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Watching some videos of Integral Hanghang played with gloves, I thought it might be useful to discuss this topic here.

I think a Hang player who uses gloves with an Integral Hang is caught in a vicious circle.

To let an Integral Hang sound, it needs a very light touch. This touch is lighter than most players think when they got to play an Integral Hang the first time.

When they play it with a little more power than necessary, the sound of the tonefields is a bit dull. So many try to play harder often using the thumbs to concentrate the energy to a very little area. It seems that this can work because the sound becomes a bit better. But now the klick-noise from the skin touching the Hang surface seem to loud, to noisy. So some get the idea to use gloves. That lowers the disturbing noise.

But now the player is forced to play too hard, because now he needs more power to get enough energy into the tone field.

I suggest another "strategy".

If you are new to the Integral or 2nd generation Hang and the sound you get out of it isn't loud enough or clear or beautiful enough, the first thing you should do is: Stop playing.

Then think of the most silent room and the most silent time that exist in your home. Mine for example is my living room after midnight.

Use this room and this time only to play your Hang. You will find that there is a huge dynamic range from light touch to absolute silence you can use to play the Hang. Your ears will be very sensitive for the lightest sounds because they accommodate to the silence of the room. Harking to the sounds of the Hang your fingers will learn intuitively how to play the Hang and let it sound in its best way.

But what to do, if you want to busk on noisy streets or play on stage with a band? My answer is: Don't use an Integral or 2nd generation Hang. These instruments are not made to serve the loudness that is needed in these surroundings.

Ix

P.S. A little but useful tip for beginners: Don't use your thumbs until you learned to play a beautiful sound with your fingers.

IX, very sound advice. So many youtubes of the hang are very bad models for a new player. Often the player is pounding the hang into submission. IT is painful to watch. I have become increasingly aware that the hang is best as solo instrument, although I still greatly enjoy making loops with the hang and my native american flutes. Both the hang & the flute call for a return to gentleness.

The Hang is not a "drum" and it's more realistic with the IH.....

If you are a percutionnist.....forget all what you have learn and discover the Hang with a empty and open mind.....

for the others.....play gently, smoothly and just with your naked fingers.

Personnaly, i don't like the "thumb" playing...i just play with the top of my fingers.

This topic has been discussed before, maybe a year ago. These are some new points though, and good additions.

I say again what I said last time - I absolutely prefer to play the hang without gloves, but in the winter, the metal gets very cold. I find that it becomes painful to play the cold metal, and I am no longer able to, so I have to use gloves. (I have a little bit of rheumatoid arthritis).

So we talked about what type of gloves are most likely to have minimum effect on the sound of the hang, and the understanding I took from the thread is that gloves made from animal skin would be the closest similarity to our skin. I also suspect the thinner and closer fitting glove would be best. I am about to experiment with this because we are approaching winter here. I will report back once I have done my research.

Cheers,

Shame on me, I use my thumbs But I am very very careful and don't use the Hang as a drum (I hope...). Playing with my thumbs feels more comfortable to me than playing the Hang with the other fingers. I don't use my thumbs because the Hang sounds not loud enough. I willl learn more and more every time I play it. And I have to learn more, I know. My Hang is a part of me and I don't want to hurt myself


I will try out Ix' advice with the room, thanks for it.

Its good advice... but advice only. I'd say don't be put off by how you've been playing the Hang, there will always be one person's opinion over anothers on the right way to make the hang sing, using gloves does dampen the sound a bit but if you like the sound it makes then what does it matter? If you play with your thumbs and enjoy playing that way then again its probably the right way for you... if we all play the same way then how boring would that be??

Ravid is a very accomplished player and only plays with gloves and thumbs....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fKoQrdxgzs

Just don't hit the Hang too hard, everything is else style.

