What are steel pans?
Steel Pans (also know as Steel Drums) are pitched percussion instruments (i.e. different notes can be played on them). They originated from Trinidad, and are often made from empty oil drums. The face of each drum is separated into various segments, and each segment is tuned to a different note. In our band we have 4 different types of steel pans; tenor (for the main tune), guitars and cellos (for the accompanying harmonies) and the bass drums. Steel pan musicians are known as Pannists!
