My first contact with a (small) handpan was, when I visited a german family in Peru, end of 2019. This handpan did not speak to me. About one year later, after I just started to get into piano and bass playing, I was meditating in my rented house in Sweden. I do not remember the exact words, but something like:

A friend recommended those blue handpans to me a while ago. She was fascinated by their sound and knew I was a drummer. At first I saw no use for me to have one, especially since I started more travelling. But now, I was getting a bit tired of the same walks or bicycle rides in the swedish forest and I was searching for a new hobby to do outside. Playing tongue drum outside maybe? I browsed the website, picked a tuning.

I allowed myself to show my learning process by also publishing videos where there is some imperfection in playing and wonkiness, as long as the session is not interrupted in its flow too much.

Welcome to the diary of my 4 year long journey from the very first handpan video up until my 37th released track.

First published song: River suite part 1

After a bit of practicing at home, I went for a first test with my camera outdoors. It was still cold outside and I just wanted to check, how it will look and feel for me. My inbuilt camera mic is known for producing a lot of noise, so I chose to record nearby the water to cover that. :)

The spot was on my way to visit a friend in a neighbour village. To my surprise the first take went well enough to publish it on my already existing youtube-channel.

It was intentionally kept short to have a chance to get it right. While I have played drums and percussion for 30 years prior to the arrival of my first handpan - it is still a new instrument and occasionally the improvisation does not work out to sound well at this stage, so I left enough room to cut it, before I get too experimental at the end. But the "second" end went surprisingly well for that time and could be kept in. This was luck. And promising. And a fun activity.

Time to buy a good microphone then. If a session goes well, I have something to upload. If not, I spent a nice time in nature while practicing tongue drum. Let's see where it will take me ..

The best songs over the course of two years of this first handpan-chapter later became my first album "in swedish nature with RAV Vast tongue drum G Pygmy" on Streaming Services.

2nd: Snow melting song - one of the most complex to date

In this time of the year, I was fascinated by the water from all the snow melting going down unconventional ways through the forest.

Playing this melody while maintaining a basis pattern on lower notes is difficult. I was experimenting with different handpatterns and cross-handed for just one note is easiest for me. Yet occasionally hard to get back into like at the end where I mix also the other options.

I could transfer a lot from 30 years of drumming, but this was challenging to get it how I had it in mind. So, some small flaws, but this was my best attempt and I like to leave it like that, so you can actually see a bit what it takes to play that and witness my progress in playing over time in the videos. This is just 12 days after my first video. The complexity was acknowledged in way more than average views.

I spent a lot of time there. Some other takes were alright as well and I put them into another 25 minutes long video (here).

I lost myself in one session. Which means after I stopped playing, I needed to realize again, where I was. I think it is the sound and the energy of the water that affected me a lot here. I think being in nature in this way helped me a lot to develop the ability to feel into the surroundings where I play, which I think also helped me to get into Piano-Channeling later.

And if you are interested in the whole picture about my musical development, keep in mind that parallel of this handpan-journey, my piano-journey unfolded in similar steps and progression over those years.

3rd Song: River Suite Part 2

Taking the main melody of River Suite Part 1 and playing around at the river. Also using a local wooden stick as snare - worth a try but felt no need to repeat it again so far. Was a nice day, but with many, many mosquitos on the way there.

4th: Small mountain session (popular)

Amongst the videos with the most views so far. Just nice to listen to, a beautiful spot and camera angle. Me enjoying myself playing in the sun in the peaceful forest. At this time I have maybe a publishing rate of 5-10 to 1: Out of 5-10 attempts or takes, I publish one. Sometimes a session in some place did not work out, but from most places I was lucky to get something to publish.

5th Song: Night Sun Session with birds

This was my first summer in Sweden and I was fascinated by the colors in the sky at night. And I could not sleep well with the brightness almost all day round. So ... I found a nice spot to record and was accompanied by some birds singing in the early morning. I love the vibe of this one actually: Worth checking out, if you want to calm down. Yet, the sound is not the best, so therefore I decided to not put it on the album for streaming services.

6th: Dandelion Drum 'n' Bass (fastest song)

This is in terms of speed maybe the most impressive. After the high speed, there is some calmer part as well. And when the bird made such a loud sound, I knew this would make a nice ending.

I like drum 'n' bass, I would like to create my drum 'n' bass music on drums with my own ideas one day.

