On the beach of Lamma Island, you can hear soothing and melodious tunes every now and then. This is Sasha playing the handpan. His favorite way to meditate and enjoy playing music is sitting on the rocks beside the beach.

Sasha is from Ukraine. First he played mainly percussion. He played African drums in Ukraine 15 years ago. After a lot of studying, jamming and playing, he wanted to find sounds that were more melodic, but he still wanted to continue with percussion.

It was at this time that he came across the handpan, an instrument that fascinated him and he fell in love with it. At the time, the handpan had just been invented as a new instrument and was very expensive. Sasha’s dream was to have his own handpan, and once he had one, he began to work hard to master the instrument.

After living in Ukraine for more than 20 years, he decided to take his favorite instrument and go out to see the world.

Traveling has become Sasha’s way of life, and he is fascinated by the different cultures of different countries. While he travels, he also plays the handpan in different places to let more people know about this instrument.

During his travels around the world, he came to Hong Kong, as if a wonderful force attracted him to this place. He played the handpan on the streets of Hong Kong and immersed himself in the culture of Hong Kong. He also met and married the love of his life in Hong Kong.

Time flies and Sasha has been living in Hong Kong for 6 years now. As a professional handpan player and teacher here, he has experienced a variety of stories from the classroom to the streets, and he has realized that this instrument has quietly influenced his life.

The power of music can penetrate people’s hearts and lives, and the sound of the handpan in particular, has an incredible healing effect. Sasha wanted this amazing instrument to be seen and heard by more people, so he dedicated himself to teaching every student, not so they could master the skill, but so they could feel the power of the handpan and music.

The handpan was born around 2000. As a very young instrument, the handpan’s unique sound and playing style appeal to players who are fascinated by both melody and rhythm.

Normally a handpan has only 7-10 notes, with a few having more. Although you can theoretically build far more notes on a handpan, more notes not only means a higher degree of difficulty, but also a less clean tone – the vibrational interference between each note will be greater and more pronounced.

Although the handpan was not born very long ago, its predecessor, the steelpan, has a very long history. First made from discarded oil drums, it is still one of the most popular instruments in the Caribbean. It produces a warm and ethereal tone, similar to the sound of raindrops. It has an opening at the bottom where the air in the chamber resonates, similar to the effect produced when blowing into the top of a bottle. Musicians strike notes on the surface with their hands to create harmonious melodies and rhythms associated with relaxation and meditation.

At first, a small group of enthusiasts discovered the instrument and began purchasing handpan from different countries. At that time, there were no companies or craftsmen making handpan in Hong Kong, and it was difficult for people to access and learn about handpan due to the limited resources and information available.

However, with more and more players, the handpan community in Hong Kong started to expand. More local musicians also began to experiment with the instrument and incorporate it into their performances and compositions.

Panlab, founded by Mr Ting Ho-fung, was the first to start experimenting with the production of locally produced handpan in Hong Kong, and handpan players gradually began to appear on the streets of Hong Kong, bringing healing and soothing sounds to passers-by rushing around living the city’s fast-paced lifestyle.

[Caption: Close up photo of man holding a handpan playing on top of a mountain.   Photographer: Anna Nass]

The Handpan is essentially two sheets of steel that are stamped into a pot shape and welded together, then hammered to create the desired note. But simple construction doesn’t mean it’s less difficult to manufacture. On the contrary, a good Handpan can take weeks or even months to make and tune, and because of the Handpan’s unique sounding principle, there is currently no machine capable of making a Handpan automatically. The Handpan must be handcrafted and tuned by experienced artisans in order to have a perfect sound.

The general Handpan manufacturing process is:

[Caption: Artisan hands designing Handpan in his workshop.  Author: funkyfrogstock]

2. Note Plan. 

The craftsman needs to plan out each note, including determining how many notes there will be in total and where each note will be placed, and positioning the sections into shape.

[Caption: Artisan in his workshop using blowpipe to fix the handpan design.  Author: funkyfrogstock]

4. Nitriding

Nitriding is used to diffuse nitrogen into the metal surface to form a hardened surface. The nitrided Handpan enhances the sound quality and reduces the mutual interference between the sound zones reducing the noise, making the sound more focused and enhancing the stability of the pitch.