Bang yuh drum!

So today we started steel pan lessons. How freakin cool is that? It was so much fun. We first got a history of the steel pan, the origin and the use and how it has evolved. It started after emancipation in 1884 when the slaves had been using drums to communicate and the British therefore banned the drum. When this happened, they started using bamboo and started bands called tamboo bamboo (tamboo comes from the French word for drum). When the British picked up on this and that it was being used for the same reasons, they banned the bamboo as well. So the slaves had to look for other ways to make music and found the drums used for oil and cut them to different lengths to make different tones and you end up with what we now know as the steel pan. We all got our drums, of different tones. There are tenors which usually have the melody and the highest pitches. Then there are guitar pans, bass, cello, and more. When we got the feel for where the notes all are located and proper instruction on how to hold and use the mallets, we got to start learning a tune. Putting it together piece by piece was so satisfying because each part and pan is so important and it sounded awesome when it was all put together. Tomorrow we go back for more. We’re gonna be pro by the end of this week.