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In case you want to get started right away, here's a primer and overview. You will first need to learn to hit notes before you can become a masterful steel drum musician. For this reason, the steel drum is an excellent instrument on which to learn music, in case you are just beginning.
Learn to read music:
Steelpan Playing with Theory
Salah A Wilson
A Simple Hands-On
Practical and Theoretical approach to
Learning Music with Steelpan Instruments
buy it.
Your first songs:
Steel Drum Music - AmazonLow prices on steel drum music. Qualified orders over $25 ship freeAmazon.com
Musical Wine.........Len "Boogsie" Sharp
La Plaza............ Jeff Narell
Samba de Arcata......Ray Holman
Emerald Isle ........Chris Tanner
Summertime Mambo.....Gershwin/arr Koontz
Shake de Pepper Sauce....Tom Miller
Aliens...................Thomas/ arr. Koontz
Work It Loose............Chris Tanner
Drive ...................Chris Tanner
How does a steel drum work?
Think of it as a circular piano, the notes on a steel drum mimic any keyboard, except they wrap around the pan in a ‘Circle of 5ths’ configuration. Basically any song can be played on a steel drum.
Fire Down Below..........Len "Boogsie" Sharp
Trinidad: Laventille Steelband Festival Parade 2007 |
Trinidad - Patrons attending this year's staging of the eight annual Laventille Steelband Festival (LSF) Parade are promised a more compact programme, following the organizer's decision to reduce the length of the parade route. Julien Cudjoe, deputy chairman of the LSF Foundation said: "The parade will now start from Pashley Street instead of Mc Allister Street, Laventille. The route has been shortened by one block. Bands will start the parade on a leveled surface along the Eastern Main Road and end at Leon Street as usual." He said steelband representatives complained about an incline that exists between these streets, which make it difficult to roll their pan racks. "That problem has now been addressed," Cudjoe declared. Thirty-nine of the world's finest conventional and single pan bands are listed to appear at the Festival, with the theme Proud to Be.III, on Sunday, August 5. |
Grant gives boost to |
 United Kingdom - A COMMUNITY group believes it will set a UK precedent for steel band music after receiving a £50,000 grant to launch a unique project, starting in the Caribbean. St Vincent and the Grenadines Second Generation (SV2G) was told it secured the large grant last week from Arts Council England (ACE) after applying earlier this year. SV2G, which set up the Wycombe Steel Orchestra a year ago, will now send between four and six players to Trinidad to become qualified tutors. They will be taught the syllabus of steel pan playing and thus become the first teachers of the instrument to introduce a graded system to the UK. Currently a graded system is said not to exist in the UK but the syllabus originated in Trinidad and Tobago and is widely taught in the USA. Once qualified, the tutors will teach budding players on the orchestra's waiting list by taking them through the syllabus. This will mark the starting point in SV2G's Steel Pan Education project, with the trainee-teachers jetting out to Trinidad in late August. |