The Steel Pan

History of the Steel Pan AKA Steel Drum Originated in Caribbean Other variations used from late 1880s Developed during World War II In 1940s, used 55-gallon steel oil drums Ellie Mannette Anthony Williams 1960, fourths and fifths

The Making of the Pan Choosing Sinking Marking Backing Grooving Levelling Cutting Tempering

Choosing the Drum Standard 55-gallon steel drum 23 inches diameter 24.8 inches long Thickness- 1.2 mm bottom 1.0 mm sides Thinner skirt = better ring sound of the pan

Sinking the Drum Marking Lowering Shaping Smoothing

Marking the Notes Marking Outer Notes Marking Inner Notes

Backing Lowering the surface between notes Done with backing hammer Outer then Inner notes

Grooving Note areas acoustically separated from each other and rest of surface Confines vibrations that produce sound to their own sector of drum surface Note is able to vibrate freely

Levelling Playing surface formed to final shape Each octave pair of outer-inner notes goes through 4 steps: taking out the fat, flattening the grooves, final shaping, and adjusting the notes to be level with each other

Cutting the Drum The lower the tuning of the pan, the longer the sides (gives more resonance to the sound of the lower tuned pans) Hammer Jigsaw File

Tempering the Pan Pan is heated/burned over a fire for min Pan is then cooled by either self- cooling (most common now), cold water or cold oil. Anneal Oxidation Hardening

Tuning the Pan Pitch and timbre adjusted indepedently Tuner has to control the fundamental AND the upper partials while tuning Coarse Tuning Fine Tuning Blending

Tuning the Pan (cont.) Soften metal, tuning of fundamental, octave tuning Tuning done in circular manner, going around pan several times Use hammer (inner) and bending iron (middle) to soften and wedge (outer) to raise the note Surface of note usually hammered 5-6 times Regions for raising fundamental around outside, for lowering on the inside. Adjust the octave of the lower note to match the fundamental of the high note

Hanging/Fine Tuning Pan hung at degrees for playing Holes on each side of skirt 5 cm apart Now enabled to hear pitch and timbre effectively Concentrating on fundamental, octave, and timbre Same rules apply as coarse tuning

Finishing Sound of pan affected by rusting; need to preserve pan Common method: electroplate with layer or zinc or chromium, Add thin layer of wax to protect the surface from moisture (which causes rusting) and to make it shiny

Blending Pitch, Timbre and Loudness of various notes are adjusted after the finishing. Mostly blended with other pans (i.e., in a band) to ensure all pans are balanced in these areas. Also adjusted in octave pairs then matched to fundamentals

The Pan Family The Pan Family: Tenor/Lead Double Tenor Double Seconds Double Guitars Quadrophonic Triple Guitar Cello Tenor Bass Six Bass Nine Bass