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Did you know that the Steel Drum, also affectionately referred to as "Pan", is the only acoustic instrument invented in the 20th century? Its built from the bottom of a 55-gallon oil barrel. The concave surface has been precision tuned to produce musical tones. The Steel Drum carries the full chromatic range of notes, and can play just about any type of music you can think of.  The Greek philosopher Plato once said " Necessity is the mother of invention". Such was the case in the evolution of Steel Drums. The drums originated on the Caribbean island of Trinidad during the mid 1930's. In response to the British colonial government's ban on drumming, (traditionally used by African slaves to communicate ), resourceful Trinidadians invented tambu bamboos, the predecessor to the steel drums. Tambu bamboos, were tunable bamboo tubes of various lengths. The larger tubes were stomped on the ground while the smaller tubes were struck together. When tambu bamboos were banned, inventive Trinidadians then used biscuit tins, car parts and garbage can lids to create rhythms. The newly formed "Iron Bands" as they were called, accidentally led to the discovery that a dented section of a barrel could produce a tone. This gave way to years of trial and error building/tuning methods which have evolved to produce the modern Steel Drum instrument and the musically sophisticated Steel Orchestra- A prideful attribute to the creativity and genuis of Trinidad.  For more in depth information, visit: www.pantrinbago.co.tt |
