hangforum.com - The Archive

I think it's been kinda quiet around here during the past days.
So I'd like to share something, that you can talk and think about.


The following questions came up when we met at Funky's for our tiny little Hangsession this summer.

Hangplayers - are they a special kind of people?
Is it because of the Hang that only certain people are attracted to it?
Are there certain types that are attracted to it?
Or are those thoughts silly?


I once said that I couldn't imagine 'Neonazis' playing the Hang.
Ixkeys wasn't that sure about it.
(I'd like you to consider that this will not be a political discussion.)

So I'd also like the forum to talk about this topic.
Has the Hang a special aura that only reaches specific human beings?
If so - what makes them 'special' at all?

Are there similarities between us Hangplayers and Hanglovers?

There is no rules about HangPlayers and HangLovers.
Some people are touch by the sound and the vibrations of the Hang ( or others HandPans ) and react about that.
When i play, some people go away and don't react, some stop and listen few minutes and others stop and wait the end of the play to speak and understand what's happen at this moment in her mind.
Don't forget the "spirit" of the Hang.....an intuitive musical instrument ( musical sculpture now !!?? ) with no rules, no method and made to connect people beyond the mind, the spirit and the comprehension of the human been.
At this day, i don't understand why, 3 years ago, i look on my tv and see 15 seconds an Hangplayer in a documentary about Switzerland, and i'm touched so deeply by the Hang. I have the great opportunity to buy one IH and now....play for myself, play in duo with one of my best friend ( he have also an IH ) and play for little group of people and open her minds and heart more stronger that's anything.

This is one of the beauty of Life.

I just think...if your spirit and mind are "open".....you'r touch by the Hang. If you'r "closed"...it's more difficult because your mind are "troubled" or "scrambled".

For the rest, the Hang is a sort of mystery about "touching" people.

I had an instant connection with the hang when i first heard it about 5 years ago. It is a wakening sound & is most welcome to those who are ready to awaken. ALL eventually waken and in a variety of ways. But some of us waken by way of the hang. The rich harmonies and overtones are just what we need to rise above our false idenitifications as body/minds. The hang alone does not waken. Many who own and play hang pursue it as a novel percusssion instrument and overlay their skills & expectations on the hang. It is very much like the church during the time of the Inquisition. They used the rich beauty & love of the bible to advance their own violent, selfish agenda. Felix & Sabina are making an effort to get the hang into the hands of those who are ready for it. Some who have waited a long time for an IH and are turned down do not understand that the hang is destined for the hands and hearts of only a few. Ironically, the anger and indignation that sets in for some of those declined is evidence that they are not right for the hang and the hang is not right for them.

While I agree with the general idea of your post, I have problems with the religious terminology. I'm not familiar with the term "waken" and don't know in which concrete religious context you use it. But I see the pair of terms "waken" and "not waken". This is typical for a religious point of view on the world and the problem is that such antagonisms (good vs. evil, redeemed vs. condemned etc.) are used by religions for thousands of years to devide people into "in" and "out", which was the reason for amounts of misunderstanding, hate, cruelty and war.

Therefor I would like not to use religious terms refering to the Hang. I like more the statement Felix often made: There are people who listen and there are people who don't listen. I think this is what we do with the Hang: Listen. And Listening is a activity of our senses, of our body (without them listening is impossible). A more naturalistic point of view on the Hang could help to understand what we do and what others do. To say people are or are not "...what religious category we want to use...", doesn't explain anything and don't help us to understand.

When I was in Berne a few weeks ago, I saw serveral people who came to get there IH and it was interesting to notice what they are doing with the Hang. Some took the Hang and played and some took the Hang and listened. I think this is the difference. If I take the Hang and play it, this means that I use it as a device to serve my playing skills (as a percussionist in general). If I take the Hang and listen, this means that I want to find out what it is, how it sounds, knowing that I'm a pure beginner. To play means that the sound follows the hands. To listen means that the hands follow the sound.

I think it will be wise to bare the idea of "ready for the Hang" from all religious connotations. The "few" are not the wakened or redeemed one on their way to Hang heaven. Let's stay on earth and in our bodies that we need to enjoy the Hang. Felix and Sabina are interested to give the Hang in the hands of those who are interested and able to listen, because they build the Hang for this usage. Therefor anybody who is looking for a "convex circualar playing device made of steel" should serously consider whether the Hang is the adequate instrument for his/her interests. It could be better to look for another instrument instead of waiting a long time and become angry.

"To play means that the sound follows the hands. To listen means that the hands follow the sound."
the sound is great~! I agree it and I love this.

hang is a gift for me and gift is, I think, mostly a special.
so! Hang is a special!
maybe if someone took a gift from others, then they feel something special (Why not~? )
and maybe they can be a special peolple by this gift!
haha~!

hmm....I can't speak english well (I speak korean more better )
I want to tell more things about this topic but I can't.

when I play the hang, I can feel the resonance in the air and smell it
just feel the sound and if there was listener in there, then feel thier smile or their feelings.
and it doesn't need a word, it doesn't need to speak well.

That's all.

so because of these things, I love the music.
and I think, till now, the hang makes it more easier.

