12
STEEL PAN
In the 1930s steel pans were created in
the island of Trinidad & Tobago. When
the enslaved africans came to the island
they brought with them their culture
of playing hand drums and this influ-
enced what we now know as steel pans.
Steel Pans became the main instrument
of carnival culture. Originally the main
instruments were hand drums brought
to Trinidad by the Africans, however
in 1877 the British government banned
hand drums as they claimed to suppress
the offensive elements of carnival. After
the ban they replaced the drums with
bamboo stamping tubes. These tubes
were played in tamboo bamboo bands.
Other materials like scrap metal, metal
containers, graters and dustbins were
also used in the band. The metal mate-
rials dominated the bands and bamboo
stamping tubes were abandoned and
replaced with metal instruments. Metal
instrument players began to realise the
raised areas made a different sound to
other areas of the metal. Due to this they
experimented and created what we now
know as steel pans. There were a few
contributors to the creation of steel pans
but the inventor of the first melody steel
pan consisting of 8 pitches was Winston
‘Spree’ Simon.
Harvard Harps
24th Febuary 2020
Port Of Spain