7th Song: Flying duck sunrise session

While I was traveling I came by this lovely spot by a lake and slept in my car. In the morning I enjoyed the peacefulness and was greated by a duck flying by in the beginning of the session.

I try some rubber sticks to have a different sound in the beginning. They are ok, but I felt no need to record another session with those rubber sticks as I somehow prefer just using my hands - with them there is more variations and nuances possible. If you have children or are a beginner, these sticks help with getting a good sound out of it fast.

8th: Sunset Session (remarkable sound)

In terms of video and sound this is one of the most amazing ones: It is recorded several meters away, with the microphone on the camera. Yet perfect sound and such a colorful sky. Glad I got it right the first time as there were many mosquitos (you can actually see me at the end trying to get rid of them while playing). At this stage I would call it an obsession to play and film. Somehow a typical stage in the life of a youtuber maybe. :)

9th Song: Pyramid Session

Played in a pyramid shape I built from scrap metal in my garden in Germany with some birds singing in the background. Ok, but musically not too catchy or specific, just a regular improvisation without magic or special effects.

10th: Uphill Session (with some magic)

Here some magic started to happen the first time to me: This is the third take of the session at that spot in a row. Which was enough time to connect with the nature there.

And all of a sudden, at minute 4, a new melody was given to me. Which I was able to explore spontaneously. A bit wonky at times, but I had a lot of fun and was fascinated how this melody was suddenly there. It had some different quality then most of the other melodies that came through random improvisation.

Another step towards opening up more to the environment. Before that I just explored basically some technical ideas in this take, which I describe in the description of the video to also mark those as chapters to follow along. This was the last outdoor song for the season.

11th: Ode to Kristineberg (snowart)

This video highlights my snow art: Here, you will see my best and largest snow sculptures that I have done by walking. Came across the idea somewhere on the internet and gave it a try. I enjoyed doing, experimenting and improving it. The largest one is at 6:00 in this video, I gave the video a chapter and brief headline about every snow sculpture.

The largest snow sculpture took me a few hours. Afterwards I felt very powerful and connected to that site somehow ... unexpected experiences, it can have more magic on me than I thaught, it became some sort of walking meditation there. I feel into what the place would like to see, apart from that I got some inspiration from crop circle figures.

Apart from that I liked the moment when a crow said "hi" in the sky just before I started playing in the beginning.

This is the only video where I play a cheap AS Teman handpan. Other than that it only appears in my comparison video of handpans. I was expecting it not to be great for the low price, but I wanted to experience it myself. I also learned, that the thin metal reacts to cold and sun very strongly. So in these conditions, only a few notes sounded ok to play. It has not the level of sound that I would publish as music with all notes, but for this youtube video it is ok with those few notes working.

Afterwards, I tried to retune it with a hammer myself and have to say: Very difficult - I leave my hands off of that on a good handpan. In the Handpan comparison video you can hear what I mean with "out of tune".

My third handpan arrived and I gave it a first try: Unboxing my Meridian handpan. Published 6th Jun 2022. It is not a song, but just a demo of the sound - therefore not linked with picture here. I made a longer demonstration which counts as the 12th handpan music video, which is reserved for those who consider to support me via Patreon.

13th video: Unboxing KTAK from Kandu

Here you get a sense of how I play around with ideas and how my fingers explore a new wooden drum. With the Meridian handpan also just arrived, I play around with them together. I like the vibe at 2:27, playing those two together.

14th: Lake session with RAV Vast and KTAK

While it is somehow possible to play both drums at the same time, you can see me struggling switching between the different parts a bit. It took me several attempts to get it at least to this level for publishing as video, but the music itself is too wonky without video for publishing further.

It was worth exploring this route for me, but I chose to prefer to focus on playing one drum at a time, maybe working with a looper instead would give me more freedom and fun in playing than this simultaneous playing.

Along my journey there was also occasionally a moment where I was wondering: How much is it worth putting effort into publishing more of these videos?

Occasionally I got good feedback and a glass of marmelade from a neighbour as appreciation for my music, but nothing to pay my bills with. Therefore, I consider it my hobby and experimenting at this stage. I do not aim for something other than developing my skills in music and video while keeping it fun for myself as much as possible.

