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Ix...you got me interested in learning more about what makes an IH an IH after you talked about the resonance issue. Is it the howling with the Hang that shows when the Ding and Gu are integrated? Please elaborate more.

If anyone else has some thoughts, chime in and let's hear what you have to say.

I don't know what it is you call howling. But if Gu and Ding are connected there isn't a howling. The first you must do if you want to find out the Gu Ding resonance is to go to a very quiet room. A time after midnight will work best. You can make the following experiment:

Put the Hang (2nd generation or newer) on the floor and excite the Ding. The Ding will sound clear but with no depth.

Now put the Hang upright on the floor. Hold it with one hand at the rim and excite the Ding with the other. The Ding will get a bass dimension but it doesn't sound clear, a bit dirty, a bit blocked up. If you are an experienced listener you can hear that the bass tone is an F2. This is the Helmholtz resonance or "the Gu".

Now put the Hang back on the floor, hold it with one hand at the rim and excite the Ding with the other hand while you begin to lift the Hang at the rim very slowly. A very deep bass tone will appear and become higher the more you lift the Hang. There is one position where you can hear that Ding and Gu are connected, sound harmonically together. As an experienced listener you can hear that the Gu is now an octave below the Ding (D2).

It is necessary to do this experiment at a very silent place. Otherwise it will be very difficult to find the point where Gu and Ding are connected if you aren't familiar with that sound.

Ix

Hi,

very nice explanation @Ix. The next step is to learn how to reach this connection between Ding and Gu if the Hang is on your lap. For that you
must find the right angle for your legs.
If you play in this way, the sound is much more full. Like a flower flourish.

The question from RedHang has another aspect. What makes an Integral hang an Integral Hang? I think the question is, what means the "integral".
I try to explain, with my poor english, my understanding of that. That is not easy, but I hope to find a few good words.
I speak with Felix in the foretime about that and I hope I understand him
in a right way.
Integral means "integration". The opposite from this integration is isolation.
The first steelpan tuner try to isolate the tones on their instruments.
They do this with furrows and later they made for example bored pan. (with holes around the tone fields).
You could see for example on the caisa very easy, that Bill try to isolate the notes. (this is not a judgment, I explain only the different approach)
In the Hang community I hear a few people also speaking from isolation.
Panart build a lot of years steelpan and they do a lot of experiments. They study the sound and they understand more and more the complex steelpan.
They find out, that an single isolated tone is not so beautifull as an tone who work together with other tones. On the Hang the tones are not isolated. They sound together with other tones. The whole Hang is a complex system. If you play one note, you dont hear only this note. You listen to a interaction between the sound from the note, neighbor notes, notes far away, overtones, your hand and so on.....
Instruments with more isolated notes are for example the metallophone, xylophone ...

The Integral Hang is the result from years of experience with the hammer, but also from years of increasing awereness, that "isolation" is the wrong way for the Hang.
So, Panart leave all the different scales behind and start to search for notes which work good in the Hang concept.
If you speak from "integration" it is essential that you have a good balance.
Integration is only possible if everything work good together.
The hand is an importand element. On every Hang Panart must deal with the stresses or tension on the metall. Everything must be in good balance.
At the end you have the Hang. Not with isolated notes. In the Hang is everything well integrated. All notes are not single notes but part of the greater whole.
The hand is also an integrated part of this.

Not so easy to explain in english. I hope you got an idea what I want to say.

Greetings
Frank

Thank you Ix and Funky.... You're insights give me a lot to think about. I will try this experiment.