Ashley R.
I spent two years not buying one because every site says the same thing and none of them give you a single number. This is the first page where I could actually compare two instruments.
September 2026
D Kurd Handpan with 10 Notes
$749.00
Easy to play from day one, with plenty of freedom to improvise and create your own melodies.
- A clear, warm, responsive sound from the first touch
- Notes that naturally sound good together
- D Kurd, a popular scale that makes it easy to learn online
- Tuned by hand and checked before shipping, ready to play when it arrives
Tuning : 440 Hz
Color : Black
Delivered between October 6 and October 12
Free gifts included with this instrument
Included with your order
x1Carrying bag
x1Folding stand
x1Rattan edge protector
x1Cleaning cloth
$196 of equipment, in the box at no extra cost. The instrument arrives ready to play.
Free shipping on every order
30 days to change your mind, return shipping on us
Ships suspended in a double-wall carton
A real person on email and phone, Monday to Friday
30 days with it, on us
A hand-tuned instrument can't be judged through a screen. So take 30 days with it. If it isn't the one, we pay the shipping both ways and refund you in full.
Description
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A 10-note D Kurd handpan designed for free improvisation, flowing melodies, and both calm and rhythmic playing.
Its 10 notes let you develop natural musical phrases, move from one idea to the next without breaking the flow, and combine melody and rhythm on a single instrument. It works just as well for spontaneous playing as it does for creating more structured pieces.
D Kurd is one of the most widely played handpan scales, so tutorials, play-alongs, and backing tracks are easy to find online whenever you want to learn, improve, or simply discover new ideas.
Choose black, silver, or bronze, tuned to 440 Hz or 432 Hz.
It arrives ready to play, with a folding stand, a padded carrying bag, a rattan edge protector, and a cleaning cloth.
Care and tuning
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Wipe the instrument down after you play. What starts corrosion on nitrided steel is the salt and oil your hands leave on the surface, not the air in the room, so a dry cloth over the shell when you finish is the single most useful habit there is.
A few drops of oil on a cloth every two or three weeks, wiped thinly. Not poured on, not every day.
Don't store it in the case. A closed case holds moisture against the steel. Travel in the case, live on the stand.
A handpan drifts when it's struck too hard, dropped, or left somewhere hot. A car in summer will do it. Played normally, this one holds. If a neighboring note sounds when you didn't strike it, that's crosstalk and it's a defect, so tell us. If the whole instrument breathes under a note, that's sympathetic resonance and it's meant to be there.
Shipping
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Free shipping on every order, to every state. The price you see is the price you pay.
- Ships within one business day, Monday through Friday
- 2 to 3 business days on the West Coast, 4 to 6 on the East Coast, 6 to 8 for Alaska and Hawaii
- Tracking by email as soon as the label is scanned
- The shell travels suspended in its bag inside a double-wall carton, so nothing rests on a tone field
- Nothing on the outside of the box says what's inside it
Returns and warranty
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30 days to change your mind, whatever the reason.
- Changed your mind? Prepaid return label, full refund within 5 business days
- Damaged in transit? Photograph the carton, we ship a replacement immediately and deal with the carrier ourselves
- 12 months on manufacturing faults
Returning an instrument that weighs eight pounds is simpler than it looks, and the returns page explains exactly how. Keep the carton for 30 days and it takes ten minutes.
D Kurd Handpan with 10 Notes
$749.00
Before you choose
The notes on this instrument
Ding
D3
Top shell
A3Bb3C4D4E4F4G4A4C5
That is 10 tone fields in total, ding included. A larger instrument in the same scale contains every note of a smaller one, so going up never takes anything away.
About D Kurd
Sometimes simply called D minor
Nearly every tutorial, every play-along and every beginner course is written in D Kurd. Pick another scale and you'll spend your first few months transposing instead of playing.
Musically it's D natural minor, and the Bb sitting just above the A is what gives it that pull. Minor without being heavy: slow it down and it turns meditative, push it and it grooves. It sits well with guitar, with voice, and with other handpans.
Musically it's D natural minor, and the Bb sitting just above the A is what gives it that pull. Minor without being heavy: slow it down and it turns meditative, push it and it grooves. It sits well with guitar, with voice, and with other handpans.
Is this the right one for you?
This one is for you if
You want the layout most players settle on.
You want room to finish a phrase instead of looping it.
You want one instrument that covers both meditative and rhythmic playing.
You want room to finish a phrase instead of looping it.
You want one instrument that covers both meditative and rhythmic playing.
Look at another one if
Never held a handpan? The D Kurd 9 has wider spacing in the same scale, so it's easier to strike cleanly.
Want a wider range to compose? The D Kurd 12 completes the upper octave, up to D5.
Want a wider range to compose? The D Kurd 12 completes the upper octave, up to D5.
Still unsure? Write to us with what you listen to rather than what you want to play. We answer within one business day, and we'll point you at the cheaper instrument when that's the right one.
The full specification
These are the numbers that decide whether an instrument is still in tune in a year. They're printed on every instrument we sell, including the ones that aren't flattering.
