Handpan vs tongue drum

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Handpan vs tongue drum

Handpan vs tongue drum

Handpan or togue drum? This is one of the most frequently asked questions that we face every day, many people want to know what are the differences between these two instruments and which one fits their needs better. In this article, we are going to provide some points in this regard.

Basically, in spite of some similarities, they are two totally different musical instruments. Pantams have more clear tone and magical bright ceramic and smooth sound with mid to high range of sustain (resonate), while tongue drums have more like a blur sound with long sustain. handpans are made with different materials being suitable for different playing styles and environment vibes including indoor fast professional playing to outdoor slow meditative styles, while tongue drums are known for only more slow and meditative playing. Moreover, Handpans can be more flexible than tongue drums, for example you can get up to 22 notes on a Handpan but the notes on tongue drums are limited.

Handpan vs tongue drum
Handpan vs tongue drum

Although Tongue drums are in general smaller in size but much heavier than Handpans (hang drums) since they are made of thicker steel sheets. Besides the Handpans standard size range is 18-23 inches, so sometimes a small Handpan (mini handpan) can be in a size of a tongue drum but still much lighter and having of course a different sound.

Due to the much more complexities in making Handpans, their price is much higher than the tongue drums, but as mentioned at the beginning, these two are totally different instruments and paying less doesn’t mean you will be able to get the same thing.

Tone Fields

This is where handpans and tongue drums become different in a noticeable way. The tone field or the notes that you play will look completely different. The handpan containing dimples and dings, with no piercing of the steel, while the steel tongue drum tongues will be cut into the steel, in a variety of shapes.

Overall, Handpans and tongue drums comparison seems like comparing apple and orange, both round and almost same shape but completely different fruits with different taste and nutrition. We want to say, if you are interested in Handpans, then you should get one and never think that you will be able to get something similar while spending less. Likewise you might be interested in tongue drums and again in this case a Handpan cannot be an alternative.

We hope you find these information useful and this article can help you decide if you are thinking between a Handpan and a tongue drum.If you know that you want a high quality Handpan with a fair price, please visit our available instrument page to see our latest available instruments for sale. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask, you may contact us via the contact form below or send an email to [email protected]Stay tuned😊

Handpan vs tongue drum
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For more information, please visit our Makers Shop page or contact us at [email protected]

stay tuned for further notice, our team has some amazing news for handpan lovers.

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How to make a handpan/pantam (part 3/3)

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How to make a handpan/pantam (part 3/3)

How to Make Handpans/Pantams(3/3)

Kita Pantam Company intends to release a series of articles to explain how to make Handpans/Pantams. These articles are monthly and will guide you to get familiar with the process of making these magical musical instruments. Every handpan/pantam maker employs sophisticated and special steps to create an instrument that sounds well. These steps in general consist of metal forming, heat treating, shaping, and tuning. In this series of articles, we are going to explain the steps that we go through to get your handpan/pantam ready.

 You can also find the first and second article of this series here; in this current article, we are going to describe the last and the most important and critical step which is the Tuning.

tuning

Tuning

The last step is tuning, but how are the handpans tuned? The answer is with the hand hammering. The handpan tuning process is considered to be the most difficult skill to master. Up to this point, the steel has been made to look like a handpan but still the sound is not even close to a musical instrument. Handpans are unique instruments that need unique criteria which you can find in a few metals such as steel. The metal has to be able to maintain high compressive in-plane stresses. These stresses are essential for the metal to vibrate.

 

 After the shape is dialed in across the handpan, each note is then manipulated by hundreds, if not thousands, of hammer strikes and stability tests by hand hammering to bring the notes to life.

