Handpan Jam for Breast Cancer Awareness 💜 | D Aegean 18 + E SaByeD

💜 October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Support us on this healing journey together! My wife, Emily, was diagnosed with HER2-positive breast cancer about one year ago. Support Emily’s journey: https://gofund.me/5f0b513ea Six months ago, we decided to learn to play the handpan together as part of this journey. Playing handpan has been emotionally supportive for both of us and has given us another way to connect through the beautiful frequencies of this instrument. For Breast Cancer Awareness Month, we wanted to share this sunrise handpan jam and our story. Please share it with anyone you feel may appreciate the music or this healing journey. 💜 We named this piece “The Whimsical Hummingbird’s Song.” During our sunrise jam in Shingle Springs, California, a hummingbird can be heard chirping throughout much of the performance, along with geese, roosters, and the other sounds of the morning waking up around us. We both love birding and playing handpan with the songs of the birds feels very special and connecting. This is only our third handpan recording in nature, and we’re continuing to learn and experiment with capturing these instruments and the natural sounds around us. We’re excited to share something we love and hope you enjoy experiencing these frequencies and the beautiful morning with us. 💜 #breastcancerawareness #handpan #handpanmusic #sunrise #birding #earthing #circadianrhythm #frequencyhealing OUR HANDPAN STORY Early in our relationship, Emily and I would occasionally play percussion together on whatever instruments were around, and we always seemed to be incredibly in sync. Somehow, though, we never bought percussion instruments of our own to explore that connection further. During Emily’s breast cancer journey, I came across “Higher Calling (1111 Hz)” by Malte Marten and Konstantin Rössler. Watching them jam and connect through the handpan looked like something Emily and I wanted to experience together. We started looking for handpans locally and found a very joyful E-major scale called E SaByeD, built by Colin Foulke. After researching Colin and his approach to building instruments, it felt like the perfect place for us to begin. We had so much fun playing it that it didn’t take long before we wanted another pan! I visited Colin’s studio and told him Emily’s story and that I hoped we could experience the flow state of jamming together. Colin sold me a C# Mystic made by Isthmus Instruments from his personal collection. It complemented the E SaByeD beautifully: C# minor is the relative minor of E major, the perfect complement to each other! WHY THE D AEGEAN 18? As we watched more handpan videos, we continued to be drawn toward the F# minor scale. There was also a personal connection to the note D. Emily and I had previously done a sound session with Dr. Jeffrey Thompson in which changes in both of our HRV measurements were observed around D-related tones. That experience gave the note D a special significance for us. The D Aegean 18 came to feel like a grounding scale for us. We connected with the inward, heart-centered qualities we heard in its F#-minor tonal character. Love and gratitude have been especially meaningful throughout this journey, and this instrument felt supportive of that emotional space. We also loved the sound of beautiful low B2 note on the bottom in this scale! We discovered that Isthmus Instruments had a D Aegean 18 available. During a cancer journey, waiting six months for a custom instrument can feel like a very long time. Being able to receive this beautiful instrument within about a week felt incredibly special—especially because our C# Mystic was also made by Isthmus! Then came another full-circle connection: D Aegean is the scale Malte Marten played in “Higher Calling (1111 Hz)”—the video that inspired us to begin playing together. Malte has called the D Aegean 18 his “most viral scale” and wrote: “Looking back, it’s crazy to say, but this scale really changed my life in many ways.” It felt incredibly full-circle that the music that inspired us to play together eventually led us back to this same scale. We also loved discovering that Isthmus Instruments was founded in 2013 by builder and tuner Jenny Robinson in Madison, Wisconsin, and describes itself as the world’s first women-owned and operated handpan company. It felt especially symbolic during a breast cancer journey that a woman builder had this beautiful instrument available at exactly the right time. We have so much gratitude for the care that went into these instruments and for the music, connection and love they have brought into our lives. 💜 HANDPANS PLAYED D Aegean 18 — Isthmus Instruments 1.0 mm Stainless Steel https://www.isthmusinstruments.com/is...    • D Aegean 18 Handpan | Isthmus Instruments   2018 Æther E SaByeD — Colin Foulke Nitrided Steel https://www.xenithhandpans.com/    • Æther by CFoulke - E SaByeD - E/ A B C# D#...   💜 Thank you for listening, sharing, and being part of this journey with us.