Steel pan - the sweet sound of pan
Updated: 6 days ago
Steel pan music was started in the islands of Trinidad and Tobago. Steel pan is an example of a percussion musical instrument. This is the same category of musical instruments like the cuatro and banjo, other traditional musical instruments.
Steel pan was brought to Grenada by Grenadians who had worked and lived in Trinidad in the 1950s. One such Grenadian was Willan Dewsbury who pioneered the birth of steel pan in Grenada, and later became the Minister of Culture.

Instruments before Steel pan
The two main instruments used before the introduction of steel pan - the drum and tamboo bamboo. African drums were banned during the early years post emancipation. When drums were banned, tamboo bamboo became the replacement instrument. Tamboo bamboo used long bamboo sticks to make musical sounds by knocking the ends of the bamboo against the ground. Tamboo bamboo became widely accepted until 1935. It was banned thereafter.
The birth of Steel pan
Stee pan was introduced in 1955. Steel pans are made from used 55 gallon oil drums. The oil drums were dented or tuned to create the musical sounds "ping, pong, ping, pong". The oil drums are shaped into a bowl using hammers and air pressure. A tuner is a person who tunes the notes on the steel pan. Generally, steel pans have to be tuned either once or twice per year. Sticks tapped by rubber is used to create the pan sounds. The size of the rubber depends on the class of the pan being played.
There are different classes of pan:
Tenor
Double tenor
Triple tenor
Nine bass
The tenor has the sweetest sound, and the pan sticks have the smallest rubber. While the double tenor and triple tenor have deeper sounds, and the rubber on the pan sticks are thicker. The nine bass has the pan sticks with the thickest rubber.
Today, steel pans are still tuned in Trinidad and Tobago. Every year, steel pan orchestras in Grenada have to get their pans tuned in Trinidad.
Source: Now Grenada
