Steel Tongue Sundays #1: What is a steel tongue drum?

[fayehalliday]

Filmed around 3 months ago, one of the first nights playing my new drum!

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I've always longed after the enchanting sounds of a hang drum

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But at around 2000 bucks a piece the price felt too high for a complete noob like me wanting to dip her toe in the sweet pool of melodic percussion.

So instead, I stuck to watching the odd YouTube video and enjoyed listening to buskers when blessed with the moments I'd crossed paths with one.

That was until I came across steel tongue drums...

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Easy to travel with, a sound equally as beautiful, a fraction of the price and to top it all off, the guy who makes them offered to etch my artwork into the top of the drum. It was like all of my musical prayers answered in one beautiful, sweet sounding instrument.

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The Evolution of the Steel Tongue Drum

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In the world of music, these are very new instruments. The first one only being made around 10 years ago.

But this new instrument is a symbol of the power of inspiration. The beauty in how one idea evolves from another and how one moment of inspiration has the potential to spark an entire chain reaction of future ideas deriving from that one original idea. You're looking at an instrument, inspired by an instrument that was inspired by another instrument. Which I'm sure was inspired by another instrument before that. And the story of its evolution spans all the way back to Trinidad and Tobago, 1880...

African percussion music had just been banned due to the Canboulay riots and instruments were starting to be replaced with something called "Tamboo-Bamboos". These were tunable sticks made out of bamboo, either hit with other sticks or pounded on the ground to make music.

Tamboo Bamboo bands formed across the country and slowly introduced metal items into the mix, using things like car parts, dustbins, paint pots and biscuit tins. These bands became the all steel bands we see in the carnivals today and, gradually over time, everyone got together in a slow process of testing out the different tones of pots and pans, using a 55 gallon steel container to make and invent what's known today as the Steelpan. The national instrument of Trinidad and Tobago.

The story then takes us to Switzerland as the inspiration swept through Europe throughout the 80s in the form of a full blown craze. To the point it became quite normal for people to try out making their own. Two particular Swiss natives, Felix Rohner and Sabina Schärer, spent years developing different instruments inspired by the Steelpan and formed a company called PanArt. Until one day a man brought over the slice of inspiration needed to spark another movement.

The instrument was a "Ghatam" brought over from India and it inspired them to make a steel drum that could be played by hand. Moved by the idea, they spent years making what can only be described as magic and released their first series of the well-known, original "HANGS" in 2000.

Like I said, it was magic. And the demand for them got so high that they were forced to close their doors in the winter of 2005, telling all of their distributors that they would no longer supply any more Hangs and orders for the instruments would completely stop. This gave them both the time to develop the second generation hang as the next chain reaction was set in motion and ideas inspired by theirs began brewing.

One of these brewing ideas in our chain reaction was caught and brought to life by a man named Dennis Havlena who, inspired by the tones of a Hang with an extra slice of inspiration from the Tambiro, made an instrument from a 20 pound propane tank and called it a "Hank Drum".

As much as I'd love to post a photo of this beauty, I can't find any photos labeled for reuse

As far as I know, we don't know who made the first steel tongue drum, but we do know it was inspired by our man Dennis. And now these beautiful instruments are made by different suppliers across the world.

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Which brings us to the end of our story...

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This beautiful instrument sitting in my lap, hand made by a man called Max Palpatin in Ukraine. And without wanting to sound cheesy, the moment I picked it up it felt like home.

I made this video around 3 months ago, one of the first nights I received my drum. Since then, I've travelled with her across the world and found so much joy in playing along the way. I'll be posting any songs I make on here every Sunday, for anyone who wants to share the journey.

And if you're interested in ordering one yourself the website is,
http://www.guda-drum.com :-)

Hope you're all having a beautiful Sunday!

With love,
Faye

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http://www.steemit.com/@fayehalliday

http://www.fayehalliday.com

Comments

[skafeine]

hey ! i relly like ur instrument! i upvote ! i have a handpan Blesspan from italia and friends who have many models of "handpan". i'll post video of mine and share my friends soon. stay attentive and follow me if u like my contents.

[fayehalliday]

Thank you, friend! Looking forward to seeing the video of your handpan :-)

[skafeine]

Yup! I just need to fing a good camera with good audio recording , and a lil bit of motivation and practice for make some good things! Soon :)

[audio-nrg]

Hi,
that's a great article you've done, i always love to see and hear new instruments and old ones too. Thanks for the history on your drum. I will give you a follow and upvoted your article too!
thanks again.

[fayehalliday]

Thanks for the kind words and support, Shan! :-)