The Illustrated Story of Pan, Second Edition is the definitive story of Pan – the instrument, the music,
the steelbands and their social, cultural and political history, from the earliest days to the present.
Hundreds of photos and pioneers’ verbatim accounts never before published, stories of adventure and discovery,
of love and danger, have been threaded along the author’s narrative to produce this monumental epic of
musicians and scientists, street fighters and politicians, schoolteachers and their students, promoters
and activists, but mostly ordinary people who achieved extraordinary things.
It is the story of Trinidad All Stars and Renegades and Desperadoes and Phase II and Exodus and all
the other big steelbands, but also the small bands, Boys Town, Boom Town and Stepyard, the extinct bands,
the Tripoli, Bar 20 and Red Army, the "college boy" bands like Dixieland, Dixie Stars,
Stromboli and Rogues Regiment, and of course the countless men and women, girls and boys, who created this marvel.
This video showing the manufacturing and tuning of a handpan/Hang is a bit off
topic for the Pan Page, but is shows some interesting tools and techniques that
can be of interest to a pan tuner wanting to develop the craft. It contains a
bit of discussion of the acoustics of the notes of the handpan and even
a sequence where they try to tune a frying pan!
With ‘Secrets of the Steelpan – Unlocking the Secrets of the Science, Technology,
Tuning and Operation of the Steelpan’ Dr. Anthony Achong is presenting
a summary of his extensive studies on the steelpan.
This is how the publisher Xlibris US describes the book:
This book describes a truly remarkable musical instrument o the Steelpan (Pan)
o a melodic percussion instrument that produces tones of immense beauty.
This instrument is the National Instrument of the twin islands of Trinidad and Tobago.
The concepts, the ideas, the theories, the physics and the mathematics contained
in this book are the answers to the question the author asked himself as a little
boy peering over the face of a ping pong steelpan, "how does it work?"
Revealed, are the subtleties and secrets of the instrument's operation,
its laws, its construction and details of its tuning.
Contained herein is the information sought by pan musicians,
pan makers, panists, pan researchers and pan lovers - nothing is left out.
The rigor of the analytical methods of this book matches,
in depth and intensity, the expert craftsmanship of the
Master Pan Maker and Tuner.
There is a unifying force within this book that combines the stick-note impacts
to the panist's creativity in his production of musical tones.
This book doesn't dodge the difficult questions;
it ends with a chapter on the exotic non-musical features of the steelpan.
A full-length film (1h 15 mins) presenting the story of
a retired doctor sailing in the West Indies, who discovers the origins of
the steel pan. Contains some interesting information regarding the building of pans
and their history.
Kevin Martin, musician and instructor, has a passion. For years, he has been
studying, performing with, composing for, and building the only instrument
created in the 20th century: the steel drum. Kevin's talk and performance gives
us insight into the social history, the musical potential, and the future of this
melodic, percussive instrument.
The E-Pan is invented and sold by NAPE – New Advanced Product Evolution Inc.
This is how NAPE presents the E-Pan:
The E-Pan name is the abbreviated short form chosen for the electronic steelpan.
This novel idea was created
using high-tech electronics to advance the invention of the traditional instrument.
