Steelpan Music

A Little About Steelpan Music

Steelpan music has become more complex as the quality of the instrument improved over the years after its invention in the 1940’s. It is a far cry from the days when “Mary Had a Little Lamb” was the most advanced melody that could have been played on it. When Winston “Spree” Simon played Schubert’s “Ave Maria”, the hymn “God Save the King” and Kitchener’s “Lai Fook Lee”; the 1946 Road March, in public it signaled the beginning and publicized the potential the instrument had to play “worthwhile” melodies. Now one can hear renditions of the popular songs of the day being played on it, especially those of Trinidad and Tobago. R&B, Pop, Reggae, Soca and any other genre are played by today’s Steelpan soloist, ensemble and orchestras.

The main tunes rendered on the steelpan are those of the calypso roots similar to the songs that are commonly stereotyped on movies and made popular by “Harry Belafonte”. Although these forms of steelpan music can still be heard and are played to appease a type of audience, modern practitioners of the instruments aim towards pleasing the main stream audiences of the day by rendering the popular tunes at any given period. Songs sung by popular artist such as “Alicia Keys” and “John Legend” can be heard on the steelpan instruments of today and are becoming favourite steelpan music renditions amongst the younger audiences.

Although the steelpan is classified as a percussion instrument it is also a pitched percussive instrument.  Due to the fact that it possesses pitched (tuned) notes and being an acoustic instrument, the popular melodies of the day can be heard as part of the steelpan music performed in popular bands. Steelpan musician tend to stray towards popular “Jazz” standards as they lend themselves easily to the instruments. Tunes such as “Summer Time”, “Girl from Ipanema” and “Blue Bossa”, that have been made popular by the top practitioners, has also become standard steelpan music renditions. In fact the “Jazz” style of playing steelpan music has become so popular that classic calypso such as “Pan in A Minor” has been “Jazzed” up. One of the hallmarks of Jazz is the ability to improvise and steelpan practitioners love to highlight their skills by adopting “improve” into their repertoire.

Steelpan Music – Sheet Music?

There is a rise in the demand for the novelty of the steel band around the world and thus there is an increase in the demand for Steelpan music, especially Steelpan Sheet Music, by bands and musicians a like. There has not been a tradition of scored music within the steelpan music arena as steelpan playing was, and still predominantly is, an aural art that was taught by rote. Recently, with the increase of traditional musically trained professionals becoming interested in learning the steelpan and steelpan men and women also becoming musically literate, there is more a need for scored (sheet) steelpan music.

The Steelpan instrument can render almost any type of music and as its popularity grows so will the demand for diffrent genres of music to be played on it. Steelpan music is “sweet” when played correctly and even though it has found its way into movies there is a lot of growth and potential for its future. With the increase of trained practitioners within the industry steelpan music can only grow from strength to strength and become a dominant sound within the music industry.