Sounding the Equinox

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with Joule L'Adara

Wednesday, September 22nd

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Know what makes Zenko the "Porsche" of Tongue-Drums? 

Tongue drums have become immensely popular recently and there are now a large variety of different brands out there offering their own version of these portable and robust metal instruments. You can find inexpensive ones in music stores that are usually mass produced. So what makes Zenko Drums made by Metal Sounds so special out of all the tongue drums that are out there? 

With meticulous pitch-perfect tuning, the Zenko Drum allows you to discover bewitching and meditative harmonics that will level-up your sound meditation and music therapy offerings for live sessions. It's a professional grade instrument that can also be mounted on a adapted cymbal stand (there's a bolt-hole on the bottom! and we have adapters) to add accents as part of your drum kit or percussion setup. 

Over the past winter, Peter Hokema (founder of Hokema kalimbas) made a charming video in on a snowy day in Germany demonstrating how to use the chord magnets to mark chords on the B17 Kalimba to more easily find the chords to play on groups of tines to accompany melodies.

We translated Peter's instructions into English and shot our own version to share on Youtube. Now that it's ready, we're now in the height of summer. We thought you'd love to receive it anyway so that watching the snow might cool you off during the hottest summer months here in North America.

The Hokema B17 Kalimba

Kalimbas are metal-tined instruments which originated in southern Africa and which can be found there in countless variations. Our Kalimba B17 C-major made by Hokema Kalimbas is meticulously hand-crafted out of solid American black cherry wood. The surfaces is treated and polished with natural oils and waxes. The B17 is ideal for improvisation and intuitive playing. 

The B17 comes with a collection of tiny different colored magnets. These are designed to be placed at the top of the instrument in order to mark different chords for ease of playing to easily and quickly visualize where the chords begin and end. You can place the magnets anywhere that makes sense to you, depending on the song you're playing. 

Metal Sounds:

Handpans Handmade in France

SPACEDRUM®, the intuitive handpan, is a metal melodic instrument inspired by the original steel drum (aka the steelpan) and by the Hang® invented by PANArt® in 2000. Metal Sounds' handpans have been designed and handcrafted since 2006, and were the first handpan producer in France.

As requirements, tastes, and desires vary, Metal Sounds offers two different lines of handpans:

Musician, Child Educator and Animal Rights Activist Brandon Blake of @bonustimemusic went live on Facebook during the NAMM 2021 virtual Show "Believe in Music" Week to demonstrate his unique way of working with the WE PLAY WELL TOGETHER family of instruments including: Hokema Kalimbas, Metal Sounds Tongue Drums, and feeltone Monochords & Tinka Tongs - combined with electric bass and live looping. We think you'll find this video truly inspirational and will hopefully give you ideas of how you can utilize your instrument in intriguing combinations. 

Brandon is truly an innovative musician - having created a specialized playing technique with the Hokema Kalimba Sansula in which he taps and strikes the drumhead of the instrument while plucking and muting the metal tines. Plus - he's figured out a brilliant method to instantly retune the instrument in the middle of his playing - using tiny weighted magnets!

Brandon is also a bass player who skillfully incorporates live looping. Watch him create incredible soundscapes in real time by looping Kalimba, Tongue-Drum and Monochord accompanied by some satisfying bass-bombs to build a body-moving groove overlaid with rich sonic textures and thrilling overtones. 

Watch the Video Demonstration.... 

How DO you make a handpan?

We got to go behind the scenes with our friends at Metal Sounds the South of France to find out!

...turns out the answer is a LOT of care, craftsmanship, heaps of hammering, laser-cutting, patience, and good ears (along with high-precision tuners!)

We put together this video showcase for Metal Sounds and can't wait to share it with you...

Metal Sounds:

A Showcase of Passion, integrity & quality!

"This particular handpan by Metal Sounds is one of the most beautiful that I've personally played before!" - Todd Boston, January 2021

Want to know how to record a handpan?