On July 24, 2023, the U.N. General Assembly proclaimed August 11 as World Steelpan Day, acknowledging that Steelpan promotes inclusive societies, sustainable communities and the creative economy and can positively impact mental health and well-being, gender equality and youth empowerment.
In commemoration of World Steelpan Day, the Alma Jordan Library, in collaboration with the Faculty of Engineering, invite you to visit the Alma Jordan Library to view an interactive display showcasing the innovative developments in Steelpan by the Faculty of Engineering. This exhibition will run from August 11 to September 15.
Engineering Innovations: G-Pan and the Percussive Harmonic Instrument
Genesis Pan (G-Pan)
The G-Pan was unveiled in 2007; unlike the traditional pan made from oil drums, the G-Pan is made of durable, high-grade steel sheets (Smith 2012, 141-142). In 2007, under the leadership of Emeritus Professor Brian Copeland, PhD, the Genesis Steelband Project Team was awarded the Chaconia Gold Medal.
Steel Drums and Steelbands: A History is a vivid account of the events that led to the "accidental" invention of the steel drum: the only acoustic musical instrument invented in the 20th century. Angela Smith walks readers through the evolution of the steel drum from an object of scorn and tool of violence to one of the most studied, performed, and appreciated musical instruments today. Smith explores the development of the modern steelband, from its roots in African slavery in early Trinidad to the vast array of experiments itechnological innovation and to the current explosion of steelbands in American schools.
This Standard defines common terms that are unique to the steelpan industry. It includes terms related to: instruments; manufacturing; personnel and performance; and accessories and facilities.
There is an economic imperative to increase the level of innovative activities in developed and developing countries. Universities have been encouraged to increase the number of science and technology graduates. One of the approaches used by universities is the encouragement of minority students, in particular, Black African- American and African-Caribbean students into undergraduate engineering. However, to realize the potential of these students, programs need to build understanding of engineering principles in a manner that appeal to multiple learning styles. The steelpan, a percussion instrument invented in Trinidad and Tobago, can provide a possible solution. The steelpan also known as the pan or steel drum is produced by creatively deforming metal sheet. The pan is a unique musical device and offers an opportunity to teach engineering concepts using an instrument that is a part of the cultural heritage of some of these students. The technology of the steelpan is multidisciplinary and requires knowledge in the areas of materials science, production processes, acoustics, vibrations and music. By decomposing the production of the instrument into these underlying bodies of knowledge, it provides an ideal opportunity to explain and demonstrate engineering principles at low cost.
This paper explores innovative manufacturing processes, which can be used to manufacture the national musical instrument of Trinidad and Tobago, the Musical Steel Drum or Steelpan. The main manufacturing process used today is the manual or Handforming technique. In order to achieve more consistent and deeper formed components while maintaining the high quality of the instrument, it is proposed that the Marforming process and the Flowforming process, an adaptation of the Spinforming process be used to replace the traditional Handforming method. Experimental investigations using the Flowforming or Spinforming and Marforming processes proved to be promising in achieving the required strain distribution of the formed component. Evaluation took the form of strain analyses of preformed steel drums. It was found that the Marformed components had the smallest range of % strain values while the Spinformed components had the largest range.
The steelpan as a musical instrument of the percussion family, with rigid vibrators, has been shown to operate as a system of non-linear mode-localized oscillators. Each note consists of a shallow dome-shaped shell formed on the indented face of a steel drum. The first mode (the fundamental) of each note is tuned according to the musical scale with the second mode as an upper octave and the third mode as a musical twelfth. The unique tonality obtained on this instrument is supplied by the amplitude and frequency modulations produced by the non-linear quadratic and cubic interactions between the tuned modes on a note or between two sympathetic notes. To obtain acceptable tonality however, the second and third modes must never be tuned as exact harmonics of the first mode.
References
Smith, Angela. 2012. Steel Drums and Steelbands. Blue Ridge Summit: The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group.
The University of the West Indies. 2009. “Why PHI?: This Latest Synthesizer Is Worth Its Weight.” UWI Today, September 27. https://sta.uwi.edu/uwitoday/archive/september_2009/article6.asp.
UN (United Nations). n.d. “World Steelpan Day: 11 August.” Accessed August 11, 2023. https://www.un.org/en/observances/steelpan-day.
On July 24, 2023, the U.N. General Assembly proclaimed August 11 as World Steelpan Day, acknowledging that Steelpan promotes inclusive societies, sustainable communities and the creative economy and can positively impact mental health and well-being, gender equality and youth empowerment.
In commemoration of World Steelpan Day, the Alma Jordan Library, in collaboration with the Faculty of Engineering, invite you to visit the Alma Jordan Library to view an interactive display showcasing the innovative developments in Steelpan by the Faculty of Engineering. This exhibition will run from August 11 to September 15.
Engineering Innovations: G-Pan and the Percussive Harmonic Instrument
The G-Pan was unveiled in 2007; unlike the traditional pan made from oil drums, the G-Pan is made of durable, high-grade steel sheets (Smith 2012, 141-142). In 2007, under the leadership of Emeritus Professor Brian Copeland, PhD, the Genesis Steelband Project Team was awarded the Chaconia Gold Medal.
It looks like a steelpan, sounds like a steelpan, and travels like a tenor pan, but the PHI is no steelpan. PHI stands for Percussive Harmonic Instrument and is more akin to an electronic synthesizer, so why does this new instrument have this strong pan character? Click here to learn more about this latest development to emerge from the Steelpan Research Lab of the Faculty of Engineering.
Selected E-Resources
The Absence of Standardization of Mid-range Steelpan Instruments and its effects on steelpan players in Trinidad and Tobago by Garcia, Nicholan
Experimental Investigations into Manufacturing Processes Used to Produce Musical Steel Drums by Winston G. Lewis and Aaron O. Ameerali
Mode Locking on the Non-linear Notes of the Steelpan by A. Achong
References
Smith, Angela. 2012. Steel Drums and Steelbands. Blue Ridge Summit: The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group.
The University of the West Indies. 2009. “Why PHI?: This Latest Synthesizer Is Worth Its Weight.” UWI Today, September 27. https://sta.uwi.edu/uwitoday/archive/september_2009/article6.asp.
UN (United Nations). n.d. “World Steelpan Day: 11 August.” Accessed August 11, 2023. https://www.un.org/en/observances/steelpan-day.