Steel Tongue Sundays #1: What is a steel tongue drum?
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.
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.
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.
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.
Which brings us to the end of our story...
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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
http://www.steemit.com/@fayehalliday
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.
Thank you, friend! Looking forward to seeing the video of your handpan :-)
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 :)
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.
Thanks for the kind words and support, Shan! :-)