The Chords of Your D Kurd

Up to now, we have played our rhythm on the ding and the Tek. In this lesson, we finally give it notes. We’re going to learn the six chords on your D Kurd, and play the Heavy Sa’idi on every one of them.

On the darbuka, I like to group rhythms into families: rhythms that share the same points of emphasis, so that you can move from one to another easily. We’re going to do the same thing here, but the other way round. We keep one rhythm — the Heavy Sa’idi you already know — and change the notes underneath it. The rhythm stays exactly the same; only the chord changes. Once you can do this, your handpan will stop sounding like a drum with notes on it, and start sounding like music.

What a chord is #

A chord is three notes played together that sound good as a group. The easiest way to find them is to take any note of the scale, skip the next one, take the one after that, skip one, and take one more.

Our D Kurd has seven different note names: D, E, F, G, A, B♭ and C. Let’s build a chord from each one:

• From D: D, F, A — that is D minor.
• From E: E, G, B♭ — that is E diminished, which sounds unsettled, so we won’t use it.
• From F: F, A, C — that is F major.
• From G: G, B♭, D — that is G minor.
• From A: A, C, E — that is A minor.
• From B♭: B♭, D, F — that is B♭ major.
• From C: C, E, G — that is C major.

So your D Kurd gives you six good chords. That’s a lot for a nine note instrument, and it is one of the reasons the D Kurd is recommended so often.

You don’t need to understand any more theory than that for this course. You just need to know where each chord lives.

Where each chord lives #

Here are the six chords, with the notes we will use for each one, using the tab numbering from Lesson 5:

Look at the diagram and notice something lovely. Because the notes climb in a zigzag, every other note sits on the same side of the handpan. That puts three chords almost entirely under one hand: A minor (1, 3, 5) and C major (3, 5, 7) on one side, and B♭ major (2, 4, 6) on the other. That is the whole reason handpans are laid out this way.

The root is the note a chord is named after. In this lesson, the root is the note that takes the ding’s place in the rhythm.

Playing the tone fields #

This is the first time we have played the tone fields, so let’s get the technique right. The good news is that you already know it: a tone field is played exactly like the ding.

Let the pads of your fingers drop onto the tone field and bounce straight back off. Aim for the body of the note — the smooth oval around the dimple — rather than the dimple in the very centre, which gives a shorter, duller note. Tone fields are smaller than the ding, so use a lighter touch, and often just one or two fingers.

In this lesson we will also play two notes at the same time. When two notes sit on the same side of the handpan, play them with two fingers of the same hand, landing at exactly the same moment. When they sit on opposite sides, play one with each hand. Either way, listen carefully: you should hear one sound, not two notes a split second apart.

The Heavy Sa’idi on a chord #

Here is how the Heavy Sa’idi changes when we put it on a chord:

• The dings move to the root. Every stroke that was a ding is now the chord’s root. On D minor, the root is the ding itself, so those strokes don’t change at all.
• The Tek’s place goes to the other two notes of the chord, played together. The root calls, and the rest of the chord answers.
• The ornaments stay exactly where they were. The Kas and the Teka don’t change from chord to chord — the light Tek and the Ka in the Teka are still played on the shoulder around the ding.

Just like the Maqsum family on the darbuka, I have included two versions of each: a basic version and an ornamented version.

D minor #

D minor is home. It is built on the ding, the home note of your handpan, so every phrase you ever play on a D Kurd will want to come back here. Because its root is the ding, the rhythm is the Heavy Sa’idi you already know, with F4 and A4 answering in the Tek’s place.

F major #

F major is the brightest, warmest chord on your handpan. Its root, F4, sits higher than the other two notes, A3 and C4. That’s fine — because F is on every one of the strong strokes, your ear still hears it as the home of the chord. Notes 1 and 3 sit side by side on one side of the handpan, so answer with two fingers of one hand, and play the root with the other.

B♭ major #

B♭ major is big and open. All three of its notes, 2, 4 and 6, sit on the same side of the handpan, one above the other, so this chord falls neatly under one hand.

C major #

C major sounds hopeful, as if it’s leading somewhere. Like B♭, all three of its notes — 3, 5 and 7 — sit on the same side of the handpan, this time the other side.

A minor #

A minor has a gentle, slightly sad sound, and its root is the lowest tone field on your handpan, A3. Its notes, 1, 3 and 5, sit on the same side as C major’s, one step lower.

G minor #

G minor is dark and serious. It is the only chord whose notes are spread across both sides of the handpan in a way you have to reach for: its root, G4, is near the top on one side, and B♭3 and D4 are on the other side. Play the root with one hand and answer with two fingers of the other.

Note that the Heavy Sa’idi on a chord is still the Heavy Sa’idi. The points of rhythmic emphasis haven’t moved at all — only the notes have. If you can play the rhythm on D minor, you already know the rhythm on every chord. All that’s left is teaching your hands where to go.