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The Steel Pan

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 .

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The Steel Pan

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  1. The Steel Pan

  2. 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”

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

  4. 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

  5. Sinking the Drum • Marking • Lowering • Shaping • Smoothing

  6. Marking the Notes • Marking Outer Notes • Marking Inner Notes

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

  8. 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

  9. 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

  10. 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

  11. 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

  12. 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

  13. 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

  14. 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

  15. 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

  16. 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

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

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