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CONVENTIONAL Steelbands

These are the more widely recognised bands, and are very active, as with all others, at carnival time.

The harmonically melodic steelbands we see today are a very different entity from the purely rhythmic monotonic steelbands of the late 1930's. They owe their presence to the turbulent and often violent, but misunderstood reaction, of a determined underclass to develop, express and enjoy a new musical art-form. The steelbands, with their astigmatised adherents, were at first despised and at times suppressed, by the colonial authorities of that time.
These new steelbands of today, paving new grounds in expression of musical steel, follow on from the musical roots of the Traditional or Old Time steelbands, who cast the mould for the middle phase in the development of the steel drum and steelbands.

It is humbling to realise; after the great war and up to about 1967, as the popularity for this curious music of steel spread through our islands, to the time when the steelbands became truly accepted as an indigenous national cultural art-form; when the energies of the genius of these under privileged, often uneducated groups of dedicated individuals whose preserve were these drums of steel, and who had finally proven their ambition with this musical dream; that these unique steelbands were playing their way into one of the most extraordinary and commendable footnotes of our nations history.

In giving this nation a strong heart of shiny musical steel, that matched in beauty the iridescent greens of the common humming bird; having rhythmically pumped our universal and multiracial blood as scarlet as the common ibis; they had inadvertently, by preoccupation with their art-form, preserved this nations precious blood from spilling uselessly on the streets in civil revolution. For our steelbands people, this is an honourable gift of historical fact.

The conventional steelbands of Trinidad and Tobago today can range in size from about 10 to 140 members, although 100 members is more usual today, each playing steel drum instruments or steel “pans”, as they are called locally. Each member here plays 1 or 2 drums in the tenor range, and some up to 6, 7 or 9 drums in the bass range. The steelbands collective harmonic range is about 5 octaves.

There is also an accompanying rhythm section, affectionately known as the “engine room”, usually with a conventional drum kit, and tumbas (a pair of congas) at least. Other additions are timbolitas, cow bells, scrapers, chac-chacs or anything that makes rhythm; and the ubiquitous “iron”. You MUST have “Iron” - scrapped brake drums of cars and trucks, played with metal rods - 1 to 3 players; this is the “Iron” section. The “engine rooms” collective harmonic range is about deafening!

For Carnival and Panorama, where the bands have to be mobile or “on the road”, the entire collection of instruments, WITH PLAYERS, are supported on hazardous wheeled metal structures with planked floors and light metal or plastic canopies. Each structure comprising (sectioned by instrument type) 1 for the bass to as many 6 to 12 players for some mixed tenor racks. All of which is man-handled, by an army of loyal supporters, to propel them on their way. Some of the smaller bands, for the carnival “road” only, are carried in covered structures at the back of a flat bed lorry, or pulled by “farm-all” or tractor.

This is the conventional steelband; erroneously labelled by the toffee-nosed, those of higher learning and the establishment as the “Conventional Steel Orchestra”. The problem is the word orchestra. It is an imported concept, and although thoroughly understood, has no social resonance’s in the context of “pan”. It demeans and misrepresents what a Trinidad and Tobago steelband is about. The one and only word to correctly describe this entity is, the Steelband

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IRON

IRON, “Iron”, ‘Iron’, Iron, Iron, Iron.

Iron is the fusion energy source of the steelbands “engine room”.
Iron; brake drums of scrapped cars or trucks, cut bits of “C” beams or any handy piece of steel; but mostly brake drums, because of their shape, size and 'sweetness' of sound.
Iron is played with short steel (metal) rods. It can be carried singly, for one hand playing "on the road" or mounted in a stand (also mobile!) for two handed playing.
However your iron is presented, you begin to have an Iron section in your “engine room” when you have two or more players; Iron men. Without the slightest hint of sexism implied; an Iron woman is by definition an Iron man.
You have no steelband unless you have Iron. A steelband without Iron is unthinkable.

Steelbands and Iron are as synonymous as steelbands and corn-soup, shark and bake, pees and rice, crab and dumplin’, curry-goat and roti, souse and black-pudding, doubles and runnins’, bush-rum and headache.
Steelbands and Iron have a marriage of consent that is so sweet, so inseparable, that it is blessed by every God that man has ever conceived to imagine on this planet.

