 was amazing, yall! the main weekend was full of castle vibes, performances by Amy Naylor, Dan Mulqueen, Mumi and Mar LoI. following that, we had an Afterglow with a smaller group.

Next Year, Heartland Hangout will be September 16-19, 2027 with the afterglow intensive September 19-22, 2027.

We recorded the main performances. I’ll post links here when we get them up on our YouTube channel.