The app — an original project by David Lesage

Handpan Studio
Music becomes visible

A visual approach to music — through colours, emotions and geometry — to understand, memorise and play the handpan. On acoustic handpan as on Neotone.

Open the app

The observation

The handpan has no visual notation

No notation shows the instrument

It’s a magnificent instrument — but how do you write it down? You learn by ear, by imitation, and past the first melodies you replay the same patterns: the instrument becomes a comfort zone you never leave.

On an electronic handpan, your bearings fade

The Neotone can switch scales endlessly — a strength, but a trap: the notes under your fingers are never the same twice. No fixed point — your brain overloads, as if you had to relearn the instrument with every scale.

Colours & geometry

What if we made the invisible visible?

Instead of note names — which change constantly — the app shows the structure of music. The 7 degrees each receive a fixed colour, from red to violet, and every chord draws a glowing geometric shape.

Balance

Momentum

III

Adventure

Calm

Tension

Nostalgia

VII

Mystery

What was invisible becomes visible.

The language of Constellations

The handpan’s new visual tablature

Beyond the ChromaKeys colours, Handpan Studio links the notes of a chord: it draws a glowing figure — a constellation. Three ways to trace it.

Polygon
The closed shape of a chord: all its notes linked. You recognise the chord at a glance, by its shape.

Open
An open trace that follows the path of the notes — ideal for visualising a hand movement.

Hands
The trace designed for the gesture: which hand, which note. You read your playing directly.

Degrees & emotions

Each degree becomes an emotion

Playing a progression means telling a story: leaving home, setting off on an adventure, crossing a moment of tension, then coming back. You no longer memorise abstract rules — you feel, and you see.

I · BalanceII · MomentumIII · AdventureIV · CalmV · TensionVI · NostalgiaVII · Mystery

The app, in four modes

The perfect companion for your instrument

The whole method fits into a single web app.

Logic

The heart of the app. Play the 7 chords of any scale, build your progressions, follow the chords of the songs you love.

Sound Atlas

Explore scales from all over the world — Japan, the Orient, Africa, Celtic music… Listen to them, learn them, travel.

Creation

Compose your own custom scales, note by note and colour by colour, then keep them in your library.

MIDI Connect

The bridge between your Neotone and the app: your real playing appears live on the virtual handpan, and the app validates your exercises.

Acoustic handpan version

Handpan Studio also works with your acoustic handpan. Missing notes to go further? That’s exactly where the Neotone opens up the infinite field of scales.

Discover the Neotone

Neotone version

Link your Neotone to the app via MIDI: your playing appears live on the virtual handpan, and the app validates your chord and scale exercises. Real-time MIDI integration.

See the Neotone’s MIDI

The story — by David Lesage

The tool I wish I’d been taught as a child

When I discovered the handpan, I hit the wall of my childhood again: no method, and the difficulty of visually organising the paths of notes. Then, with the Neotone, a new difficulty: the notes change place with every scale.

So I built the tool I wish I’d been given: a visual approach to harmony, through colours, shapes and emotions — to understand, memorise, and finally sing while accompanying myself on the handpan.

It’s the logical follow-up to Now Groove, my rhythm method (2021) that makes rhythm accessible through visual emoticons. Handpan Studio does the same for harmony: a tool designed by a musician, to raise the handpan to the rank of an accompaniment instrument — like the guitar or the piano.

A contributive community

You’re not downloading an app — you’re joining a living project

Handpan Studio evolves constantly, shaped by the people who use it. By subscribing you don’t become a mere customer: you become a contributor to a unique teaching tool — and your voice directly shapes what comes next.

Constantly evolving

New features, scales and modes ship regularly, and they’re included. The app you use today will be even richer tomorrow.

Your feedback shapes the app

Straight from the app, you send your ideas and feedback in one click. Every message is read and steers the next updates.

A community, not a catalogue

You join a movement: making music visible and accessible. Together we build the tool we all wish we’d had as children.

Pricing · contribution

Choose your contribution

You don’t pay for a finished product: you fund the evolution of a living tool and become part of what it becomes. Start for free, contribute whenever you like — and unlock the whole studio.