The colour of sound from a brake drum is just right for Iron. It tinkles, it zingles, just with the right pitch.
When the Iron men play their complex, in and out of phase, off-beat syncopation’s; it is a shower of sound that reaches around you. It grows to call you, to secretly invade you brain. You get locked into the beat, you twitch in sync, your feet behave as strangers until you understand they are yours and you must follow their steps, step, step. Ting-a-ling, step, step, step. Ting-a-ling, step, step, step. Oh-Yoooooo! step, step, step.
Yes, it will never, ever, let you go!

Tick-e-der tick-e-dee Tick-e-der tick-e-dee
Tick-e-der tick-e-dee Tick-e-der tick-e-dee
Tick-e-der tick-e-dee Tick-e-der tick-e-dee
Tnag - Tnag - Tnag - Tnag - Tnag - Tnag - Tnag - Tnag! ...

Being an Iron man is a position of great responsibility within a steelband. A good Iron man holds tremendous respect from all. The question of whether to be or not to be an Iron man never really arises. Either you have failed, or you’re an Iron man.
The Iron holds the timing and spins the engine. Without detraction to the desired efforts of the team who make up the rest of the “engine room”, Iron men are something special. In its own right; their rhythm is a counter-weaving art-form of sound. An Iron man requires an innate dexterity; an affection for steel that is close to an affliction; a constitution that does not recognise boredom or thresholds of pain; an unerring sense of timing; a stamina that is almost inhuman. Tradition has it that once a band is moving "on the road", the Iron never stops!

To a bystander at carnival “When ya hear de iron, ya does know a’ steelband commin’!”

De
Sweet Pan




The steeldrum (pan) is the national musical instrument of Trinidad and Tobago developed in he late 1930's. The pan is the only original non-electronic musical instrument invented in the twentieth century. Prior to the invention of pan, lengths of bamboo were used during street parades to beat out rhythms and these bands were known as 'Tamboo Bamboo Bands'. In the quest of a cleaner sound, old biscuit tins and caustic soda pans were first used to replace the bamboo. Spree Simon and Ellie Manette are considered the pan pioneers in developing this steeldrum to what it is today.

The steel band is made up of percussionists whose instruments are fashioned out of oil drums. The process for creating a pan begins with the the beating of the tip of the drum into a concave shape (sinking), marking the pan into sections and hammering each one to correspond to a certain pitch (grooving). The pan is then cut from the top of the drum at a depth that will define its overall pitch. Finally the pan is heated for tone, and fine-tuning is done with a small hammer to complete the process. Pans are played with pairs of rubber-tipped sticks.

The three basic types of pan are tenor pans that play melody, rhythm pans that play harmony, and bass pans. The steel band, which can contain numerous performers, can play a wide range of music which include, soca, calypso, classical, rock, reggae, jazz, pop, latin and rhythm and blues.



Instrument Number of Drums Music function Number of Notes
High Tenor 1 melody 28 to 30 notes
Low Tenor 1 melody 28 to 30 notes
Double Tenor 2 melody
counter-melody 31 notes
Double Second 2 melody
counter melody
harmony 32 to 34 notes
Double Guitar 2 harmony 20 notes
Triple Cello 3 low harmony
melody 24 notes
Four Cello 4 low harmony
melody 28 notes
Quadrophonics 4 melody
counter melody
harmony 40 notes
Tenor Bass 4 bass 24 notes
Bass 6 bass 18 notes (6x3)
9 bass 27 notes (9x3)
12 bass 36 notes (12x3)
Engine Room
Conga Drums (Tumba drums)
Trapset (drums)
Guiro (scratcher)
Iron (assorted)
Toc-Toc
Timbales
percussion
notes:

tenor pans are sometimes refer to as sorpano or lead pans.
double seconds are sometimes refer to alto pans.
tenor bass reinforces the bass for the bass lines.
bass can be one of the following, 6 bass, 9 bass or 12 bass.
all pans can either be painted or chromed.
front line section refers to tenors, double tenors and double seconds.
back line section refers to guitars, cellos and basses
engine room is known as the rhythm section of the band that includes: drums, congas, iron etc..
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Physical Description

The engine room is comprised of a "core" set of instruments, including the brake iron (discarded car brake drums), shak-shak (shaker), scratcher (a metal guiro), toc-toc (claves), cowbell, and bottle and spoon. In addition, the contemporary steel band also includes drum set, congas, and occasional other instruments as part of the engine room. The brake iron is played with a metal rod to produce a high-pitched sound.