ScaleD Kurd — Sometimes simply called D minor
Note layoutD3 (ding) · A3 Bb3 C4 D4 E4 F4 G4 A4 C5
Tone fields10
Tuning440 Hz or 432 Hz
SteelNitrided steel, 1.2 mm
Diameter53.0 cm / 20.9 in
Dome height21.0 cm / 8.3 in
Weight3.4 kg / 7.5 lb
Harmonics tunedFundamental, octave, compound fifth
In the boxHandpan · Carrying bag · Folding stand · Rattan edge protector · Cleaning cloth
What you are paying for
1.2 mm nitrided steel
Thin steel flexes, and a shell that flexes drifts out of tune within a season. We publish the gauge on every instrument and we don't carry anything under 1.1 mm. Nitrided steel also speaks drier and more percussively than stainless. That's a character, and we'd rather you knew it before you ordered.
Tuned in three harmonics
Each field is tuned on its fundamental, its octave and its compound fifth. A note tuned on the fundamental alone rings. A note tuned in three blooms, opening up after the strike instead of decaying straight down. It's the difference you hear across a room.
A layout you can learn on
We only carry scales that have teaching material behind them, and we tell you on every page how much there is. A rare scale makes a beautiful second instrument and a bad first one, because nothing you find online will fit it.
Everything in one box
Steel stand, padded gig bag, rim guard and care kit, included. $196 of equipment, so the instrument arrives ready to play and there's nothing else to work out.
Why buy from us
The instrument you can find in a few places. What changes is what you know before you order, and what happens after.
| Criterion | Noma | Others |
|---|---|---|
| Steel gauge, dome height and harmonics printed on every instrument | Yes | No |
| The full note layout, top and bottom shell listed separately | Yes | No |
| Every scale under both of its names, so you can compare across sites | Yes | No |
| How much teaching material exists for the scale, before you commit | Yes | No |
| Free shipping, and 30 days with return shipping on us | Yes | No |
| A named person on the phone, who plays | Yes | No |
How a handpan is made
Most of what decides whether an instrument is still in tune in a year happens before anyone plays a note on it.
The shell
Two steel shells are formed, then heat-treated to relieve the stress the forming put into the metal. Rush that step and the shell keeps moving for months afterwards. These are 1.2 mm nitrided steel, thick enough to hold their shape and thin enough to speak.
The tone fields
Steel gauge, dome height, diameter, weight, harmonics tuned. These are what decide whether an instrument holds its tuning past the first year, and they're printed on every instrument here.
The isolation
A field shaped too quickly bleeds into its neighbors, so a note sounds when you didn't strike it. That's crosstalk, and it's the clearest sign of a rushed instrument. Each field here is worked until it speaks on its own.
The finish
Nitriding drives nitrogen into the surface of the steel, which hardens it and slows corrosion. It also gives the instrument its dry, percussive attack. Stainless sustains longer, nitrided speaks faster, and neither is better. You should just know which one you're buying.
In their words
Brandon M.
I asked which scale to start on and got a straight answer that pointed me at the cheaper instrument. Ordered the D Kurd nine on that basis and it was the right call.
September 2026
Megan T.
Double boxed with the shell suspended so nothing rested on the tone fields. Three weeks in, still dead in tune, and I have not been gentle with it.
August 2026
Tyler W.
The spec sheet gives the steel thickness and the dome height. I could not find those two numbers on any other site I looked at, which told me everything.
August 2026
Jessica L.
I emailed a recording of a note I thought was wrong. They explained it was sympathetic resonance and why, instead of quietly shipping me a replacement.
July 2026
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Frequently asked questions
The questions we actually get, answered straight.
Listen to it next to the others in the Scale Library first, because a good player makes anything sound good and you need the same phrase on each one to compare. Then check the second thing: how much teaching material exists for that scale. If you intend to learn from videos, that matters more than a preference you can't yet put into words. It's on every product page, under the notes.
440 Hz is the concert standard. It matches every tutorial, every backing track and every other instrument in the room. 432 Hz sits slightly lower and some players prefer it for solo and sound work. Same instrument, same hand-tuning, same price. If you plan to play along with anything at all, take 440. And if what you're really after is a lower, darker voice, the better route is an instrument a semitone down rather than a different tuning reference.
No, and this is the misunderstanding that costs people the most. In the same scale, a twelve-note contains every note a nine-note has plus extra ones, usually low fields on the bottom shell. Nothing is taken away and nothing is in your way. You simply don't play the extra fields until you want them. What a bigger instrument does cost you is spacing: the fields sit closer together, so a clean strike takes a little more precision.
A handpan drifts when it's struck too hard, dropped, or left somewhere hot. A car in summer will do it. Played normally and wiped down afterwards, this one holds. The other thing that moves tuning is transit, which is why the shell ships suspended inside a double-wall carton rather than loose in a box.
Almost certainly not. If the whole instrument seems to breathe under a note, that's sympathetic resonance and it's meant to be there. It's most of what makes a handpan sound like a handpan rather than a steel bowl. What isn't meant to be there is crosstalk, meaning one specific neighboring field ringing clearly when you didn't strike it. That's a defect and it's covered. Send us 10 seconds of audio and we'll tell you honestly which one you're hearing.
No. Mallets damage the tuning and, struck hard, the structure of the note itself. They belong to tongue drums, which are a different instrument. On a handpan your hands are the tool, and hitting it harder doesn't make it louder, it makes it duller.
That's the normal case here, and it's less of an obstacle than you'd think. A handpan is one of the few instruments where the first hour already sounds like music, because the scale does the work that theory would do elsewhere. One thing worth knowing before you start: for the first two weeks your strike will be uneven and some notes will sound dull. You'll wonder whether something's wrong with the instrument. Nothing is. It's your hands, and it settles.
