The first pans had only a couple of dull notes. Soon someone began to make instruments from abandoned oil drums - the extra space allowing for more notes - and the tuning became more precise. Now the players could even play some simple melodies!
A lot has changed from those days and todays´ steel pan is a brilliant instrument with a beautiful sound and a large tonal range from deep basses to shrilling sopranoes. The bass set usually consists of six full-size drums with three big notes on each. The double guitar pan is made from two drums cut in half, and has about sixteen notes.The soprano pan has about 30 notes in a single drum. Besides these there are various other models.
The first trial -Ping Pong year -88.
A Trinidadian steelband can have more than 100 players, playing all kinds of music from classical to calypso. In Finland there are smaller bands and some schools have adapted pan as the excellent teaching instrument it is. All the pans have the chromatic scale and are tuned in the key of C, so making the arrangements does not involve mental acrobatics.
I heard a steelband live in Stockholm, Sweden in 1988 and built my first pan soon after that - not, of course a playable one. Many years and barrels later my skills became better due to hard work and trial and error. I learned more about pans via other makers and tuners. In 1999 I studied pan making and tuning in Trinidad and Los Angeles, and soon this became my full-time profession.
Besides Finland and L.A., I have made or tuned pans in Sweden, France and Thailand.
I have given workshops on pan playing, -building and tuning as well.
If you want more info or need pans, stands, tuning, etc. - feel free to contact me.
