What Are “Booty Taps”? - HandPan Terminology

A recent addition (at time of posting) to the world of HandPan are “Booty Taps”,  Arguably better (but less pleasingly) described as “bottom notes”, or “bottom tones”, booty taps are additional notes that are hammered into the bottom shell of the HandPan. 
The average HandPan (if there is such a thing) of traditional structure usually features around eight to ten tone-fields (notes) on the upper shell.  And while makers have found interesting ways ways to cram on more notes than is standard (such as the “grace notes” used by Pantheon Steel, or the non-standard architecture as used on the 13-note chromatic Spacedrum), the space available on the top shell is always going to prove limiting -. hence the invention of booty taps, which opens-up the unused space found on the bottom shell for the inclusion of additional notes.

At this point in time we’ve personally yet to try playing a HandPan with booty taps, and with only YouTube performances to go by, they look to be a little awkward, but presumably, with practise, you soon get used to them(?).  And with more and more makers now offering them as an option when building your HandPan, it looks like booty taps are here to stay.

Here's a video of Sylvain Paslier playing a Saraz-made Handpan featuring 8 notes on the top, and an additional 3 notes on the bottom shell....


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