This browser can't show the 3D pan. The note buttons below still play the scale.
The handpan
Start at the ding.
The dome in the middle is the pan's lowest note. Every other note is tuned to sit with it.
Nine notes
Round the shoulder, low to high.
Eight notes circle the ding, getting smaller as they rise. Keep scrolling and they ring in order.
Shaped by hand
Every note is hammered.
Each one is a shallow oval with a small dimple at its heart, tuned by ear and by hammer.
Underneath
Turn it over.
The opening underneath is the gu. It isn't a note: it lets air out and tunes the air inside the shell, so the ding and the low notes ring fuller. Cup a hand near it and you'll hear a soft throb, like blowing across a bottle.
Your turn
Now play it.
A virtual pan to explore: choose a scale, then play notes, harmonics and soft taps, loop yourself and add effects. It's a taste, not the real thing. Nothing replaces steel under your hands.
How to play
Hit a note in the middle for the note, at its ends for the octave, on its sides for the fifth. The ding's dome gives the long, blooming bass; the flat ring around it is drier and more percussive, with its octave toward the edge. Turn on Body taps in Sound, and a light tap on the bare steel between the ding and the notes, or on the open underside, wakes the notes nearest to where you tapped. Rest a finger on a note to mute it. Every finger plays, so use both hands. Lock the pan to play it flat without scrolling. Sustain sets how long notes ring, within what a real pan does: low notes ring longest. Add a beat puts an 808, kick, snare and hats under your playing, in the key of the scale you chose. FX, beside Touch, puts effects on your playing as you go (Shimmer for a halo, Slicer to chop in time), and anything you record keeps them (fine-tune each layer later). Touch, just above the menus, takes your playing from soft and short to full and long; Pan holds the finer settings: tuning (432 Hz, transpose, mirror for left hands), and Touch: how your tap strength shows, tone, width, levels and ring. Where you hit matters: the middle of a note is the note, toward its ends the octave, its sides the fifth. Loop: the round button records, then overdubs on the next taps; ■ stops and starts. Tap a track’s number to mix, pause or delete its layers, or tap ↓ to save it to your device. Tapping a note locks the pan so the page holds still; tap the lock to scroll again.