The Steel Pan

History of the Steel Pan

• AKA Steel Drum• Originated in Caribbean• Other variations used from late 1880’s• Developed during World War II• In 1940’s, used 55-gallon steel oil drums

• Ellie Mannette- 1946• 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 10-15 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 15-20 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