Handpan after 17 months

Alrighty, summertime is here and it’s so much fun to play outside! I’ve met another handpan player with whom we’re hopefully starting to jam more together. My sense of rhythm is steadily improving, and I feel like every month there is a new groove or idea that I’ve been able to adapt into my vocabulary of percussive speaking! The more I learn, the more I realize how much there is room for both improvement and finding your own style.

Your body works with muscle memory when it comes to playing percussion music. Every repetition you make, creates a neural pathway to your body. That’s why it’s important to play with a metronome, because if you learn how to play with an unsteady tempo you’ll be enforcing that unsteadiness into everything you play. In the long run, it’s important to practice with care. Jamming and spamming is something you should do for fun as well, but it’s important to keep your time, and who says you can’t jam with a metronome!

See you next month! If you have any questions, let me know. My previous videos contain several links to different instruction videos regarding musical theory, handpan lessons, composing etc. So if you’re in need of inspiration, go check if there is something that peaks your interest.

Yours,
Beato

Here is a list of some of the videos I’ve been going through the past month. I’ve been practicing the slap, but not enough to make it into the video. Hopefully next month I could create a piece with slap action and the ideas on these videos!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jA7gdz56LtY

David Bruce Composer, How to Write a Great Melody (Over Chords)

David explains his thought process of what makes a good melody. This video will give you ideas on different ways to approach writing your own music and what kind of things will keep your piece interesting. A really good instructor with a lot of information packed well.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hynzuXmIx5s

Amy Naylor, How to groove

Amy will give you several ideas on what to do with groovyness, what kind of things you can do with it. Such as stretching the beat for that swingy sound. Off-beats, rhythms, taks and much more. It’s a good and detailed video with a lot of information to unpack. Recommend watching it with time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCeAs1NlhYs

Amy Naylor, The Improv formula

Another video from Amy, explaining what kind of tricks you can do to improve your casual grooves. Using the dynamics so playing softly or more gentle. Using rolls, textures, arpeggios and much more! The biggest tip from the video is to not judge your playing and experiment with different things to learn new ways of playing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJeBY2uW7o4

David Kuckhermann, how to play the 7 / 8 on the handpan

A quick exercise for a clean 7 / 8 rhythm shown by David.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LL3zvZrR2aY

Handpan Academy Bristol, Transforming a beat into another beat (handpan tutorial - beginners)

A video about the basics of groove. The instructor in this video is a bit too slow / uninteresting for my taste, but she does explain things well. Slow tempo for and a good video for beginners to check out that’s up with keeping a beat and learning the time divisions of music.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCWX1JbxJi0

NovaPans Handpans, Percussive Slaps | Lesson 7 | Handpan Lessons |

Some slapety slapety action and where does the slap go in when playing your beats. A solid information gathered by NovaPans. The video might get dull every now and then, and it seems a bit unorganised at times, but it’s still worth to check it out in my opinion.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNhHbZ2OUqM

David Kuckhermann, Handpan Lessons: the SLAP [how and when to play it]

David will tell you precisely where and when to use the slap. This video is excellent. Nothing more to it. Definitely something I will check out from time to time to up my slap game.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZN8OM29F9Dg

David Kuchermann, Handpan Lessons: short idea to composition [in 4 steps]

Very easy to grasp ideas on how to improve your rhythms through composition. I especially enjoyed the part where he took away the 1st beat. It gives your music a surprising effect because you’re anticipating a hit there, but then there’s nothing! Cool ideas to implement.