Tuning

The engine room percussion are generally non-tuned, although most brake irons are arranged in sets of lower and higher-pitched instruments for musical effect. Congas are also tuned in a standard fourths or fifths tuning.

History

The engine room has its origins in early tamboo bamboo groups, which would use the brake iron and bottle and spoon as their primary accompaniment. "Mussel Rat" of Gonzales Place tamboo bamboo band is credited with introducing the brake iron in the mid-1930s (Blake, 120). The early steel bands adopted this tradition since many musicians transferred to the steel band when the tamboo bamboo was outlawed from Carnival (Goddard, 38).

References

Blake, F.I.R. The Trinidad & Tobago Steel Pan: History and Evolution. Port of Spain, Trinidad: Published by author.

Goddard, George "Sonny." 1991. Forty Years in the Steelbands, 1939-1979. Port of Spain, Karia Press.

Last Modified: 10-MAY-05

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More About Pan
Pan is the only family of acoustic (not electric) musical instruments invented during the 20th Century. They represent an entirely new concept in instrument construction—the bottom end of a steel barrel is tuned to multiple pitches by hammering.

Originating in the late 1930s on the southern Caribbean island of Trinidad, steelpans were virtually unknown in Colorado until the late 1980s when Denver percussionist and steelpan player Don Prorak started the Mystic Island Steelband (which became Pan Jumbies in 1991). Don has performed with some of the best steelbands in Trinidad & Tobago, including Carib Tokyo, Hummingbirds Pan Groove, Skiffle Bunch, and Phase II Pan Groove.

Pans range from bass to soprano. Bass pans require at least 6 full-length oil barrels, since only three bass notes will fit on a single barrel.

A group of musicians performing on pans is called a steelband. Because pans are percussion instruments, it may seem redundant that steelbands include a percussion section—affectionately called the "engine room"—which is the driving rhythmic force behind the band. The principal instruments of the engine room are discarded automobile brake drums, called irons, which are beaten with short steel rods.
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Laventille wins the First-Ever Rhythm Competition
written by: Soca News
Post date : Feb 3, 2005,11:37
Location : Trinidad
photography :



On Sunday January 30 2005, history was made by the inaugural Riddem Rama Competition/Festival at St John House, Port of Spain, Trinidad.

Seventeen rhythm sections were under one roof, all vying for first prize. The sections, which came from all over the island, were: Chatham Old Boys, Siparia Rhythm Posse, Hardbargain Earth Crew, Paramin FamilyBand, Paramin Blast, Tunapuna Rhythm Players, Caribbean Vibes Engine Room, , d' Renegades, Unity Tassa Group, Zion Youths, d' River Lime, Silver Stars, Laventille Rhythm Section and Hands of Rhythm.

In the first round all bands were ask to perform a piece of their choice, plus a unity piece. Ten sections made it to the second round, and then it was narrowed down again to just the top five, vying for first prize.

All the bands were good; it was not so much about competition but about giving them their day, and the recognition they deserve. But all in all, Laventille Rhythm Section got the nod from the people, so many congratulations to them. The four runners up were Point Fortin Iron Giants, Road Marching Band, Hands of Rhythm and Siparia Rhythm Posse.

There was an appearance fee of TT$1,500, another TT$1,500 for making it into the semi-finals, TT$5,000 for being a runner up and TT$10,000 for first prize – all sponsored by the Ministry of Community Development, Culture and Gender Affairs – so everyone came out a winner.
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BIRTH OF TWO PAN PIONEERS

ELLIE MANNETTE AND WINSTON SIMON



PEOPLE OF THE CENTURY

PART ONE

By Michael Anthony
Express
Section 2

October 25, 2000

Pages 2, 3



As the 1930s came to a close, two youngsters were in the forefront of an activity that was of great interest to the police. In fact the police would have loved to know these persons, though not to keep them for any length of time, for they were too young to be guests of the police. Their names were Winston Simon, and Ellie Mannette and they were skilled in what the police would have called ‘making noise,” and of course few people would have disagreed with them. (Although the number of people disagreeing with them would have been considerably lessened at Carnival time).



