HISTORY OF THE STEELPAN

Scrap metal, metal containers, graters and dustbins were also used in tamboo bamboo bands..  However, by the 1930’s these metal instruments dominated the tamboo bamboo bands.  Tambo Bamboo was later replaced by empty Biscuit Tins.

These early metal pan bands were a combination of a wide variety of metallic containers and kitchen utensils which were struck with open hands, fists or sticks.

The metal pan players discovered that the raised areas of the metal containers made a different sound to those areas that were flat. Through experimentation, coincidence, trial and error, and ingenuity on the part of numerous innovators, the metal pan bands evolved into the steel pan family of instruments.