Reel Ting : History of Steel Drums

During the late 1800’s “Tamboo Bamboo’ band of Trinidad used pieces of bamboo to create music. Eventually, their bamboo instruments were replaced by metal one made of discarded biscuit cans, garbage can, paint cans and discarded oil drum left by American sailors during the second world war. After over 100 years of exploration and a lot of careful tuning they turned this discarded rubble into one of the world’s most soughs sounds, that of the Steel Drum.

Pan-Demonium

The instruments in a steel drum band are divided into three main groups: frontline pans, midrange pans and background pans. Frontline pans which often play the melody, include tenor, double tenor (two pans preformed at one time by one musician), and double second (two pans preformed at one time by one musician). Background pans, such as the tenor bass and six bass (Six pans or more played at one time by one musician) produce the root or bass line for the other instruments in the band
Winston Spree Simon is most famous for his spectacular performance at the 1946 Carnival, where he played his 15-note tenor pan. In 1946, Ulric Springer became one of the first pan players to use two sticks, now Master Pan Musician are using four sticks. In the early 1950’s Tony Williams created a pan with a 4th and 5th arrangement of notes in a spider –web pattern. Elliott Mannette is credited with giving the steel drum its current form. He was the first to create a pan with a concave face and one of the first to use a 55-gallon oil drum.

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….. It’s on its way to the Guinness World Book of Records!!!

Worlds Largest Steel Drum

On June 25, 2010, The Reel Ting Steel Drum Band introduced the Worlds Largest Steel Drum. The band performed with this new musical Steel drum instrument at a wedding event at the Premier Banquet Hall located in Miami Florida. The Steel Drum measures over 40 inches in diameter and has over five octave ranges. This incredible engineering innovation will revolutionize the way Steel Drums will be designed in the future. The sustained vibrancy, range, residence is triple that of a standard manufactured steel drum instrument.

George Pollis, Steel Drum Musician and Band Manager of Reel Ting Steel Drum Band along with Eric Ness, Master Pan Designer and Master Pan Musician, launched this new Steel Drum into the Steel Drum Community and Pan-Demonium has been re-found. This new Steel Drum covers the ranges from the front line pans, midrange pans and double second pans, double Guitars, double tenor pans and bass pans all in one steel drum. It is very easy to play and other Master Pan Musicians are waiting in line for the next Pan to be manufactured. More Photos’, Audio and Video clips of this new Steel Drum sounds can be found on our YouTube channel.

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It’s true. Any wedding planner will tell you. Live wedding music – better than a dj. There are many reasons that many will tell you that live wedding music is better than a dj. What are some of those reasons? Here we will tell you a few about them. Let’s look at them. Shall we?

For starters, who doesn’t love to have some live entertainment. People who come to your wedding reception will have a much better time because they have will have entertainment that they can enjoy on a visual and auditory level. This all can help drastically to make the people at your reception have a lot better time.

Another thing that you must consider when you go for live wedding music is what sort music you want to have played. This will tell you what sort of live wedding band you will need. You will notice a big difference in the atmosphere when you have a live band. When you choose a band, they might only play one type of music. This is the reason you need to know what sort of music you want.

Another reason is that you can find some bands that have some sort of sound that you might not have heard about. One of these is Reel Ting. It hasn’t been heard of very often, yet at the same time, they have great music for all to enjoy. Isn’t that what many of you look for as you are picking out music for when you take those vows?

The last thing that allows it to do is that it allows you to have some extra fun. With a dj you can get people up and moving about, but nothing like a wedding band can do. People just feel a lot more in a party mood when you have a live band. So, it might be something to consider.

So, as you can see, there are reasons to hire a live band. We assure you that if you can pay for this and swing it, you and your guests will have a better time. That’s worth a lot when this is hopefully the only time you say I do. How is that for reasons?