Making it ENJOYABLE

To make a sound that is enjoyable to our ears, the frequencies of these modes are tuned to at least two basic harmonic intervals. The octave interval (2 times the fundamental frequency) and the compound fifth interval (3 times the fundamental frequency). Next comes the timbre. Timbre is defined as how these notes sound. It is completely possible to have a tuned note but timbre poorly. And lastly, we have a stability of tuning, a note can be tuned and have good timbre but still unstable. In order to achieve guaranteed stability over the time the handpan is being used, Tuning shall be performed in multiple rounds and after each there should be a stress relief step inside a furnace at specific temperatures. This critical heat treating process slows down the aging phenomenon that happens to steel over the time. This aging plus the smooth hits you deploy while playing your Pantam, cases the natural de-tuning of the instruments in a few years and calls the need for re-tuning.

tuning room

For more information, please visit our Makers Shop page or contact us at [email protected]

stay tuned for further notice, our team has some amazing news for handpan lovers.

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How to protect your handpan?

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How to protect your handpan?

Why my handpan has become oxide? Does the sun affect my handpan? Is my handpan suitable for playing under the rain? My city has hot and humid weather, can I have a handpan here? Etc. These are questions that may address your concerns after buying a handpan, in this article, we are going to answer these questions generally and give you some pieces of advice to better “protect your Handpan”.

Heat and Sun

First and foremost is the heat, although heat is vital during the different Pantams’ making processes for the metal stabilization and stress relief purposes, it can be harmful for the ready to use instrument. As everybody may know, metal absorbs heat interestingly fast, and handpans are made from metal, so they can be affected by heat and if you play your instrument out under the sun, you will notice that the handpan becomes warm and warmer and its sound starts to become unusual and weird. Therefore, it’s highly suggested not to play your Pantam in the hot and sunny weather since it can harm your instrument irreversibly. In fact “de-tuning” is one of the most common damages that can happen to your Handpan because of long-term exposure to the sun. Remember that if you leave your handpan out in the sun for a long time, wait until it becomes cool, and then play it again.

how to make a handpan

Kita Glues

It is good to know that Kita uses glues which are resistant to sun and heat (UV Resistant), so other than what is mentioned regarding the heat effect on the metal surface, there will be no problem with detaching of the bottom and top part of your Kita Pantam.

 

Cold

Then it’s cold. Generally, there is no source for the cold and the absence of heat is called cold. As it’s mentioned earlier, metals absorb heat easily and can convey this to whole surface. Although the cold negative effect is not as aggressive as the heat, but it still can cause the handpan making abnormal sound during the playing.

Humidity

Humidity is another threatening factor for the health of your Handpan. Humidity can accelerate the rusting of steel, which your handpan is made of. Humidity is much more aggressive in higher temperatures and can help the corrosion phenomenon to faster eat up your instrument. In other words, when the rusting starts on the surface of your handpan, it is the time that the metal is going away and you will first notice some orange color dots on the surface and if they develop you will see wholes. Kita Pantam suggests that you clean your handpan every time you play it with the microfiber cloth and also keep the surface oily all the time.

In conclusion, try not to leave your Handpan or play it in hot sunny days or when it is rainy. Also if you need more detail about how to clean your handpan you can read our “How to take care of your handpan post,

After all if you have any concern regarding your Pantam care, please don’t hesitate to contact us at [email protected].

Take care of your handpan and stay tuned for further post 😊

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How to make a handpan/pantam (part 2/3)

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How to make a handpan/pantam (part 2/3)

How to Make Handpans/Pantams(2/3)

Kita Pantam Company has aimed to release a series of articles to explain how to make Handpans/Pantams. These articles are monthly and will guide you to get familiar with the process of making these magical musical instruments. Every handpan/pantam maker employs sophisticated and special steps to create an instrument that sounds well. These steps in general consist of metal forming, heat treating, shaping, and tuning. In these series of articles, we are going to explain the steps that we go through to get your handpan/pantam ready. You can also find the first article of this series here; in this current article, we are going to describe the fourth and fifth steps which are pressing and shaping.

After the third step, we have to define the layout, notes and the scale of the instrument. 

