Dante Bucci is a master of the hang-drum, (pronounced “hung”) a hollow metal flying-saucer-shaped instrument played with two hands. It sounds a little like a steel drum, but a more resonant and a lot less plinky. Apparently they’re devilishly hard to obtain, as only a limited number are hand built in Switzerland every year.

In the Bernese German language, Hang refers to the human hand, as in “hand-drum.” This percussion instrument is comprised of two metal hemispheres bonded together: the DING side and the GU side.

The DING side CONTAINS 8 tone fields which together form the “tone circle” (scale or mode). This circle surrounds a central dome, called the DING (which sounds like a Gong).

On the GU side, there is a hand size hole (called the GU) for sound resonance. The GU can be played like an udu, or used to modulate the sound of the DING.

Here he is performing his composition “Fanfare” on two drums – a D minor pentatonic on his lap, an F major on his right.

Tags: Dante Bucci, drum, hang drum, steel