About
About the Artist
Patrick Verschoor grew up trekking the snow capped mountains and verdant forests of the state of Washington. Along with the wild, natural beauty of his home, playing musical instruments have always been an inspiration. The inspiration to create them, however, began from the very first time he heard the resonant and complex notes of a handpan – from then on he was hooked. The next two years were spent researching and developing his own artistry to create handpans. Through many failures, and trial and error, he now feels the privilege of being able to share that same beautiful inspiration with you.
The Handpan
The handpan (or pantam) could be considered a cousin of the steel pan, which was developed in Trinidad and Tobago in the 1940’s. Due to social unrest, percussion instruments were outlawed to locals by the British government. Despite this, locals persisted in playing music and created instruments from the oil drums, pots, pans and what they had on hand. It didn’t take long until they discovered that a dent on steel could create a resonant note. And thus, the foundation to the steel pan was laid.
In 2000, the handpan was developed by Sabina Schärer and Felix Rohner of PANart, a Swiss steel pan company. They named their creation the Hang®, which means hand in Bernese German. The handpan is essentially a mixture of the Indian ghatam, the gong and the steel pan. It’s a steel pan that you can play with your hands!
Each note is tuned by manipulating the compression and stress of the steel. Multiple harmonics are tuned into each note. Most notes are tuned to 3 frequencies – the fundamental, an octave, and a compound fifth. The perfect alignment of these frequencies helps create the multi-layered, ethereal tone that is characteristic of the instrument.
Handpans are each tuned to a specific scale. There are many types of scales, and each scale gives the handpan a different feel and personality. No prior knowledge of music theory is necessary to start playing – each note is already in the correct key!
The Aspiration
I aspire to always strive towards creating instruments of the highest quality, and to share these beautiful instruments with others. Each instrument is crafted with this aspiration. They are unique art pieces with their own soul and nuance.
No two instruments are identical, and they are made entirely in house. They are not mass produced, and each instrument gets the utmost care and attention that it deserves.
