« Knee Pads | Main | For All My Texas Buddies »
May 28, 2006
The Steel Drum
My woman and I were in St. Croix, I think, when I fell in love with the Steelpan…aka the Steel Drum. I was drunk in a bar dancing and listening to a Calypso band, and I just had to get on stage and play the damn thing. Two Skip, the drummers’ name, was happy to oblige me…and laugh at with me. That was a damn good time. Yabu likes to have him some fun, playing the Amoco Drum.
A Steel Drum is pure innovation. They are made from a 55-gallon oil drum, which is constructed by pounding "sinking� the top of the oil drum into a bowl-like shape. The drum is tempered over a fire until it is "white hot" and allowed to cool. Then the notes are laid out, shaped, grooved, and tuned with a variety of hammers and other tools used for beating the shit out of something. The note's size corresponds to the pitch - the larger the oval, the lower the tone. Some of ‘em have the notes outlined on ‘em, but if you made it yourself, you don’t need that. Very very cool...which means they are all different.
Also, just in case you're wondering, the Steel Drum is the only percussion/non-electric acoustic instrument to be invented in the 20th century, and they were first created using steel drums discarded by the US military.
I have a small one hanging on my dining room wall.
Posted by Yabu at May 28, 2006 11:24 AM | General
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://badbadjuju.com/mt/mt-tb.cgi/555
... I've got a bugle on the wall... brass, circa 1900.. we should make some music...
Posted by: Eric at May 28, 2006 04:33 PM
I want one. I like the steel drum, too. The whole process of how it's made is fascinating as well. Very cool stuff.
Posted by: Kelly at May 29, 2006 12:33 PM
