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‹ Handpan songs
SongsTwinkle, Twinkle, Little Star
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24 more songs need notes this instrument does not have. Changing the scale brings some of them into reach.

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  3. 7
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  31. 7
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  42. 3

Traditional — melody is "Ah! vous dirai-je, maman", published 1761. Public domain.

8 fields · D3 ding · A3–A4 · The complete D natural minor scale, nothing left out — the most common handpan scale by a wide margin.

Tap a field, or drag around the shell to roll across them. On a keyboard the letters on the fields are the ones to press — they run up the scale, so they zigzag across the shell exactly as your hands do.

HandpanFree · printable · plays in your browser

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star — Handpan Tabs

Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star, written out for the handpan as the tone field to strike for every note and set up above on the D Kurd. Press Play to hear it, Practice to learn it one note at a time — the handpan waits for you — or Play along to keep time with it.

  • Notes42, 6 pitches
  • RangeC4–A4
  • Key hereC major
  • Tempo100 bpm · about 29 s
  • LevelEasy

Can a handpan play Twinkle Twinkle Little Star?

3 of the 5 here do. The check is made note by note against what each one can actually sound. Where the tune does not fit as the library writes it, another key or octave is tried, and the table says which; where nothing fits, it names the notes that are missing.

  • D Kurd✓ Plays as writtenIn C major, C4–A4 · loaded above
  • D Celtic Minor✓ Plays as writtenIn C major, C4–A4 · load it
  • D Hijaz✕ Cannot play itNeeds F3, G3, C4, which it does not have
  • E Amara✓ Plays as writtenIn D major, D4–B4 · load it
  • E Equinox✕ Cannot play itNeeds F4, A4, which it does not have

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star: handpan tabs

The large line is the tone field, numbered from the lowest; 0 is the ding; the small line under it is its note. A dash holds the note another beat, an underline is half a beat, and a dot beside a note makes it half as long again. Each line is one phrase.

▶ Play it above

Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star — handpan tabs (D Kurd) · tonalics.com

The 6 notes it uses

Lowest to highest, with how many times each is played. Learn these 6 and you can play the whole tune.

  • 3C4×6
  • 4D4×6
  • 5E4×8
  • 6F4×8
  • 7G4×10
  • 8A4×4

What to expect on a handpan

  • It runs from C4 to A4, a major sixth, using 6 different notes. Its top note is the highest this instrument has.
  • 90% of its moves are a step or a repeated note. The widest is a fifth, C4 to G4, at note 3.
  • It uses 6 tone fields of this scale’s 8: 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8.
  • 24 notes fall to the left hand and 18 to the right.

About the tune

The melody is French: “Ah! vous dirai-je, maman”, first published in Paris in 1761. Mozart wrote a set of twelve piano variations on it in the early 1780s, and in English it has carried three different rhymes — this one, the alphabet song and Baa Baa Black Sheep all share the tune.

Traditional — melody is "Ah! vous dirai-je, maman", published 1761. Public domain. More about Twinkle Twinkle Little Star →

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star on other instruments

The same melody, in each instrument’s own notation. It is not offered for the guzheng, which does not have the notes.

More songs for the handpan

All 14 handpan songs · The online handpan on its own

Playing it on a real handpan?

If it sounds wrong, check the instrument before the notes. The handpan tuner listens through your microphone and names what each note is actually sounding.

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