Steel Pan Workshop Year 3&4

As part of Black History & Culture Month we have been looking at music from different parts of the world. This week our Year 3&4 pupils were able to experience what it is like to play the Steel Pan.

Steelpans (also known as steel drums or pans, and sometimes, collectively with other musicians, as a steel band or orchestra) are musical instruments originating from Trinidad and Tobago. Steel pan musicians are called pannists.

This skill and performance has been shown to have grown out of Trinidad and Tobago's early 20th century Carnival percussion groups known as Tamboo Bamboo. The pan is the national instrument of Trinidad and Tobago. Since Pythagoras calculated the formula for the musical cycle of fourths and fifths, Steel Pans are the one of the only instruments made to follow this configuration.

"At first it was hard, as we had to hold the sticks very gently. However we were soon able to make a very tuneful sound" Kie Purse

"Sometimes I hear this music at carnivals. I didn't realise it came all the way from Trinidad and Tobago!" Suada Cacaj

"We had to listen really carefully. When all the pans were playing it was very loud in the hall." Kaine Painter.