I currently don’t have much time to put into hobbies, but I did some gardening/landscaping during a break in the rain last weekend. Felt great to get out and move around. Garden finally is put to bed for the winter (or what’s left of it).
You can buy a good handpan on Temu for like 100$. Incredibly easy to learn and very satisfying to play!
Look for Kurd tuning and around 45cm size and avoid tongue ones (one with holes) and you’ll have a blast, especially if you have an edible or some acid.
They’re a bit worse overall. The tongued ones are easier to manufacture and tune but somehow that also means the quality is just worse in general. It also has a bit of this metalic tone which is harder to play nicely but you can hand cover the holes to manipulate the sound as an advanced technique. Also tongued ones are better played with sticks rather than hands so the instrument just feels different overall and smacking the handpan with your hands (thus the name) is much more fun.
That being said, tongued handpands are still cool and can be very flexible though for first handpan I’d go with the traditional one.
Traditional ones are more than a month’s salary for me, where the tongued ones are affordable, even on the upper end. That’s why I was a bit alarmed to hear recommendations not to go with one. 😀
Had to google it. Then upon seeing it, I had to youtube it. I might have to buy one for my wife
