Handpans- Guide for Making New Age Drums

The experts say that nothing is as difficult as trying to remove a thing that gets stuck whether it is on your hand or any other random object and people try to follow in on this advice to be on the safer side.

Whenever you are on to the task of creating or making an object, it takes a lot of time to do it to perfection but first of all requires extensive research about the object and what all it takes to make it.

Luckily, we are living in the age of social media where a simple Google search can tell us more than we can ever imagine in numerous ways and so this topic is about an underrated musical instrument that has been doing the rounds for sometime but sadly, very few people are aware of its existence.

Basic Knowledge

Handpans are something that very few people have heard of which is why there is a need to clear certain things about it. First off, it is a group of musical instruments that come from the family of steelpan, which can be considered its parent instrument that is quite well known and are also known by the moniker steel tongue drums.

Handpans need to be better known than they are as only musicians that are into symphony orchestra know it in detail, which is a crying shame because they are quite popular in certain parts of Europe having originated from Switzerland.

Hang instruments are played very often in Europe and South America aside from parts of Africa and can easily pass off as cymbals if you hear it for the first time but have never seen it.

Handpans too are made of steel sheets taken from half shells that are put and glued with each other in such a way that they resemble a convex lens but it does not have the other traits of the steelpan family other than this part.

Steps

Let us now look at some important steps on how to make a handpan so as to be clear on this aspect.

• Take a flat sheet made of steel but it should come from iron and carbon but most people buy thinner ones so avoid this practice and take the measurements beforehand so that there isn’t any problem while purchasing it.

• Start working on the sheet for a few hours so that it takes the shape of a dome and hammer it into it by hand because it is the safest way to do so without causing damage
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• Then cut the sheet and start applying it with gaseous nitride so that a chemical reaction can take place and it is safe to add more nitrogen to the metal surface so as to make it strong enough to avoid rusting up quickly

• Take up notes for measurements and mark them on the metal surface and start the hammering process again for a few minutes

• Once it is done, you can start with the tuning but never apply too much pressure on the surface as it might break down