Occasionally somebody uses my promotion code for the RAV Vast tongue drum (find it in a description of a youtube video with it or write me) - which I appreciate to have this opportunity of collaboration, yet far from a reliable income. I was happy that one of the early videos made them say yes to a cooperation with me (I asked them). Yet, until the time of setting up this page in Feb 2025, I sold less than 5 handpans with that code.

But then for example, I receive a text from somebody, that he was down and a new video of mine that popped up in his feed really made his day. And that helps me on a human level to find a reason to go for the additional effort for taking the camera with me, finding a nice angle, editing videos and uploading them. I usually keep the effort for my videos low, because, well it is mainly music after all and the music does not get better due to a fancier video.

And apart from that, with my abilities there is sometimes just very fun options for me that come along, that I cannot resist trying, like the following one. Imagine the fun you can have, beeing a drummer in an underground cave.

15th: Underjords kyrkan Kristineberg Soundcheck

After I was a guide for the underground church in the village that I lived in (Kristineberg), I got the opportunity to spent two days 90m underground and experiment with music (on 23rd and 24th Aug 2022).

It is a tricky environment: There is detonations two times a day as it is still an active mine. And the air has a lot of moist in it, so you do not want to leave good equipment down there longer than necessary.

So I approached it with the following mindset: 1st day just checking the acoustics in the different places and do demo recordings. 2nd day bring the full gear down and record properly.

I use the white snare drum you see in the picture only as a stand to place my wooden snare drum on top of it. The wooden snare drum is easier to play by hand than the regular snare drum. This setup felt more natural to me as a drummer than the setup with the KTAK earlier mentioned. Yet, it is half a drum set to carry, so a different approach than my other videos in nature.

At the end of day one I made the following sound check, which went very well. So, I decided to publish it straight away zero editing to hear the wonderful cave acoustics (although I had not aimed for publishing this one when playing).

But for example I played the bass drum too loud at the end, which leads to not meeting the quality that I would want for releasing it as music on streaming services and switching between parts is a bit wonky too.

Therefore: it remains a sound check that went very well, so I had no need to record this song idea again. And it gave me valuable experience to play around with other things the next day (which was a lot of drums).

16th: Melody of Lit (most complex song)

A friend recommended me a place where you have a pond with very pure, slightly green water. So I was prepared and took some battery powered lights with me (a headlight towards my body and a strong bicycle lamp towards the pond). I like the leaf falling down on the water in the beginning and the reflection of the moon on the surface water.

I remember it was getting cold and I needed several tries to get it to a level that I was happy with. In the end there is a time lapse how the moon goes by, which gives you an idea how long it took me there. To make it look good, I even used the light from my mobile on the floor in front of me. Those details I adjust after checking the footage on site after the first test.

The melody came up, when I was at a camping site in a place called Lit, therefore the name. This version just has one minor struggle near the end and I like to keep it human for the video, showing it how my skills were in this moment. Yet when I listened to it when preparing the release as album, it disrupted the listening a bit there. I was able to replace it with the same part played earlier, so it is nice to listen to in the album version on streaming services.

Here my right hand plays a bass pattern and "snare like sound" with the thumb. So the left hand is free to jump around for the melody. This is the most difficult, designed song that I ever played to date I would say, just followed shortly by the snow melting song. By designed I mean, I have a clear melody and parts in the song that I want to play in a specific way as the opposite of improvisation which I also do a lot in the other videos and can get difficult to repeat.

I am happy I got the song and video this good; another repetition would not have been fun because of the cold and the batteries were nearly empty as well then.

17th: The Approach (towards Gimegolts)

Before playing a simple song here, I also share my approach of how I developed ideas at this stage in the beginning of the video. If you play an instrument yourself, maybe this is inspiring for you.

After me gathering ideas, my hands were too cold to continue to play, so I took gloves - why not trying how that sounds, no need to get too uncomfortable for this one. The sound with gloves is alright, but not what I would want on my album.

I like the variation on 3:30. I love how the clouds move in the time lapse, when I do a simple snow figure there.

I intended to go to a different place there, but I realised it was too far to walk in these conditions, so I just played where I was before returning - it was also not the best weather to go full scale.

I came back with a small team about a week after recording this one, to try, play and record several things at the canyon named Gimegolts.

18th: Gimegolts Session (expedition)

Two friends helped us with their snow mobiles to get to the entrance of the canyon. From there, two more friends with their cameras and me walked through the snow with all the equipment. I also took my keyboard with me which resulted in my first video with electronic music showing the beautiful scenery of the canyon as well.

