As a veteran steelpan enthusiast (23 years), it is disheartening to say the least, that there is apparently a Handpan Mafia in existence which collectively, whether willfully or not, has conspired to remove the handpan from the traditional steelpan family of which it is a descendant. In the process, they have essentially on the whole, emerged from out of the shadows and have now basically cornered the handpan market. They simultaneously charge exorbitant, over-inflated prices for instruments which only maintain their over-inflated valuation due to an essentially uninformed, easily led, and non-musically oriented buyers market.
Allow me to expand.
The handpan is an instrument that has a wide appeal on a viral level due to its inherent simplicity musically speaking. In terms of the actual playing of notes, with 8-9 notes tuned in one lonely scale, it is nearly impossible to hit a wrong note with most handpan tunings. Percussion and finger techniques aside, virtually anyone with no musical background can play a handpan and make relatively decent music, which in turn, allows handpan players to present themselves as musicians fairly easily.
The handpan's user-friendly nature is one of the great keys to the handpan's wide appeal and strong demand. The other great key being the mellow sound, which is a distinct steelpan sound.
In the previous blog post, I noted how it is easier for a traditional steelpan tuner to tune a handpan than it is for a traditional handpan tuner to tune a traditional steelpan. The same can be said with regard to players of traditional steelpans and players of handpans.
A traditional pannist with no prior knowledge of the handpan will be able to play a handpan more effectively than a handpan player who attempts to play a traditional steelpan with no prior knowledge of the steelpan. This is due to the fact that traditional steelpans are generally chromatic instruments with some, like the tenors and double seconds, double tenor and quadrophonics, containing more than 3 full octaves.
As the level of playing difficulty varies so immensely between traditional steelpans and handpans, traditional steelpans are usually not appealing to handpan enthusiasts simply due to the fact that the user-friendly nature of the handpan is not present in the traditional steelpan per say. While it may take a new handpan player a few months to become proficient in playing the handpan, it generally takes at least a few years for a new traditional pannist to become proficient with the instrument
Additionally, on the flip side of the coin, handpans are of little to no interest to traditional steelpan enthusiasts, many of whom consider the handpan a ''boring'' instrument due to its severe limitations musically speaking.
Therefore it is evident, that these two markets rarely intersect for these reasons.
It is safe to say that many of first time handpan owners or expectant owners have little to no musical background. Unlike most buyers of traditional steelpans, who most likely already know how to play the pan and have a musical background before they purchase one. Many traditional steelpan buyers already play the instrument in a band, but would like to own their own instrument.
The handpan basically allows a musical novice to present him or herself as a musician without the years of training that usually is required to play a chromatic instrument such as a traditional steelpan, while at the same time ''passing'', if I may call it that, as a ''decent'' musician.
It is precisely here that the Handpan Mafia has realized a golden opportunity and has undoubtedly seized upon it.
The first step in the Handpan Mafia's consolidation and cornerning of the market, especially at the high-end, was and is the continuing implication that the handpan is somehow a unique instrument. It is certainly not. The distinction of being a unique musical instrument DOES belong to the traditional steelpan however!
This is evident to me on a near daily basis, as the many people who see me play pan ask me if I am playing a ''hang''! So it is quite clear to me that in some parts of the world at least, many people do not even know of the traditional steelpan, but are aware of the handpan.
As far as we at KaribPAN are concerned, it is the duty of every handpan maker to acknowledge the Caribbean origin of the handpan instrument, instead of marketing it as a unique Swiss (European) invention by implication or otherwise. I may also point out that no members of the Handpan Mafia are from the Caribbean, neither do they have Caribbean backgrounds. In sum, this makes them cultural misappropriators at the very least.
The second tactic the Handpan Mafia uses is the patenting of names related to the steelpan, which lends further credibility to the lie whether by implication, intention or both, that the handpan is a unique invention!
Thirdly, online discussion forums for handpan enthusiasts are operated and funded by this Handpan Mafia to highlight other Handpan Mafia affiliated outifits while virtually blacklisting or censoring discussions about their competition on the Mafia-owned forums. Competition which consists of basically more than 90% of the other handpan makers on the market. This Handpan Mafia is even content to refer to themselves as a ''Family'' of all things, while all other makers who are not aligned with them are outsiders or non-''Family'' by default.
