How a Handpan Comes to Life: Inside the Craft of HANDPAN

Do you know the most incredible thing about tuning an handpan? Sometimes it takes me an entire month. Not because I’m slow, not because the instrument is complicated, but because HANDPAN lives. It breathes, it changes, it cools.

If you don’t respect its rhythm, it will never sound the way it should. Today, I want to show you the truth no one tells you—the hidden side behind every note you hear.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vud6WrfQBjE

Chapter 1: Before Every Note – The Birth of the Handpan

Before an handpan can produce even a single note, everything begins with something very simple: a piece of metal. From there, the transformation begins.

I shape it, hammer it, press it, and form it until it becomes a dome. But a single dome is not enough.

It is still completely bare. Then I create the dimples those small central domes inside each note. From each dimple, I cut an oval.

This becomes the tone field, the real area where the note will ignite. When all tone fields are ready, the instrument begins to resemble a handpan but it still sounds like a bowl. It has the look, but not yet the voice.

At this point, I place the metal in the oven to stabilize it, release internal tensions, and prepare it for the most delicate part of all: the transformation. Here is where the real magic begins.

Chapter 2: The Transformation Begins

When I start the transformation, the metal is still silent, still. My work is to soften the note, to make the tone field vibrate, to open it and form its voice.

Every note contains three frequencies: the fundamental, the octave, and the fifth. When you transform one, the others shift.

It requires patience, control, and, above all, a musical ear. A note may be in tune, but not ready. Timbre is everything, and machines cannot detect it.

Only a musician’s experience can.

Chapter 3: Tonal Circles – Oven and Rest

From here, a long and meticulous process begins:

Many toning circles

Strict oven cycles

Resting periods

Multiple retunings

The oven stabilizes the frequencies as if the instrument itself needs to rest before it can reach its true voice.

Every time it comes out of the oven, it must rest again. And again. Until it becomes stable. Until its rest endures. Only then can I move on to the next stage.

Chapter 4: Closing the Instrument

Here begins the most physical and artisan part of the work. I press the edges of the domes to create the correct friction between the layers. This step is essential it changes the acoustic response completely.

Then I apply a special glue, developed over years of experimentation. Not just any glue every type creates a different resonance. I press the layers together strongly to make the instrument compact, uniform, and resonant. Then the “handpan sandwich” rests for many days.

Rest is a crucial part of the process. Once the glue is ready, a new series of adjustments begins from outside, from inside, with my hand through the central note, the glue. Listening, adapting, resting, adapting again, until everything is perfectly stable.

Chapter 5: The Art of Listening

I use electroacoustic tools to check the frequencies. They help, of course, but often they say a note is perfect when I can hear it’s not.

Why? Because the voice is not enough. We need timbre, emotion, life. Only a musician or a seasoned handpan maker who has spent a lifetime listening can perceive it.

Many people come to me not just for the instrument, but for my ability to listen—to know when a note speaks, when a note is truly alive.

Chapter 6: Recording and Fine-Tuning

When everything is ready, I record the handpan with professional microphones. Then I listen again through studio monitors.

If anything escapes, I adjust, record again, again, and again until I hear that full, bright, emotional sound. Then, finally, I know the listening phase is burned into the instrument, and even years later, it plays like the first time.

Conclusion: Handpan Making as an Art Form

Building a handpan is not just work—it’s a ritual, a form of art, an act of love. The time required is not just the time I spend listening, but the time the instrument itself needs to become stable, to assert its voice, and to stay in tune for years to come.

If you want to discover my instruments or learn more about handpan making, visit www.lombardohandpan.com or contact me directly at lombardohandpan@gmail.com.

Thank you for reading, and as always good vibrations!.....