Hallo,



Yes, it is only advice. But what was the central idea from Ix? I could not read, that he want to suggest people to play all the same.
One of the important things to think about is the dynamic and the dynamic range.
If you play on a very quiet place you have much more "room" for the Hang.
Between absolut silence and the music of a soft played Hang is a lot of space. Much more than between a hard played Hang and the noise on the street.
And the real beauty inside the Integral Hang is not to find on the high end of the curve.
If you play hard the most time your music is flat. This has nothing to do with the style or kind of music you want to play.



I think the recommendation from Ix was in the first line for beginners on the Hang. If you start playing Hang and use the most time your thumbs you are in danger to miss a lot of on sound. An advanced Hang player could use his thumbs also with dynamic.
But on youtube you could find a lot of examples from Hangplayers who are playing only "flat music" because they use their thumbs.
I personally use also my thumbs. I do this together with all my other fingers and only because they are from time to time more near at the note I want to play.



This video has another interesting aspect. The Hanghang are standing on the floor and the Gu is closed. I think Ix could explain better the effect on the Hang.
Yes, Ravid was an model for much Hangplayers who use gloves. I heard in the foretime from a person who was also there, a story about a conference in Spain. On this conference Felix and Sabina had spoken about the Hang. Ravid was also their and he played on his Hang with gloves. An professor (sound expert) ask Ravid: "What you are doing? Put out the gloves!"
He said this, because the direct contact between the Hand and the Hang is an important part of the Hang.
Ravid´s answer was, that he use gloves because he fear about rust on the Hang.
The person who told me this story is absolut authentic. Maybe it is not the only reason why Ravid use gloves, but it seems it is one of his reasons.

So, if you use gloves you could easy come into the situation to miss a lot of dynamic possibilitys. And this is significant for all styles of playing.

Greetings
Frank

I think you haven't got my point, Kelly. I don't tell people how they have to play the Hang. I want to describe a room of freedom where a Hang player can experience the the sound of the Hang. There are so many YouTube videos out there were players are satisfied with a low range sound of their Hanghang. They are bad models especially for those who are new to the Hang.

I learned from my 2nd generation Hang that there are three "parameters" that are necessary to create the room of freedom to experience the Hang sound:

1) A quiet room
2) The contact of the surface of the skin of your hands with the Hang surface
3) The Gu-Ding-integration (which also connects your body with the Hang)

I wrote about the two points 1) and 2) in this topic.

I cannot and don't want to tell players what to do in this room. My point is to invite them to get into this room. Obviously it is difficult to do this with words only because what happens when you've created this room has nothing to do with words.

The main activity you do in this room is: Listen. Then a learn process can take place between your body, hands, ears and brain in interaction with your Hang. This learn process doesn't use deductive reasoning but other capacities of your brain. But you have to be inside this room. If you are outside the learn process cannot start.

I told the tip for beginners not to use the thumbs because I know from my own experience when I was a beginner how tempting it is to use the thumbs. It seems to be much easier to get sound out of the Hang with your thumbs than with other parts of your hand. But if you stick to this "style" of playing you will miss the entrance to that room I told about above.

Ix

personally, I like playing with my fingertips as Ix suggests. Of course, this way of playing hurts the tips of your fingers like the tips of toes for ballet dancers. It is easier to use the side of my fingers, but I don't like that sounds...except for a certain song that uses that tapping sound.

If you play with the tip of the finger you simulate a mallet. You concentrate the energy on a very little area. The Hang is an instrument for the hands and that means that it can be excited on a bigger area. If you are not satisfied with the sound when you use more surface of your fingers than stop playing and then think of the most silent room and the most silent time that exist in your home... I think this is a main principle for the Hang: If you are not satisfied with the sound it is not a problem of playing technique but of listening. So create a situation that is the best for listening and while listening your hands can find the best way intuitively.

Today I played together with double bass and found out that the bass was too loud, I couldn't hear the Hang in the way that was necessary. So the bassist changed the instrument and took his acoustical bass guitar which is more quiet and this worked better.

Ix