Make a handpan

Define the Layout

Usually first, depending on the instrument’s scale, the notes are drawn on the inner side of the top shell (also on the bottom shell in case we are having bottom notes as well), to accurately find the right place of the notes to be pressed later. There are different sizes of molds that are used for pressing the notes. These molds have circular or oval areas with a whole in the middle. So using the proper molds, the notes are pressed, pressing will create dimples (A common term for the central, indented part of a note, so-called because of its shape) plus the tone fields (the flat, oval-shaped part of the note around the dimples). 

Shaping

After these steps, you have the shells with almost the look of an instrument. Next is to fade out the lines around the Tone fields by hammering which can be done using hand hammers and also more commonly pneumatic hammers (pneumatic hammers are employed in KitaPantam workshop).

Shaping has many things in common with sculpting, and makers must be careful not over-shape the metal as it will eventually tear and reform the metal in a bad way.

After the shaping is done, shells are ready for the most important and critical step which is Tuning.

Next steps

 In the future, we are going to discuss the tuning step as well.. 

Kita offers shells that are all deep drawn and plasma nitrated for other makers. Also, we offer training courses for all the enthusiasts in exchange for buying high quantity shaped shells, which are required to start making your Handpans. We do not charge anything for the practical training sessions,  we just charge you for buying a minimum of 40 shaped shells which are critical for starting your own line of handpans.

Make a handpan

For more information, please visit our Makers Shop page or contact us at [email protected]

To be continued

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Handpan Scales

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Handpan/pantam scales

handpan scales

In general, we can divide the handpan scale into three different types, these are 1- Major 2-Minor 3-Flavourful in this article we are going to review these three types of handpan scales.

1-handpan scales : Major

We can define the major scale as a cheerful and happy scale, major scale handpans are relaxing and attract the player to play them often. Major scale handpans have a vast use in meditation and music therapy. These types of instruments are suitable for people who want to relax and feel joy while they are playing handpan.

2-handpan scales : Minor

Sad, classic, and sophisticated are words that you can describe minor scales with. A minor scale handpan is usually used to convey a deep feeling of mystery. If you want to feel emotion minor scale is what are you looking for but if you want to feel the joy you have to revise your decision.

3-handpan scales : flavorful

The flavorful handpan scale a combination of the minor and major scales but they are categorized individually because you can feel the role of culture in them such as middle eastern, Chinese, or Indian culture. Exotic and magical are words that suit well on a flavorful scale handpan.

Conclusion

Choosing which scale to buy or play is completely subjective and it depends on your mood and your personality. If you want more information about scales and another thing about handpan/pantam don’t hesitate to contact Us, you can also submit your order now by the kitapantam order page.

In the future, we are going to describe and discuss other pieces of information about handpan scales. Stay tuned 😊

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How to make a handpan/pantam (part 1/3)

how to make a handpan

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How to make a handpan/pantam (part 1/3)

How to make a handpan/pantam

Kita Pantam Company has aimed to release a series of articles to explain the process of making Handpans/Pantams. These articles are monthly and will guide you to get familiar with the process of making these magical musical instruments. Every handpan/pantam maker employs sophisticated and special steps to create an instrument that sounds well. These steps in general consist of metal forming, heat treating, shaping, and tuning. In this series of articles, we are going to explain the steps that we go through to get your handpan/pantam ready.

Shell Forming 

First and one of the most critical steps is the metal forming and Nitrating process. During this step, we transform a flat steel sheet into bowl-shaped geometries (Shells). Makers use different methods to form shells such as hydroforming, deep drawing, and also hand hammering. Technically speaking the best way of forming is Deep Drawing because of a couple of reasons.

make a handpan
make a handpan

First of all the metal surface in this process is drawn uniformly as the force is applied on all the surface dots of the metal sheet equally. unlike the hydroforming through which there is the bottom ring of the metal baring more force making the surface taking a thickness gradient which DECREASES from the center to the edges, so edges are THINNER and the top center is the THICKEST part.

