Notes from Mr. G: How Steel Pans are Tuned

[@pampamtatapam]

Very nice video, thanks

[@hughpoteon3424]

Your Honesty is Fantastic ! There are many people going around saying they Pan Tuners. This thing is a Science . Respect Man !!

[@mikekesslermusic]

Thank you very much! I DO respect my tuner - The great Mr. Steve Lawrie. I watch him carefully every time -but never could figure out the strategy behind what he does. Thanks for demystifying some of it for me!

[@steelmagicnorthwest3987]

Yeah, Steve does great work! I have run into him at various pan events.

[@iandobson5287]

You put the "fun" in "fundamental" Gary! Can you possibly list any of the "many other things" you mentioned a professional tuner does, in addition to the one you mentioned: working on the feel of the notes?

[@AntonioCorneal]

Firstly I just wanted to thank you for calling it a steelpan🙏 Secondly, this was a very informative video! I'm currently teaching myself to build/tune pans from an old but information packed book I found, and this video reminds me of the detail in that book. Much appreciated!

[@AwesomeOne835]

Does not matter nowadays cause steel pan is a local name amoung the Islanders and other places but steel drum is more international as it is first made from a drum, so , In my opinion steel drum is more suitable . Same as Conga drums and not conga skins. I went to a concert one time and the leaflet program had on steelpan but many people was asking when is the panflute playing because they never heard of steelpan but steel drum so I had to explained. One guy even called it a turtle drum because he was viewing from overhead😂. I won't get too worried about that these days but I love the explanations given .

[@AntonioCorneal]

@@AwesomeOne835 I understand where you're coming from, but my opinion aside, since it's officially classified in the idiophone family of instruments, and not membranophone (which is how drum-named are classified) instruments, it does have a reason for its naming lol. Yeah it does start from an oil drum, but the final product isn't that anymore (unless it's a bass drum, which is still of course referred to as a drum and not a pan). And I agree, explaining to people can be a bit annoying lol, and repetitive, but I didn't make up the name hahah. And there's been a positive shift in popularity of the correct name, especially with the official declaration of World Steelpan Day by the United Nations, so I think that merit should encourage ppl to try to use the right name.

[@AwesomeOne835]

@@AntonioCorneal I do understand where you are coming from but in my view steel drum make much more since to those who you can't get the pan thing through to. Even though it is not international as yet it's a nice instrument though.Same as the tenor pan which is really a soprano pan (musically). Jimmy Philips (Pan tuner/innovator) said tenor is a male voice but people just go along with tenor because they came alone hearing that and it stuck and I agree with him. So you are telling me that coming from the back fwd it changes the name from drum to pan made with the same material? To be honest I does use both depending who am talking to.😂As soon as you mention drum people understands ok something being played with sticks or maybe hand and that why the hang drum get more views everytime. The steelpan/drum world is a very selfish world because everyone has his or her favorite band/pannist and can't come grips with giving credit to other bands or pannist if it's not their favorite. Check youtube and see that a band or pannist would get many views but a handful of comments everytime. I guess the views is what matter.

[@AntonioCorneal]

@@AwesomeOne835 Yeah it's gonna take some effort to get everyone accustomed to the right name, but I rather try to get ppl to know the right thing slowly lol. Yes omg yes the Soprano pan being the right name is so true, and it should really be called that🤦 I always tell people that it's been misnamed Tenor. All of this is kinda like how in Star wars, everyone things the phrase is "Luke, I am your father", when it's really "No, I am your father", but it's been so engrained that informing people of the correct thing is slow and seemingly futile lol. But I'm happy for every single person that can know the right thing. And yep even though it came from a drum, it's been transformed and reshaped into the pan instrument. A bit of an extreme example would be, like paper coming from trees, or a trumpet coming from a sheet of brass. All of which have been heavily transformed from their original state, and thus have their own new names; the same applies here. But it's nice that we can have a civil debate, because I know exactly what you mean😅

[@AntonioCorneal]

@@AwesomeOne835 and yes I don't like that people in the pan world are still often so segregated. It's one of my favorite things to go listen to all the other bands playing their Panorama song even when I'm in a band trying to win against them😂 It needs to evolve to the love of the instrument and move away from the rivalries that have been so engrained from the cultural past

[@kurtsargeant4294]

What is the app you using

[@kurtsargeant4294]

The tuning app

[@steelmagicnorthwest3987]

Oh that is just StroboSoft @@kurtsargeant4294