Handpans Are For Everyone

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My journey with the handpan began in 2012 when a chance encounter with an early Daniel Waples busking video left me spellbound. Already a percussionist of several years, I was instantly captivated by the sounds, even hearing them from my tiny laptop speakers. As a rock drummer who had just begun exploring world and melodic percussion, the handpan seemed like every new horizon I was searching for all rolled into one magical vessel.

As if our paths were destined to cross, the famous (to me at least) UK handpan duo “Hang Massive” happened to be playing a show in Boulder, Colorado, not but a 30-minute drive from my home, the very weekend following my initial discovery. At just 17 years old, my two high school friends, their parents, and I piled into their 2005 GMC Yukon en route to Boulder. Soon we found ourselves in the parking lot of a Whole Foods – yes, the show was in the coffee shop corner of the local Whole Foods! We settled into our seats (along with the maybe 5 other people in attendance) and waited to be mesmerized by our two British hosts, sat not five feet in front of us. The next hour I spent with my jaw agape and eyes wide as I saw the magical instrument from my laptop screen come to life. Without much pomp or circumstance, the show came to an awkward ending, and I hesitantly approached the duo. To my disbelief, Hang Massive frontman, Danny Cudd, gently laid his beautiful 2nd generation Hang in my lap and let me clumsily thumb my way up and down the instrument. I don’t remember much of this first touch, but I remember one thing: I knew in that moment, I had to have one.

I won’t bother following every little detail of my handpan journey from that moment onwards, but it’s fair to say things began accelerating rapidly. As I write this, I am now 30 years old, and a large part of my adult life has been dictated by this little musical UFO. I’ve been blessed to travel across every corner of the world with the handpan as my guide, teaching, playing, and making new friends. I authored the first handpan method book published in the US, created the largest handpan event in the US, and most recently launched the first US online handpan learning platform too. I write this not to brag about accomplishments, but to put into perspective the chain of events set into motion by one little show in a grocery store coffee shop.

Through this journey, my purpose in life has become clear: to spread the joy this instrument has brought me to every person I possibly can. Whether introducing new players, offering my knowledge as a performer, supporting builders, or just bringing a moment of musical peace to a passerby on the street, my calling is to share this gift as far and as wide as I possibly can.

These thoughts have been weighing heavily on my mind lately as I wrestle with an increasingly unavoidable future for the handpan art form. Gone are the days of Hang Massive playing to 10 people in a supermarket (they tend to stick to sold-out concert halls now). Gone are the handwritten pleading letters to purchase an instrument, years-long waiting lists, and cross-country journeys into parts unknown to be bestowed with your handpan. As the century marks its quarter-way point, the “buy now” button seems to be an all the more common path to the instrument than the fabled tales of yesteryear. While there’s certainly a part of me that misses the “good ol’ days,” the more mature and now 30 years wiser part of me realizes the future of this instrument lies ahead with the stories we have yet to tell, not in the reminiscent fog of what came before.

Through this, I ask myself what my role will be in this new handpan future, this new generation of players and enthusiasts. It is here that I remember my purpose and mission: to spread the joy and gospel of these instruments to everyone I can, because handpans are for everyone. And they should be played, shared, and enjoyed by anyone who feels that same magic I did in that little coffee shop concert all those years ago without having to endure waiting lists, cross-country travel, or spending thousands of dollars. Whether people like it or not, the new era of the handpan has arrived and it is here to stay. It is our job to grow and evolve with this change rather than to fight the inevitable.

The reality is that if we want to see a future where more people get to experience this instrument, we have to actively work to take down the barriers to entry preventing people from getting started. While waiting lists have begun to dwindle and mecca-esque handpan pilgrimages are largely a thing of the past, the elephant in the room remains: handpans are expensive! In a world where more and more people can’t afford the most basic necessities, justifying spending thousands of dollars on an instrument has become increasingly difficult. As someone who sees guests at my studio nearly every week, nothing breaks my heart more than seeing a father unable to justify the hefty price tag of a first handpan for his daughter, or a passionate high school student who just doesn’t have the funds to spend on the thing he wants to explore so badly.

This is where I see the opportunity to change this all-too-common reality. To put it point blank, to grow the handpan art form, we need more affordable instruments for first-time players. To make this a possibility, after years of deliberation, I have decided to begin partnering with overseas handpan builders to help meet this need in the market. While historically, handpans made outside of Europe or the Americas have garnered a poor reputation, I believe that most of these assumptions are unfounded.

In 2019, I was blessed to spend several weeks on two separate tours traveling throughout mainland China, performing, teaching, and connecting with handpan enthusiasts from across the Pacific. My time there was transformative, and I left with a lasting impression of the rich history, culture, and passion of the Chinese people. Connecting through music is a powerful thing; it is one of the only mediums that transcends language, boundaries, and time. Being able to sit and communicate with another person through music despite being completely opposite in every other way is an experience I’ll treasure forever.

I came into that trip with preconceived notions of what the Chinese handpan community was, all of which quickly disappeared. When I put my preconceptions aside, I quickly realized that the Chinese community of handpan enthusiasts is just as passionate, curious, and excited as anywhere else in the world. And while China certainly has their own way of doing things, it was clear to me that they have been unfairly painted with a broad brush.

My goal is to make the handpan art form as accessible to as many people as possible, and that means working globally to achieve that goal. The demand for this instrument is high – that is, without question, a great thing – but that creates a unique set of challenges that require collaborative and comprehensive solutions. Partnering with handpan makers globally solves these problems by allowing handpans to be built on a larger production scale, resulting in lower prices, increased availability, and more options for new players.

I want to be clear: I will never stop supporting small-operation artisan makers. These are the people who built this art form, and they deserve our support. If anything, I believe that having multiple-tier options for the new player further elevates artisan builders and sets their instruments apart as the hand-crafted masterpieces that they are.

So what does this mean for Planet Handpan? 

Over the coming weeks and months, we are planning on expanding our handpan offerings to include some entry-level options from international builders at price points that we believe will make getting started  a lot more accessible to most people. With that said, quality still remains at the top of our priority list, and I can promise you that I wouldn’t sell any instruments that I wouldn’t personally play and recommend myself. In fact, we’ve done a significant amount of work to ensure that the builders we work with have the same quality mindset as us, and I think you’ll be surprised and impressed by our newest offerings. And like I said before, our work to promote and sustain artisan builders still continues, in fact, we have a whole host of new instruments and artisan builders who will be joining the Planet Handpan roster soon.

As I bring my thoughts  to a close, I want to tell you why I chose to write this piece, as I certainly had the option not to write this article, to discreetly not address this change. I believe that doing that would have been wrong. Honesty, integrity, and trust are among my highest held values in making my living, and I want to express the highest levels of honesty, integrity, and trust in decisions like this that are so important to me. The handpan art form is so important to me. So making decisions like this are serious for me and don’t go without intense deliberation and consideration. 

There is a debt that I owe to this instrument, to this art form and its people, that I feel as though I will be forever paying off. A community that has given my life a purpose, a direction, and the greatest adventure I’ll ever experience. It is important to remember that we are the torchbearers of this art form; we are the authors of the history books of the direction and culture of this instrument, so the decisions we make hold gravity. I want you to know that I will always make the decisions I feel are best and do so carefully, thoughtfully, and with excitement.

The next chapter of this art form is unfolding, and I couldn’t be more excited to explore its story alongside all of you.

Mark D’Ambrosio (Founder, Planet Handpan)

Mark with his first handpan. (Age 19)