It is more common in the last several years for people to use sound as a therapeutic and restorative tool. When we are joyful or depressed, celebrating or grieving, we listen to music. Emotions can be channeled and transformed through music into something more profound and tangible. Recently, sound healing—also known as sound therapy—has developed into a therapeutic area that employs sound to address a variety of conditions, including PTSD, anxiety, depression, and stress. It should be no surprise, special attention is paid to the instruments producing the sounds and melodies that affect our emotional, spiritual, and physical states. Sound healers and therapists frequently use sound vibrations to encourage relaxation and alleviate tension.
The Handpan Instruments’ History
The handpan, also known as the Hang (drum) or pantam in the past, has a magnificent sound that is serene, lovely, and tranquil. The handpan is a unique instrument. It was created under the name “Hang” just 24 years ago and is a member of the percussion instrument family. The instrument was created in 2000 by Swiss individuals Felix Rohner and Sabrina Schärer to build a steel drum that could be played with the hands. Since then, the instrument’s popularity has increased, leading to the development of the handpan-brand, strikingly similar devices.
Sound Therapy Techniques
A fundamental tenet of sound healing is sound vibration. Since everything in the cosmos vibrates, many people who practice sound healing believe that sounds or music that mimic different kinds of vibrations found in nature can benefit one’s health and well-being. Let’s focus on a few musical terms that are used in sound-healing circles to comprehend better how handpans promote ideas of sound healing:
The frequency of a vibration is its speed. Every note in a melody vibrates at a distinct frequency. Higher-pitched notes resonate at a higher frequency; therefore, the frequency rises if you play across a piano from left to right.
Frequency is measured in beats per second and known as Hertz (Hz). The piano’s middle C note is 261.63 Hz in frequency. A hummingbird’s wingbeat has a frequency of about 80 Hz. The range of frequencies that can make up a crash cymbal is 400–12,000 Hz.
Resonance is the time a sound continues to occur at a particular frequency. Resonance in music, for instance, is the duration of a sound following the impact of a handpan, drum, or cymbal. Resonance is increased by using a piano’s pedals. Resonance is also synonymous with the word “sustain.”
Sound Healing Instruments
The best healing instruments, such as, singing bowls, didgeridoo, and tuning forks help you meditate and vibrate at the appropriate frequencies. According to many sound therapists and healers, specific sound frequencies are more effective in lowering stress and enhancing physical and mental health.
Hand Pan Frequency
Because of its excellent resonance and rich sound that radiates in all directions, handpans have been dubbed the holy grail of sound therapy and healing. Every handpan is crafted from steel, hand-tuned, and hand-hammered. As you slowly touch the notes with your fingers, playing a handpan is a personal and meditative experience in and of itself. There is a rising trend of people using handpans for sound therapy and meditation.
Handpans are one of the few instruments where the notes are tuned to a 1:2:3 frequency ratio. This indicates that every note has three frequencies: a root tone, an octave harmonic, and a compound fifth harmonic. As one might expect, the first frequency (primary) is exactly half the size of the second frequency (the octave), and the third frequency (the compound fifth) is precisely 1/3 of the first (fundamental). Apart from high-quality steel drums, we are unaware of other instruments tuned like this.
Many psychologists conducting studies on sense and perception, believe that our brains initially attempt to simplify as many ratios as possible when they hear a soundscape, mainly concentrating on the vocal range of frequencies. A handpan is essentially ear candy because the ratios have already been reduced to the most basic form.
Specific Sound-healing Frequencies, 432 Hz and 440 Hz
A frequency according to physicists, is everything that vibrates, including thoughts, noises, tangible objects, and inside organs. Many sound healers use frequencies that resonate with the body, mind, emotions, and soil to establish harmony and connection.
Most musical instruments are tuned to the standard A4 frequency of 440 Hz. Before the 440 Hz tuning standard became nearly ubiquitous, several nations and organizations used the 435 Hz French standard. In 1955 and 1975, the International Organization for Standardization confirmed 440 Hz.
There are still alternative tuning standards in use today. It has become common in certain sound healing and meditation groups to use 432 Hz for A4. Proponents of this tuning standard claim that it increases well-being and releases emotional blockages by causing the body and the environment around it to resonate more naturally. Meanwhile, 440 Hz music induces negative behaviors, erratic emotions, and tension. Having conducted in-depth comparisons between 432 Hz and 440 Hz, many sound healers firmly believe that 432 Hz is a more potent tuning standard for sound healing and meditation.
