The popularity of steel bands is growing quickly in the United States. MENC member and author Chris Tanner says in his book The Steel Band Game Plan that the main reasons for the recent surge include:

• the relative ease of technique for inexperienced players (almost anyone can learn to play),
• the great interaction between the performers and the audience,
• the variety of contemporary and past music, and
• Western audiences love the sounds of Caribbean music.

Steel drums, correctly known as pans or steelpans, are chromatically pitched percussion instruments that originated on the island of Trinidad. The steel drum is not actually from the percussion family, but rather, the idiophone family of instruments. An idiophone is any musical instrument which creates sound primarily by way of the instrument vibrating itself, without the use of strings or membranes. Steel drum (steelpan) musicians are referred to as pannists.

The five most common instruments in the steel band (from highest to lowest) are the Lead Pan, Double Tenor Pan, Double Second Pan, Guitar Pan/Cello Pan, and Bass Pan.

Coming in two weeks - How to Start a Steel Band in Your School or Community.

Recommended resource: The Steel Band Game Plan by Chris Tanner. Includes strategies for starting, building, and maintaining your pan program. Chris Tanner is the founder and director of the Miami University (Ohio) Steel Band. He is a published composer through Pan Ramajay Productions, and he has appeared as a guest clinician and performing artist with collegiate and high school steel bands throughout the United States.

- Becky Spray, June 18, 2008, © MENC: The National Association for Music Education (www.menc.org)