"HANG is a HANG"
we knew it..

IX, I had no intention of using "religious terminology". Wakening has nothing to do with religion. In fact religion often puts body/minds further asleep. The body/mind cannot grasp Reality. The body/mind is a false identification and cannot adequately respond to the "gift from heaven" that the hang represents. While this may appear to be religious teminology again, it is not. IT is rather only metaphor, for denotative language usage is not equipped to communicate the presence of that which transcends the physical, the false, the imagined. The wakening I refer to also transcends the limitations of hang as simply a sound that is heard by the ears, perceived by the senses. For we are more than our body, more than our mind , more than our senses. Wakening is the realization that the ego, the private sense of self, is an illusion. Wakening is the realization that all Life is the One Life. Rather than requiring religious belief, wakening is being totally free of all beliefs, for beliefs are merely mind tales. Wakening frees one from an agenda. Wakening allows being to realize that the hang is not something separate and apart.

What you describe becomes religion, if it is meant to describe a reality outside of you with the same meaning for everybody. I don't know whether you think it in this way. If I understand it as a subjective metaphoric description of personal experience, it is important to understand that similar experiences could be expressed by different terminology. For example I would describe it just opposite to you saying: When I experience me as my body (I am my body, my ears, my senses, my fingers...), I'm much nearer at the realization "that all life is one life", than if I imagine I would be more than my body, would transcend it.

Therefor for me, Hang is the way of the senses, the body. The way of matter, not the way of spirit. Spirit is an illusion, the body is real. Without body sound is meaningless, without matter a Hang cannot exist.

Possibly we speak of similar experiences, possibly not. In my point of view it is important that the Hang is not seen as an "esoteric" instrument and the Hang makers not as the high priests who created a Hang cult.

A few days ago, an Italian Wikipedia article on the Hang was opened (it's very short yet, just a stub) and in order to describe the sound, the author wrote, that the Hang sounds like "New Age" (what I would call a religious term). I deleted this, because it brings the reader to false associations. Maybe a Hang player with "New Age" beliefs see his Hang as a "New Age" instrument. But this is only his subjective interpretation of his Hang and not an attribute of the Hang.

Because there is so often spoken about "spirituality" in association to the Hang, I feel it is important that there is a voice that speeks for the Hang in another way. The Hang is beyond "Weltanschauung", religion an ideology because it is sound and not spirit, matter not transcendation. If we understand this, a naturalist, buddhist, muslim, christian etc can feel in relation to the Hang as the same human beings, lifes that live, bodies that move, senses that listen. In the moment these persons begin to connect their Hang experiences with there special interpretation of the world they will begin to disagree and separate.

There is another topic that is meaningful: Do I use the Hang for purposes that are outside of sound/music? Music was and is often used to support religious, buisiness or political aims. Church music, muic in advertising and music in political events are well known examples. We know that the Hang has a strong influence on people. Therefor as Hang players we have a responsiblity not to abuse this force.

A week ago the Hang was introduced probably the first time in Germany to deaconesses in a mother house of deaconesses by a really strong castigator of christian religion - me - sitting one leged on the floor, armed only with his Hang and a circle of tea lights while all the deaconesses sitting around on chairs. Before the event started and an old deaconess watched me lighting the tea lights (symbolyzing for me the Hang with its seven tones around the ding) she asked me: "I hope this will not become too esoteric?" And I answered: "Don't worry, it is strongly materialistic, it's only sound, nothing else."

Ix

IX, you say "...It's only sound, nothing else." And since belief determines perception this will be your experience with the hang. Sound precedes the body/mind. Sound is the Logos that being issues from and returns to.

You say "What you describe becomes a religion." This may be so but it is not I who fashion it into a religion. Religion is a futile attempt to organize Reality. I know that Reality cannot be organized. I also know that mind cannot grasp Reality. Mind is bound and limited. Indeed many would like to make a new religion of the hang & high priests of Felix & Sabina. I am not among them.

You say "Without body sound is meaningless." But I know that sound is its own meaning, independent of the body/mind.

You say "Without matter a hang cannot exist." But I know that matter is
mind manifested. The hang does not unfold from matter. The hang is an unfoldment of higher consciousness.

You say "I feel it is important that there is a voice that speaks in another way (other than spiritual)." I know there is room enough for all kinds of voices to speak in all kinds of ways about the hang. And I know that even though we appear to be separate voices crying in the wilderness, that we are actually the One Voice of The Beloved appearing as many voices.

Ix, I have very much enjoyed reading what you wrote here.

Saggio,
I really appreciate and resonate with your understanding/perception of existence, the hang and sound in a Spiritual context.
For me the hang is esoteric...it is impossible for me to perceive it in any other way as that is what my experience has been. If I wrote about my experiences many would find it hard to believe. Though I understand and accept that we all have our perception of reality, and they are all valid - it doesn't have to be either/or. So I feel no need to debate the subject and don't intend to here...just wanted to communicate my appreciation of the way you have expressed yourself, and to add my perspective for what it is worth.
I feel sure you would appreciate our music from an esoteric perspective Saggio, as we would yours!