Steel Pan is the national musical instrument of Trinidad and Tobago developed in the late 1930's. The steel drum in fact is the only acoustic musical instrument invented this century! Steel Pan began to make an appearance on the street in celebrations since the war, both in the Caribbean and the UK, and have since become a familiar sound at events ever since. Steel Pan is now a widely accepted art-form and is internationally popular, the Panorama event, at
Notting Hill Carnival each year being one of its major UK platforms.
Steel pans are made from steel oil drums, which are cut to different lengths, tempered and tuned to produce a range of sounds and exact tones, when played with rubber-tipped sticks. Each Pan carries the full chromatic range of notes. The three basic types of Pan are tenor Pans for melody, rhythm Pans for harmony, and bass Pans.
There are varying opinions as to when the first sound from metal Pans was actually heard, but in the Trinidad Carnival during the mid 1930's, bass cans were starting to be used. Word spread and people began creating Pans from various metal containers, which would become the art of 'tuning'. By the 40's bands with only Steel Pans began to form, with Trinidad's, 'Alexander's Ragtime Band' and 'Hellyard'. Steel Pan history was made again, when Elliott 'Ellie' Mannette of Port of Spain devised the inward playing surface of the Pan, fine tuning the sound once again.
Most modern conventional steelbands are mounted on stands, originally, pans were on straps around the players' necks, known as traditional 'pan-around-the-neck bands'. These are generally smaller than the conventional bands. A typical steelband (steel drum band) has four main sections, Frontline Pans - with the high pitched pans who generally carry the melody, Mid-range pans - middle range, Background pans - lowest pitched pans in the band, and the Engine room - with other percussion instruments, including the iron, scratchers, chac-chacs and cowbells amongst others.
Steelpan pioneers include: Carlton Forde, Ellie Manette, Eric Mc Kenzie, Freddy Maroon, Frederick Wilson, Lord Humbugger, Winston Spree Simon, Neville Jules and Victor Wilson,
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Steel Pan is a development of the
Tamboo Bamboo Band. During the mid to late 1800's, Carnival included the playing of skin drums, up until 1884, when a ban on all drum-beating was imposed. Carnival participants turned to bamboo as an alternative. Bamboo of various widths was dried, cut into different lengths, to produce musical sounds, when struck with wooden sticks.
These bands became known as
Tamboo Bamboo Bands, taking part in Carnival for the first time in 1891. Soon Tamboo Bamboo Bands became an integral part of Carnival and were hugely popular until the 1930's. By 1938, Victor "Toti" Wilson of the Calvary Tamboo Bamboo Band, played a metal Pan with four notes tuned, soon metal cans, and other containers were starting to be included in the Carnival bands, evolving into the Steel Pan sound we know today.
