Alex Adamos lives in Greece and has worked as a yoga teacher for the last ten years at the first vegan hotel in the country. Today he also teaches handpan in Athens as a certified Malte Marten Method teacher.
A song in a sound meditation
The handpan came into Alex's life by accident and curiosity. In a sound meditation session he heard a beautiful piece, one of Malte Marten's songs played on the handpan. He started reading everything he could find about the instrument, and in the end he ordered his first handpan from Yatao. It is still his favourite today.
His start was not easy. On the first day he could not make a single nice sound. He took a short break, came back the next day and explored which part of the finger sounds best on which part of the note. Then it clicked: with the right technique he could suddenly create wonderful sounds and didn't want to stop.
Handpan in Shavasana
Alex plays the handpan at the end of every yoga session, during Shavasana, the meditative resting phase. Participants often tell him afterwards that this is their favourite part; many had never heard a handpan before.
I play the handpan during Shavasana at the end of the yoga class. For some people it is quite an emotional moment, one they weren't expecting.
– Alex Adamos
Two tips from Malte
Alex teaches individual and group lessons on the D Kurd and occasionally gives workshops. The best advice he learned from Malte, and now passes on:
- Touch the note as if it were a hot stove you don't want to burn yourself on.
- Draw the sound out of the handpan instead of pushing it in.
As soon as students try this, the sound changes and everyone starts smiling. What he loves most is the moment students play their first chords and the joy grows while they listen.
Favourite scales and a quiet room
For teaching, Alex prefers the D Kurd. For his own playing, it is the Hijaz, whose melodies make him feel things he cannot put into words. He practises in his yoga room, where it is quiet and he can play for himself. And if he were stranded on an island, he would only need three things: his books, his handpan and his toothbrush.
