Steel Drums – All Your Questions Answered

With their fascinating sound, resulting in ethereal and exotic vibes at the same time, steel drums (steelpans) have gained more and more popularity in different genres and styles of music throughout the last few decades.

Also known as steel pans, these instruments were once built from industrial containers. Nowadays, manufacturers usually employ some high-quality steel to build them.

Steel drums are played both by soloists and small ensembles, as they can come in a variety of ranges, tones, and timbres.

In this small guide, we will cover a few fundamentals on their functioning, history, and use.

Let’s start from a clarifying point: the term “drums” merely refers to the industrial containers traditionally used to build this instrument which, however, is not part of the membranophone family. Steel drums actually belong to the idiophone family, a group of instruments that produces sounds simply by vibrating, and without needing air, strings, or membranes.

For this reason, it is more correct to call these instruments steelpans, although steel drums is a terminology widely used.

How to play steel drums

Pannists, the musicians who can play the steel pan, strike their instrument with either two or four sticks tipped with rubber. By hitting the pan in specific areas, they produce specific pitches.

Performers could also employ more than one steel pan, to have a wider range of notes available, as we will briefly explain in the next paragraph.

The notes of a steel drum

Steelpan is a family of pitched instruments. A single tenor pan usually plays the high melody, a pair of double seconds can play chords or answer the tune, and cello and bass pans fill out the bottom. A full steelband covers a wide range by combining these instruments. The exact notes depend on the maker and layout.

Steel pans are usually classified according to their playing range.

The tenor pan, also called a lead or soprano pan, is commonly the highest voice in a steelband. High and low tenors can start on different notes. On many tenors, neighboring pitches follow a cycle of fourths or fifths, which is easier to learn when you have the note map for that particular pan.

As highlighted in the previous paragraph, steel drums can also be used in combinations.

The double tenor and double seconds each spread the notes across two pans. Double tenors can share the melody with the leads. Double seconds often add chord patterns and counter-melodies, though they can also take a tune.

The Guitar pan is another two-pan combination, often used for harmonic support rather than solo playing. It has a range that goes from C#3 to F#5.

A three-pan cello covers a lower range. In an ensemble it can play chords, a counterline or part of the rhythmic accompaniment. Players move across the pans to reach the whole set of notes.

There are four-pan instruments too, including the quadrophonic and four-pan bass. Larger bass sets can use six or more pans. Listen for the short low notes that keep a steelband’s bass line moving under the tune.

How to tune a steel pan

Tuning steel pans requires a lot of skill as the process involves not just the calibration of pitches, but also the adjustment of timbre. It is essential to have a good ear for harmonics.

A maker forms the playing surface and shapes separate note areas into the steel. Heat treatment and the exact finishing process depend on the method and material.

A tuner works on the shape and tension of each note area, listening to the main pitch and the overtones. Final tuning can be done with the pan hanging in its normal playing position, where it’s free to ring.

If a note drifts, have a steelpan tuner check it. In ordinary playing, use the rubber-tipped sticks intended for that instrument. Strike the note area lightly and let the stick come away so the note can ring.

Where did steel drums originate?

The steelpan is the national instrument of Trinidad and Tobago. The tuned steelpan developed in Trinidad in the late 1930s and around 1940, out of a longer history of Carnival percussion.

Canboulay, an Afro-Trinidadian Carnival tradition, forms part of the instrument’s history. After emancipation, Carnival percussion faced restrictions, and players used stamping tubes of bamboo and other readily available materials.

Those tamboo bamboo ensembles were among the predecessors of steelbands. Players also experimented with tins, metal containers and other objects that made a useful sound when struck.

By the late 1930s and around 1940, players found ways to shape sections of metal so they gave distinct pitches. Makers later used larger oil drums and built instruments for different parts of the steelband.

Steelbands became part of Trinidad’s Carnival and spread abroad. The Trinidad All Steel Percussion Orchestra played at the 1951 Festival of Britain. Steelbands later became a fixture at Notting Hill Carnival.

Popular songs featuring steel drums

Steel pan is hugely present in both contemporary and traditional Caribbean music, but it is sometimes employed in some Western hits too.

While many artists and bands either sampled the sound of steel pans or used a synth to obtain it, there are a few popular songs that feature the real instrument, the most popular example probably being Beach Boys’ Kokomo. In this exciting tune, rich of exotic-filled vibes, the steel drums are a constant presence, since its hypnotic introduction.

In 1967, the British band The Hollies recruited a pannist busking in the streets to record their hit Carrie Anne, providing another example of how the Caribbean instrument could be employed in pop and soft rock music.

For another real steel pan driven song, check out Jimmy Buffett’s Margaritaville, recorded in 1976 and published one year later.
Lastly, in 1988, Jane’s Addiction also employed steel drums in their single Jane Says, take from their album Nothing’s Shocking. The instrument is present in various sections of the song, especially during breaks and fills.

There are way more songs featuring steel drums, even in our current charts, although they often use sampled versions of steel drums, such as this one by Rudimental.

Summary

Steel pans are fascinating. They are also great aids to develop aural skills since their tuning and playing processes are far from being ready-made and easy.

They can give an exotic touch to your repertoire or even calm your nerves with their relaxing tone.

Whatever the use you make of them, you will surely find this percussive instruments exciting and challenging!

 Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steelpan
https://www.caribbean-steel-drums.com/steel-drums-steel-pan-family.html
http://www.stockholmsteelband.se/pan/tuning/building09_tuning.php