The Ka

The Ka is the first stroke we will learn with the left hand, and this stroke is used primarily for ornamentation. The Ka is only ever played with your left hand.

A Ka is a very quiet strike. It is so quiet that a listener barely hears it at all — they feel it, as a little movement between the strokes they can hear. The name comes from the darbuka, where the Ka is the stroke your other hand uses to fill a rhythm and make it flow, and it does exactly the same job on the handpan. Think of it as the Tek’s quiet partner.

Because the Ka is played with the left hand, which plays far fewer strokes than the right hand, it can be played quickly and often without getting in the way of the ding and the Tek.

Technique #

When setting up for the Ka, make sure you are sitting in a good position and your left hand is free to move. Let your left hand hover just above the handpan, on the left-hand side of the ding, with your wrist low and relaxed.

The Ka is played with the fingertip of your middle finger. To play it, raise your fingertip a centimetre or two and let it flick down onto the shoulder on the left-hand side — the plain steel between the ding and the tone fields — and straight back off again. The movement is tiny, and it comes from a small flick of the wrist, not from your arm.

What you should hear is very little: a soft tap, mostly the sound of skin on steel. That’s correct. If you can hear it clearly from across the room, it’s too loud.

Ornamentation #

The Ka is primarily used to add ornamentation to a rhythm. Ornamentation can transform a basic rhythm into a complex and unique rhythm that brings out the individual character of the player. Ornamentation is like a sweetener, through which a player can create a musical flavour that is unique to their playing style.

Kas do something else, too. They keep your hands moving between the strokes that matter, which is what lets you play faster later without the rhythm lurching. And because they’re so quiet, they give the loud strokes something to be loud against.

Practice Tips #

The Ka can mostly be practised by applying it to a rhythm, just as we will do in the next lesson. As such, you don’t have to practise it as extensively as you needed to practise the ding and the Tek. However, you should still get in a little practice moving around the handpan and including the Ka. An excellent exercise is to sit in front of a clock and play a stroke on every second, in the following order:

Listen carefully to the balance. The ding should ring, the Tek should be bright, and the Kas should be almost nothing at all.

Common Mistakes #

The Ka is a difficult stroke to play well. Full stop. Beginners do tend to struggle for a while with it, but with proper practice, it will come. Keeping a stroke this quiet and this even, with your weaker hand, takes time. Nevertheless, there are some issues you can watch out for:

Playing it too loud #

This is the most common mistake. If your Ka is as loud as your Tek, it isn’t a Ka any more — it’s a second Tek, and your rhythm will sound busy and cluttered instead of flowing. Lower your fingertip closer to the steel before you play, and make the flick smaller. It should feel almost like you’re not playing at all.

Landing on a note #

If you hear a pitch when you play your Ka, your fingertip has landed on the ding or on the edge of a tone field. Move it onto the plain steel of the shoulder.

Lack of wrist engagement #

Without a flick of the wrist, the Ka becomes a challenging stroke to play. If you’re lifting and dropping your whole finger, or your whole arm, the Ka will tire your hand very quickly, and you’ll struggle to play at any speed. Keep your wrist low and let the small flick of the wrist do the work.

Resting your hand on the steel #

It’s tempting to rest your left hand on the handpan between Kas. If any part of your hand is touching the ding or a tone field, it will stop those notes ringing, and your dings will suddenly sound short and dull. Keep your hand hovering.

Using more than one finger #

At this stage, if you’re finding it hard to get any sound at all, you can use two fingers to begin with. However, you should always remember that the Ka is meant to be played with one fingertip. If you get used to playing it with more than one finger, it will sound heavier than it should, and you will have to train yourself out of the habit later on.