We all had a beautiful, sunny day and enjoyed spending the time in the canyon. The snow is absorbing the sound on the ground and the rocks had no specific acoustic reflections - I had hoped for some interesting acoustics, but there was just dry sound.

The drone captured well my snow sculpture and the beautiful scenery, along with further footage of stationary cameras. In the end you see we had a divine timing with the snow mobile pick-up. I was feeling so happy to get this much support for my idea from everybody involved.

This was my only time playing handpan in the canyon - the first attempt was good enough. I like this song from the middle after I had a bit of warm-up and getting into it. So at this time, I am able to play normal things pretty fluent on the handpan instantly. Which enables me to play together with other musicians on a proper level.

As I was busy with my job as a music teacher in Sorsele, this video was released one winter later, but I want to keep the order of recording here in this list. Oh and the intention of that day was to celebrate my first year as a music teacher in Sorsele, enjoying my time there.

19th: Improvisation with Elena and Denny

Here I was invited to be part in a public concert at a beautiful small church in the middle of nowhere: Victoria Kyrkan. I met Elena the first time the same day earlier, where we rehearsed a bit and it was the first time playing together with Denny as well.

Both of them were happy to tune their instruments for me to 432Hz.

I love the ups and downs in our intensity in playing and the singing of Denny in the end is just wonderful to me.

20th: inside out at Viktoria Kyrkan on a rainy day

After that public concert and a cozy get together with everybody, I had the opportunity, to play at that beautiful small church. Here I took some extra time, filming the path you have to walk to get to the church, which is part of the beautiful experience there. On a different day, I was enjoying the sun - it is so peaceful and calm in nature there.

During this sesssion my hands spontaneously wanted to play some fast things I have never played before. You can hear the rain well on the recording. I like the atmosphere.

This session went well enough to become the final song of my series of exploring the handpan-playing in nature.

1st handpan album: in swedish nature with RAV Vast

It was interesting that it is a different experience for me to listen to the songs without the video in a row. Some frequencies were slightly over or underrepresented, which was unpleasant for me to listen to, while these frequencies do not annoy me, when watching them with the video.

So, I edited some frequencies (just using software equalizers) so it became more pleasant to listen to it as a whole. I decided against using compression or anything else to keep it natural and authentic in this case.

These are my first steps into publishing my own music then: Figuring out how it all works and for example asking friends about their experience for deciding for a distributor. And listening to the music plenty of times on different loudspeakers and headphones to make sure every song works everywhere. It has to sound good on high-end as well as standard headphones.

And you should to test mono-compatibility. That means when playing music on a phone or bluetooth-amp with just one loudspeaker, the left and right channels are mixed together: if recorded in misalignment of the phase, a frequency can cancel itself out when placed over itself for mono-playback (in a nutshell). Here I had no issues with the handpan-recording, but occasionally on piano-recordings it was an issue. There is handy plugin-ins helping with it in today's world.

And there we are: The best 13 songs picked out of 20 for my first handpan album.

album "In swedish nature with RAV Vast tongue drum G Pygmy" on Streaming Services
album "In swedish nature with RAV Vast tongue drum G Pygmy" on Youtube

I enjoyed the process and was proud to have my first album of own handpan music as a milestone, released Aug 2023.

21th Song/Session: Jamming with Abdoulaye Camara from Guinea on Dun Dun

I was organising an african drums and dance workshop with Abdoulaye and we had some time to connect and play together on that occasion. I enjoy the groove he provides and need to supress my giggling about his cool verbal expressions while playing. Recorded spontaneously with just my iPhone - the sound is more than acceptable in this environment.

We are building up momentum step by step and at the second half of this session: I am happy to use also the fast phrasing that came up in the session prior at Viktoria Kyrkan.

A while after I released the video, I had a phone call with Abdoulaye. He said, he showed it to a friend of his and he was like "Why can a white guy play the drums like this??" which ranks as one of the highest compliments I got regarding drumming.

Continue with chapter 2 of my handpan diary

If you want to support me: Pick your favourite songs of mine, create a playlist for them and listen to those often. Then I do not only get a small royalty, but the algorithm has also a chance to learn and find people that like my songs too, based on your overall taste of music. Thank you!