Aelo | Mini Handpan D Kurd | stainless steel

The Aelo Handpan is characterized by a warm and long-lasting sound.
Due to the perfectly balanced reverberation and the balanced vibration development, the Aelo Handpan is the perfect combination of percussion and melody instrument. Even a light touch produces fine and distinct sounds. This ensures an expressive and detailed sound performance.

The AeloPans are ideal for both beginners and professional musicians. Their above-average sound volume also makes them particularly suitable for playing in large rooms or outdoors in nature and public spaces.

Fascinating sound patterns can be created with the particularly intuitive and easy-to-play Aelo Handpan. The soundscape ranges from simple to complex. The player is offered inexhaustible possibilities; from more complicated rhythms and virtuoso melodies to touching chords and two-part melodies; the AeloPan can be combined in many different ways.

The uniquely soft, ethereal and mysterious sounds of the instrument quickly attract the listeners' attention. The calming sound takes you on an inner journey. The fascinating timbre of the Aelo Handpan is ideal for concerts, studio recordings, street music, as well as musical accompaniment for spiritual activities, e.g. yoga, sound therapy or meditation.

The high-quality material, rust-proof and corrosion-resistant stainless steel, gives the handpan its shine and elegant appearance. The material is robust and easy to clean. Due to the slightly higher material thickness compared to conventional stainless steel handpans, the AeloPans are more durable in terms of tuning stability and less susceptible to impacts and falls.

Like every handpan, the AeloPans consist of two assembled stainless steel shells that form the sound body. During the manufacturing process, the sound fields are laboriously worked by hand onto the curved surface and then precisely tuned. Since the process is manual, dents and bumps occur in the sound field - this is completely normal and is part of the visual character of a good handpan.

The Aelo handpan is professional and perfectly tuned. It impresses with its quality and sound at the highest level. The handpan has an optimal and well-balanced resonance vibration across all tones. There are no annoying metallic sounds when playing. The tone is warm and powerful. The reverberation of the individual tones is further enhanced by the solid stainless steel.

Diameter: approx. 43cm
Height: approx. 21cm
Weight: approx. 4kg
Material: stainless steel

Mood description : Kurd
Basic note sequence: D/ A (Bb) CDEFG * The Bb is the bottom note on the underside of the handpan
Effect : Warm - Mysterious - Dreamy
Tone range: Heptatonic

Mode : Phrygian (tonal center 1st note) = major
or Aeolian (tonal center : B) = minor

Tonal center: DING or first tone
Semitones: 7 - 1 - 2 - 2 - 2 - 3 - 2 - 2

Mood description Kurd:

The Kurd tuning is, if you will, the natural minor variant of the handpan tunings. Due to its particularly harmonious composition of notes, it is particularly suitable for beginners. With it, you can play everything from calm and meditative to melancholic to powerful and cheerful, with a wide variety of styles.

Even though this mood can sound very sentimental, you can create cheerful sounds with it. For example, the second and third notes each produce a major triad. Just be aware that the second and third notes will be played at the same time. You can of course also consciously use this tension to spice up your playing and make the relaxation more effective afterwards.

This tuning is one of the first seven-tone tunings that were built and has become very popular through some videos on the Internet.

Origin and music theory of the Kurdish tuning:

Kurd takes the name of the Arabic/Turkish maqam Kurd. This selection of tones also shares the arrangement of the tones with this maqam if one assumes that the tonal center is on the first tone in the circle. This creates the complete Phrygian mode, which is characterized by a semitone step (semitone) from the root note to the second note of the scale and is responsible for the mysterious sound of the scale.

However, there is still an ambivalence, as the DING is a fifth below the first note and thus acts like a second tonal center, which causes the mode to change to Aeolian (natural minor). Depending on the playing style, you can switch between natural minor and Phrygian sound character. With Kurd you can play everything from calm and meditative to melancholic to powerful and cheerful, with a wide variety of styles.

Kurd shares with other minor variations (cf. Celtic Minor/ Integral) the jump of a fifth from the DING to the first tone. From this fifth step, assuming that the tonal center is the DING, one has all the tonal steps of a natural minor scale (Aeolian). A special feature of Kurd is the semitone step (semitone) between the first and second tone. This step is also present in the Maqam Kurd (Arabic or Turkish scale system) of the same name (cf. Semai Kurd), but also in the Phrygian mode. The Phrygian mode is used in jazz, psychedelic rock, flamenco and fado, but also in classical music.

Possible tone sequences:

8 tone fields: D3/ A (Bb) CDEFG
9 tone fields: D3/ A (Bb) CDEFG (A)
10 tone fields: D3/ A (Bb) CDEFG (AC) (as in Video 1)
11 tone fields: D3/ A (Bb) CDEFG (A Bb C)

12 tone fields: D3/ (G) A (Bb) CDEFGA (Bb C) (as in video 2)

* Bottom notes are additional tone fields on the bottom of the handpan and are written in round brackets e.g. (DE).

Mutant handpans have additional notes on the upper shell in the second row - between the chorus and the root note. Mutant notes are written in curly brackets, e.g. {DE}.

→ You can read a detailed article about Mutant & Bottom Note Handpans here: Blog post

→ Discover our full range of Mutant & Bottom Note Handpans here

We only list the standard layouts under "Possible note sequences". On request, our handpans can also be made with other notes and in other arrangements. Simply write an email with your request to: service@handpan.world

Suitable moods:

Very suitable for collaborative, improvisational playing:

• F Sabye (parallel key)
• F Major (parallel key)
• D Celtic Minor / Amara
• G Celtic Minor / Amara
• D Aeolian
• Bb Aegean
• D Equinox
• D Magic Voyage
• D Integral
• D Pygmy

Also good for composing together:

• A Celtic Minor / Amara
• A Hijaz
• C Kurd
• C Celtic Minor / Amara
• F Ragadesh