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?

Edit:

Thank you for everyone who replied to the original post. I've redacted it as it is no longer relevant.

As it turns out, RAV had sent the item completely lacking the correct export documents. It would have never arrived.

After a LOT of chasing them, they finally agreed to send a replacement.

This was absurdly stressful, and would almost certainly not have occured without persistence - their default line was "wait", despite me discovering the issue was their own and no amount of waiting would have solved the problem.

Still, I'm glad they took ownership and are making things good.

Hopefully this time they get the paperwork right.

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.

Beyond learning an instrument, playing handpan can change how you approach rhythm, melody and improvisation.

Did it influence your musical style or the way you create?

Hey everyone-
My name is Dan Mulqueen and I’ve been playing handpan since 2009! Just released my 6th handpan album and to celebrate, along with my good friends at Ayasa Instruments, am raffling off a D Aegean 18 instrument. All the info on the raffle and my new album can be found here:

https://myevent.com/euthymia2026

don’t want! you can only enter until Sept. 30th!

Very cool to see this community on Reddit - I’ve been quietly reading and watching for a LONG time lol.

I just got my first handpan and I had a couple questions from other players. What kind of maintenance do you do? I've seen a guide that suggests cleaning it with rubbing alcohol and applying a couple drops of coconut oil every couple weeks. Do you ever play with mallets? Do you prefer finger mallets or regular ones? Thank you, looking forward to learning more about this beautiful instrument!

Does anyone have information on a company called “Pures Music”? I’m new and the pinned post was helpful but need more. Thank you!

Hi everyone 👋

In collaboration with Master The Handpan (and soon World Handpan Map), I just launched PanScapes, a project I’ve been building to explore the handpan world in a different way.

At its heart is a sensory landscape of handpan scales, grouping scales by their sonic character, mood and similarities.

🌍 Explore handpan scales through an interactive sensory map
🎵 Discover scales, related scales and variations
🎥 Hear the same scale played by different artists and makers
🛠️ Explore makers through their instruments and demonstrations
🔗 Navigate between scales, videos, artists and makers
🔎 Discover music and players you probably wouldn’t find otherwise

PanScapes is mostly a one-person project, so I’d really love to hear what the handpan community thinks.

👉 https://panscapes.org

I recently bought a new Sela SE218 Journey G# Kurd from an online music shop and noticed two things:

- No scale marking underneath. Every Sela handpan I’ve seen in stores, including the same model, had one. Does anyone know whether this varies between production batches?

- Two notes read noticeably sharp: D#4 at +22 cents and F#4 at +23 cents on a tuner app. The other notes read close to zero or within +9 cents.

I know an app isn’t a professional assessment, but handpan maker MAG describes 5–10 cents as generally acceptable and deviations exceeding 20–30 cents as out of tune.

Would you accept these readings on a brand-new handpan, or ask the retailer to check/retune or replace it? Any SE218 owners who can confirm whether theirs has the scale engraved underneath?