This thickness gradient creates some difficulties in the shaping and tuning processes and also affects the sustain and stability of the final instrument. KitaPantam is one of the few makers in the world who is taking the advantage of its own Deep Drawing Press machine. Many makers avoid the heavy investment of developing such machines of their own and prefer to purchase the ready to use deep drawn shells. KitaPantam is supplying shells for other makers, for more information please visit our Makers Shop page.

Nitrating Process

The other critical process following the shell-forming is a special heat-treating process called Nitrating. This process is developed for the Handpans to increase the stability and the sustain of the instrument. During the nitrating process, Nitrogen gas is introduced to the surface of the steel metal and in a high-temperature environment, this gas diffuses inside the metal and form ceramic compounds causing an increase in the metal’s hardness. In general, makers uses two different nitrating processes, gas nitrating and plasma nitrating. KitaPantam is utilizing the latter which is more expensive and offers many benefits such as more controlled diffusion and uniformity.

Combining both processes of Deep Drawing and Plasma Nitrating provides the most uniform metal surface in terms of physical and mechanical properties. This uniformity allows smooth shaping and tuning processes by decreasing the metal failures drastically so that the making costs will be reduced consequently. Another advantage is the predictability and repeatability of the processes which overall gives peace of mind to the makers about the problems that may occur during the making from this part of the job.

Kita offers shells that are all deeply drawn and plasma nitrated for other makers. For more information, please visit our Makers Shop page.

To be continued.

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What is the difference between Nitraded and Stainless Steel Handpans/Pantams

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What is the difference between Nitraded and Stainless Steel Handpans/Pantams

Nitraded handpan vs Stainless handpan

stainless steel handpan

Nitraded handpan and stainless comparison

The other advantage stainless steel offers over the nitrated is being non corrosive. So basically they do not need to be covered by protective oils all the time, while nitrated instruments should always be protected by oil in order to avoid being rusted.

For better comparisons and hearing the sound and quality of kitapantam instruments made by both type of these materials, please check our YouTube channel, where many videos of different materials with different scales Pantams are uploaded.

Please contact us if you need further information or have more questions.

 Nitraded handpan vs Stainless handpan.Handpans, Pantams and hangdrums are normally made of three type of materials, raw steel, nitraded steel and stainless steel. Raw steel is among them less common because it does not offer enough stability and becomes detuned more easily.

Nitrated handpan series have more clear tones and mid-range sustain, in contrast stainless steel instruments have long-range sustain and each note when it is touched can be heard in its original, fifth and octave notes. Due to this type of characteristics, stainless steel handpans are more appropriate for slow playing melodies and are perfect for meditative and sound healing applications, while nitraded steel ones are better for fast and more professional playing.

nitraded steel handpan

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How to take care of your KitaPantam

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How to take care of your KitaPantam

handpan care

 this article is about handpan care. Pantams, handpans and hangdrums are generally made of heat treated steel. Bare surface of steel is susceptible to corrosion and rusting and it happens when metal surface is in contact with oxygen and humidity. So people try to avoid that using many different methods in order to protect their metallic assets.

in handpan care methods having oil on its surface all the time is recommended. Oil creates a barrier between the metal surface and the environment and this way protects it from corrosion. Depending on how many times during the week you play your Pantam, and also the climate in the area you live in, you need to apply oil on the instrument from 7-2 times a week. If you are playing it every day and the climate in your area is humid, then you need to put oil on it every day. In fact the key point is keeping the surface always oily, so whenever it is getting dry, it is the time to apply oil on it.

handpan care

how to do handpan care

But how you do that? Normally you drop couple of oil drops on the surface and then using a microfiber cloth, spread the oil uniformly to all the top and bottom surface areas. Note that, do not put oil on the inner surface, our experience says the oil inside will gradually penetrate the glue and weakens it causing the sound losing the sustain and becoming dull.

For the places near the sea or other areas with high humidity climates, it is recommended to buy stainless steel Handpan instead of the regular Nitraded ones. SS instruments do not need oil and have very high resistance against corrosion.

Have fun playing your KitaPantam, please contact us if you have any question or need help regarding the right and efficient ways to protect your handpan.

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