Different tuning standards can also be found in classical Indian music, mainly performed on the sitar and tabla. There are many standards for this genre of music. In addition to tuning in to one another, players also, more philosophically, tune in to the current tuning standard. The standard tuning and interval flexibility between notes are specially integrated into the sitar and tabla. Sitting around a campfire with a few guitarists who discover they must tune to each other to perform together may introduce you to this tuning philosophy. It is vital to understand that harmony is the ratio of frequencies of distinct notes and that harmony may be achieved using any tuning standard. This is true regardless of the tuning standard selected.
Handpan Standard Tunings
Any tuning standard can be used while building handpans. Because of their popularity, most handpans operate at 440 Hz but can also operate at 432 Hz or even 444 Hz. It’s crucial to remember that handpans should only be adjusted by a qualified specialist with extensive experience. Because they are not flexible, handpans cannot be tuned like a guitar.
440 Hz is the most widely used tuning standard, with 99.9% of most instruments tuned to this standard. To put things in perspective, a 432 Hz standard instrument is roughly ⅓ of a semitone flat away from a 440 Hz instrument. This implies that the combined sound of two instruments tuned to 440 Hz and 432 Hz will be terrible. It is recommended that a handpan player tune their instrument to 440 Hz if they plan to perform with other musicians at any point. It is better to get an instrument tuned to 432 Hz if the player intends to play only at that frequency.
Steel Drums, Hang, and Handpans
The steel drum, a standard instrument in Trinidad and Tobago, a Caribbean state, and the handpan have similar ideas. The shape of a handpan is convex, whereas that of a steel drum is concave, which is how handspans differ from steel drums. The altered shape also produces a distinct sound. The delicate sounds of the handpan are produced by a phenomenon known as air resonance in the body, which is made possible by the handpan’s architecture. The Helmholtz resonance is the frequency that the handpan operates on.
The original Hang’s creators, Felix Rohner, and Sabrina Schärer, decided to cease making it in 2013 to focus on creating new musical instruments while preserving their mystique and significance. When other instrument manufacturers started producing their own Hang variants in 2007, the term “handpan” was coined. However, only approximately 100 handpan makers are worldwide, making it one of the rarest, most valuable, and most mysterious instruments. The instrument’s charm is also related to its limited production volume and magical healing abilities, mainly involving its soft vibrations to help us unwind and release stress and anxiety.
Sound healing is one of the increasingly popular alternative therapies and healing modalities of recent years. The therapeutic effects of music on emotions are something that almost everyone can relate to. Sound can help treat mental health challenges such as anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and chronic stress.
The science of sound’s vibration, frequency, and resonance is used in sound therapy. Energy underlies everything in the cosmos. This energy vibrates at a specific frequency or vibration speed, regardless of whether it is manifested. Every sound has a unique vibration and frequency that our bodies can detect since they vibrate simultaneously. Not only can we hear music with our ears, but our bodies can also feel its vibrations and frequencies—imagine a bass-heavy song that makes your entire body tremble. Our bodies can also sense more subdued sounds without us even realizing it.
Finally, sound has a unique resonance. The duration of a sound after its cause is eliminated is known as resonance. In music, resonance refers to the duration a sound remains audible after hitting a drum, for instance.
The Handpan’s Healing Properties
Handpans are among the most effective instruments for sound therapy because of their high resonance and convex, rounded shape, allowing sound to radiate outward and fill the entire space with vibration and resonance. The handpan and steel drums are among the only instruments where every musical pitch tuned in a 1:2:3 ratio frequency. This means that every note always has three frequencies when it is played. Each note on the majority of other instruments has only two frequencies. The handpan has three frequencies: a compound fifth harmonic, an octave harmonic, and a fundamental tone. The fundamental frequency is the same as the second frequency (the octave), and the compound fifth, the third frequency, is one-third the magnitude of the fundamental frequency.
Since the frequency ratio is already made simpler by dividing it in half and a third, it is crucial for sound healing. Researchers studying sense and perception have discovered that when the human brain hears something, it prefers to simplify frequency ratios. The handpan’s frequency ratio is already as simple as it gets, which has a highly calming and balancing influence on our minds. Our brain receives signals from the handpan’s gentle sound frequency, indicating that it is okay to unwind and release tension and stress.
Doc T Elliott’s Final Thoughts
Not only do we find the handpan’s vibrations so harmonic because of its frequency ratio, but music education’s concept of “entrainment” also contributes to the handpan’s therapeutic and stress-relieving properties. When an item vibrating at one frequency—like a handpan—is placed near another that vibrates at a different frequency—like the human body—entrainment occurs. Our body, which vibrates at a lower frequency, will eventually begin to vibrate at the same frequency as the handpan, which vibrates at a higher frequency. The handpan can thus physically and energetically liberate us from the stress and tension our bodies hold onto. Here is a traditional African songbook for the handpan, 35 Traditional African Songs for Tongue Drum and Handpan: Play by Number (Easy Tongue Drum Sheet Music).