These two boys emerged during the period when the rhythmic instruments, which bore Carnival crowds along were lengths of bamboo, knocked together and called tamboo bamboo. (“Tambour” pronounced “tamboo”, being the Patois and French word for drum).



Apparently, by the mid-1930s young Carnival revelers were finding that tamboo bamboo did not make enough noise for them. They took to beating old iron, or anything like old iron, which they could put their hands on. Dustbins were particularly sought. It was not safe for the householder to leave a dustbin outside the gate. Paint cans and brake drums came high on the list.



The first time we hear of these steel-beating boys was at Carnival 1935. On that Carnival Tuesday (5th March) the Trinidad Guardian spoke of an early-morning band “surging like a river” into downtown Port of Spain, with members beating out pulsating rhythms on old cans and drums.


The tamboo bamboo bands first adopting steel were Alexander’s Ragtime Band (named after a United States orchestra of the same era), and Hellyard, which later became “All Stars” steelband. Alexander’s Ragtime Band belonged to New Town, while Hellyard was on Duke Street. These are the bands believed to have been referred to by the newspaper).



The year 1935 was a little too early for Winston Simon to come out at Carnival, for he was only five then. He lived in the southeast Port of Spain district of John John, and a “steel-beating” group of the area, calling itself John John, appears to have come together around 1937. By then dozens of such groups calling themselves steelbands had sprung up. They came out, not only at Carnival time, but on Discovery Day, which was the first Monday in August, as well as at any other time when there were celebrations in the street.



It was in 1939 that the nine-year-old Winston seems to have come into his own. In an interview given several years later he gave an insight into those early days and shed light on what he is best known for - certainly not making noise. He said: “I was the little drummer boy for John John band. Once when the band was on the street I lend me pan to somebody, and went and hand me jump-up, and when I come back for the pan I saw the face was dent in, and I was so vex. I went and was trying to beat out the face of the pan with a stone, and then… and then I find when I hit the parts with the dent I was getting like notes, like different kinda tones. And then I knock and knock and it had four separate tones, like music, and in the end I used the same stone and play a tune. Four notes. A tune that they call: “River vine, vine cavalli.”



This, in fact, was the birth of the steelband as we know it today. Although the steelband seems to have started in 1935, with certain tamboo-bamboo groups banging on steel for the first time, it was really after little Winston discovered notes on the pan in 1939, that the steelband took wings, as it were, and soared.



For although the rhythm was good, especially to Jouvert revelers, it was only when the melody came that the “magic” came to the steelband.



The 1939 incident with nine-year-old Winston Simon completely shattered the normal course of events so far as these steel-beating boys were concerned. And maybe “boys” is the right word here, for the majority of the players were teenagers.



After hearing of the John John kid who was playing music on the steel pan, they all wanted to know how it was done. Spies were on the move, for the rivalry was so sharp that no group was allowed to gain any advantage for long.



And despite the extreme inter-steelband hostility of those early days, with groups having to keep within their own territory, it was soon discovered how it was done and almost every one of the steel-beating groups had an instrument like Winston’s, only that the dents in the pans were not accidental but deliberately made – in fact, carefully made, using heat to get the steel surface more manageable. Since in knocking out the notes one got several “pings” and “pongs”, the instrument was called the “ping pong.”



Around the same time that Winston brought John John into the limelight, a little group was formed in Woodbrook, in a little home opposite the Queen’s Park Oval and almost in the shade of a breadfruit tree.



The fact that the breadfruit tree happens to be still standing is hardly the purpose of this tribute, but the leader of the group calling itself Oval Boys, and practicing under the breadfruit tree, made an unforgettable contribution to the steelband movement.



For the little home on the spot was owned by the Mannette family, and the leader of Oval Boys in 1939 was 12-year-old Ellie Mannette.



Ellie’s ping pong soon became known all over Woodbrook in steelband circles, for the dexterity of this Woodbrook boy was equalled only by Winston. Ellie was to be seen under the breadfruit tree pinging and ponging, with his little woodfire beside him, testing the clarity of the notes, brining, out its sweetness. His little brother Birdie, might have been already busy composing little tunes for the steelband to play.



It seems that it was in 1941, on the appearance of an American war movie called The Invaders, that Oval Boys changed its name to Invaders.

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