Have you heard of a pannist before?

Tweet

We had the pleasure of listening to a steelband last Friday. The players, called pannists, were all originally from Trinidad and/or Tobago where the instrument was first created. It’s now officially recognised as the country's national instrument. There were four siblings in the band, another brother and sister and three individuals so nine all told. The leader of ‘our’ group said it was the only instrument to have been created in the 20th century, having been developed in the early to mid 1900s, although its roots go back much earlier. The pan is made from industrial oil drums. These are cut to the desired height, then hammered to create a concave shape. Individual notes are created by hammering specific areas into varying heights and depths. On the instrument we looked at, dotted lines marked out each note. The photo is Vince’s used with permission and shows some of our residents up and dancing.