The mean spirited, selfish nature of this behavior of the Handpan Mafia is quite obvious to anyone who loves the steelpan and engages in the business of pan out of pure love for the instrument. These malicious tactics only serve to segregate, and ultimately isolate the handpan into a classification of its own, which is the Handpan Mafia's desired result. Unfortunately for them however, they can never ultimately succeed in transforming the handpan into a ''unique'' instrument because they cannot rewrite history at this early stage in the life of steelpan. Steel pan has not even reached its 100th year of existence, so it is still a relatively modern instrument whose history is still being written to this day by the thousands of traditional pannists today who keep the steelpan tradition and culture alive, as well as new handpan players currently discovering the instrument!
Undoubtedly however, the ''new'' culture of the handpan community is radically different than the culture that historically emanates from the traditional steelpan community, which brings me to my next post where we will compare and contrast the culture of the Handpan and the culture of the traditional steelpan!
Maybe I will post more about this phenomenon of the Handpan Mafia at a later date. However, this literal corruption, misrepresentation and misappropriation in the industry has encouraged my partners and I to offer very reasonably priced, high quality options on the market.
At KaribPAN we pride ourselves in conductingthe business of pan in a socially responsible and ETHICAL manner.
at this point it is you who can benifit from having a friendly discussion with me. but you decide otherwise and started to call me a troll and a lier. why should i do you a favor. go out and gather the info you need.
i dont really need to proove anything to you, to be honest. it’s your chance not mine.
drop me a line by email though, maybe you can talk more politely when nobody is watching you?
Dear Handpan Lover,
you claim that the ‘’handpan community generally loves the steelpan:’’
Well duh! How can they not love it when all handpan players are playing a steelpan at the end of the day! That is what this blog post is all about in the first place.
Yet still, certain segments of the handpan community continually demonstrate their elitism when speaking about traditional steelpans whether in subdued tones, or brash tones.
Even yourself is guilty of this same elitism that I speak of when you say that ‘’every handpan player generally loves the steelpan’’, as if to say that every handpan enthusiast is not OBLIGATED by default to pay homage to originators of the handpan and love the steelpan.
And if you claim that you have never seen so much support in a musical community, I would like to invite you to join any steelaband in your immediate area and then you will TRULY be able to compare and contrast the two communities from an objective standpoint. Until you do this, your view point is entirely BIASED and SUBJECTIVE in terms of speaking of the traditional steelpan community and the handpan community. You simply lack the experience required in order to objectively make a comparison.
Thank you for your input and allowing me to reinforce my points.
As I said, if you want more OBJECTIVE information about this subject,
STAY TUNED TO MY NEXT BLOG POST:
The Radically Different CUltures between the Traditional Steel Pan Communities & the Handpan Communities!
how about my condition about opening comment section and rating for your videos on youtube?
why did you leave that part? are you affraid?
Victor Levinson,
Instead of proving that you have integrity and living up to my challenge, you take the spineless way out and place the burden on me to research who you are and what you have accomplished by telling me to do my ’’homework’’!
I was still waiting to see this waiting list of the ‘’thousands of people’’ who are eagerly awaiting their chance to get a hold of your instruments!
Well… Dear Admin, I’m one of the thousands people who consider Victor’s instruments as the dream pan. If you’ve never heard about him it means you should double check your informations about the handpan world. He makes maybe the best instruments existing nowadays, I know a lot of proud owners of his instruments that would never even swap their instruments for any other in the whole market. And the handpan community generally love the steel pans (of course anyone has his own taste..) and I guess every player and maker is grateful to the steel pan inventor and makers. By the way you should collect preciser informations about this community. We say it’s a family because we feel it’s like this. I play several instruments, and I can guarantee you that I’ve never seen so much support in any other music community. We love to meet each other, to host each other and to support each other. We love to share other’s music and creations. We’re not special, it’s just that we play anew instrument, that has born wight he raise of internet, with the possibility of connection between us, and I’m glad it’s like this. Cheers.