From the Hang to the handpan: the story of an instrument born in the year 2000

The history of the handpan spans twenty-five years, making it one of the youngest musical instruments in the world. It also explains why the market is so confusing today, and why the word "handpan" exists. A story.

The history of the handpan began in Switzerland in 2000

Everything started in a Bernese workshop specializing in steel drums, those Caribbean instruments carved from oil barrels. Its founders wanted to create an instrument that could be played with bare hands, without sticks. In 2000, they unveiled a shell made of two assembled steel half-spheres, with a central note surrounded by hammered tonal areas. They named it the Hang, a Bernese word meaning "hand." The history of the handpan starts there, with only one manufacturer in the world.

Success immediately outgrew the workshop. Requests poured in from all over the world, far beyond what an artisanal workshop could produce.

The shortage that shaped the history of the handpan

Faced with this influx, the workshop made an unusual decision: rather than industrializing, it restricted. Starting in 2006, one had to write a handwritten letter explaining why they wanted an instrument, then come to pick it up in person in Switzerland. Waiting lists stretched on for years. This orchestrated scarcity was the turning point in the history of the handpan: it created a global demand with no corresponding supply.

The second-hand market went wild, with instruments resold for several times their original price. And above all, artisans around the world began making them through reverse engineering.

How the word "handpan" was born from a refusal

The name "Hang" is a registered trademark, reserved for the original workshop. New manufacturers could not use it. Around 2007, an American maker proposed the generic term "handpan" to designate this family of instruments, and the word took hold. This is a point often misunderstood in the history of the handpan: Hang and handpan do not refer to two different instruments, but rather a brand and the generic name for its descendants.

The Bernese workshop ceased production of the Hang in 2013 to focus on other creations. By that time, several dozen independent manufacturers already existed.

What the history of the handpan explains about the current market

An instrument born twenty-five years ago has no conservatory, no standard, and no certification body. Anyone can sell a steel shell under the name "handpan." This is a direct consequence of this accelerated history of the handpan, and it explains the coexistence, today, of instruments tuned by hand for tens of hours and decorative shells made by press.

This is also why verification criteria matter so much when buying, a subject we address in recognizing a tuned instrument.

Why the history of the handpan weighs on prices

A handpan is not mass-produced, and that has not changed since 2000. Each note is hammered and then refined by ear, operation by operation, which represents many hours of work per instrument. No machine has replaced this process. To understand the history of the handpan is to understand why a serious instrument costs the price of a good student violin, a subject detailed in what the price funds.

A family that has expanded

In parallel, tongue drums appeared, whose tongues are cut rather than hammered. Technically simpler to produce, and therefore much more affordable, they are now the natural gateway to the handpan. They belong to the same family of steel melodic percussion instruments without sharing the complexity of their manufacture, as we explain in handpan or tongue drum.

Twenty-five years after the Bernese workshop, the instrument has spread to every continent without ever becoming industrial. This is what gives it its value, and its commercial fragility. Our models, with specified note layouts and tuning, are grouped in our handpan selection.