Handpan Finger Mallets - 1" Rubber (also for Rav Drum, Tongue Drum, Hang Drum, Steel Drum) - Set of 2

These rubber finger mallets are perfect for getting a clear, resonant sound out of your handpan or drum with very little effort. They eliminate the slapping sound your fingers can make as you play and produce easy, consistent, smooth tones. They also work great on your Rav drum, tongue drum or other steel drum. The finger mallets are especially nice for getting a good sound from notes on the underside of the handpan.

Only a light tap is needed to produce the same volume sound that a moderate thumb strike does on the handpan, and it's about the equal on the Ravs and tongue drums. You still get that familiar, hands on feeling that you do when playing the handpan or drum with just your fingers, but with a much clearer tone and more versatility in striking angles. You also get less overtones than a standard mallet with a handle produces and only need a much lighter touch. Please note : Use these mallets on handpans °lightly° to avoid detuning your instrument.

Each set of two handpan finger mallets is crafted using 1" rubber balls covered in a soft knit. They are held in place by a strong elastic band that is adjustable to your finger size. You can choose the colors for the cover and the bead. When ordering colors, I use a bead that's in the same color family as the cover or black - but you can always send me a note with specific requests!

PLACEMENT DIRECTIONS:
(Pls feel free to reach out with any questions on this!)

Holding the mallet above the bead, slip your finger through the loop closest to the ball. Use the fingers on the same hand as the mallet to slide down the bead til it's secure and comfortable against the back of your knuckle. See the pics and video for options and clarity.

You can leave the top loop as is, or take it back over your finger. For smaller fingers, flip the bead back to tighten the loop further.

Alternatively, for a nice, snug feeling of the mallet against your finger pad, take the top loop back down over the ball. I think for this method, removing them by pulling from the bead is best. (pic above, or see the one a customer sent in a review - great addition! :).

For wearing them larger fingers or thumbs - one option is place them on, snug it down and tuck the top loop just under the bead (this is shown in the item listing pics and it seems to be the most used in this situation). Another is to slide the top loop on first. You can even wear one over 2 or 3 fingers together – experiment til you find what works best for you!

I have noticed on the Ravs that having the mallet ball tighter against the finger makes a more crisp sound, and it's more resonant looser. How cool is that?! Not much difference on the handpan.



Short video to compare handpan sound with and without the mallets : https://youtube.com/shorts/HvsH5E-6MyI?feature=shared

And with : https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZT8jGuAfR/

vs. without: https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZT86NwbUg/

And here's a new comparison video for the Rav Moon (both with and without the mallets) on TikTok
https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8j8Ysm3/

or on YouTube
https://youtube.com/shorts/3V85qvcj32M?feature=shared

(Idk if the links are working. They're at Ethical Asana on YouTube or you can search Handpan Finger Mallets on TikTok)


Cover colors are black, electric blue, red, schoolbus yellow, orange, deep purple, green, hot pink, light pink, brown, heather gray, dayglo yellow and white. Cover color pics shown in the listing were taken in daylight and edited to match real life on my phone, they look a little dimmer on the computer. Ymmv, but I tried as best I could to get them to look as accurate as possible.

Band colors are black only now.

Bead colors are black, purple, blue, green, yellow, orange and pink.

Happy to mix & match, just let me know what you'd like! :)


P.S. Small parts, not safe for small children.

EVOLUTION:

I'm adding this part because I have made some design improvements since I first created these. If you have had a problem with your finger mallets related to a design failure, please let me know and I will send you a repair part or refund! I remain grateful for the customer feedback and suggestions I've received over the years, they've really helped to make it a better product! The current design (as of 2/1/25) has been pretty rock solid, although I'd still love to hear your ideas for improvements :)

When I got my first cheapo handpan, I had a really hard time making it sound decent. Or make any nice sound at all! Part of this was due to my finger size, strength, technique and newness, and part was due to the poor quality of the instrument. So I played around with different mallets, really wanting the sound quality from the larger mallets on sticks but also wanting the great feel of playing with my hands.

The first iteration of my finger mallets was literally a 1” bouncy ball taped to my finger with medical tape, lol. Kinda silly looking, but it worked SO WELL!!! It made my cheap handpan sound good!! I knew I was on to something, and I was pretty sure there were other people with the same challenges that I had, so I got to designing.

Brainstorming, I tried a whole bunch of different ways to secure the ball to my fingers, and eventually came up with the idea of cutting off the finger of some old, mismatched gloves and tying it to a rubber band around my finger. This worked, but was kinda uncomfortable. Looked around the house more comfy rubber bands and found that hair ties were comfortable, strong and reliable (though it did take a few tries to get the best brand for it). I added the bead to make it adjustable and a metal washer to secure it. It took about 10 seconds to realize that metal parts on a metal drum was a bad idea, lol. Went to Home Depot and bought some rubber washers. This worked great and I had my final product!!

Sales of these on Etsy have been wonderful, but there have been a few hiccoughs along the way. My second box of rubber washers had quality issues with occasional splits, which was worrisome. I tugged each one to test it before using it to assemble a finger mallet, but then they broke on one of my orders. Devastating! I switched to a thicker (but less pretty!) washer and these worked great. I still use them. However, it turns out that because they were less flexible, you could very easily pull the ball off the band. It took me about 8 months to notice this, because they still work great as long as you don't pull the ball off. But a couple people did pull them off and thankfully, one customer was willing to work with me towards a solution. I am so grateful for this supportive customer! We chatted and she let me mail her some samples to experiment with (we tried different sizes balls as well). Fortunately, I was able to add a teeny tiny rubber band, like they use on braids, as a securement addition – and THAT has been awesome!! I have had zero issues since this upgrade. I'd still kinda like them to be a bit prettier in the design, but they're so happily functional and everyone's been loving them!

Other notes: Another change I made was to get rid of the colored bands and stick to black, since the thicker washers were marking up the lighter colors and I had to wash them before boxing them. Bummer. Um,... what else? That's most of it. One thing I have noticed is that I really don't need them to get great sounds out of my good handpan anymore, but I do still rely on them for the Ravs and tongue drum.

Fun fact : My favorite review was by a music teacher who was able to make her instruments more accessible to special needs students, that was so great to hear. Hope you all love these as much as I do!

PS - In March I have turn world wide shipping off & on just for a few weeks while I send out black walnut syrup. It's too much to consider mailing glass jars around the world!! If you want mallets from outside the US, please send me a note and I will change the shipping back to world wide for your order. Thanks!