Ok so it’s the middle of winter – again.
I’ve been spending a lot of quality time with divers types of materials and tuning is becoming second nature – oh ya baby ! It’s only been 3 years + so I’m happy to get off that easy lol
So here is my new understanding of it in a few words.
- Dimples are for what exactly ? Well that is a good question because you can tune a note with no dimple, just flat. The difference is the tone, dimples add deep to the sounds produced. Dimples also give much more structure and strength to the note so it can hold its tuning longer, especially if your material is thin.
- Is there an easy way to make and tune a note ? Oh ya sure, 1000$ questions again man ! Sure there is, just have a look at all those imported Asian handpan hitting the market 😉 Ok ok here are a few pointers.
- your dimple has to have a flat plane surface around it… at least 2.5cm (1 inch) … yes small notes are hard to tune 😉
- Unless you’re shaping your notes, never strike the note at a 90° angle = like hammering a nail in … your just making your material thinner and harder. always strike with a direction.
- Now that you have hit it in a direction, pause and consider what you just did. You stretched the metal in that direction. You pulled a tension in that direction. Now, is that tension going to be going against something hard or perhaps some area already stretch in the opposite direction ? If you move a tension and there is no where for it to go because the material in that direction in ‘harder’ then it will go around it… using fine sand is a good way to help you see the hard spots and how a strike moved tension on the material.
- practice makes perfect they say …