I am a sax player who learns a lot from playing pan. The physical layout of any instrument has a lot to do with how easy or difficult it is to play and hear and (most importantly) understand music. When I first tried to come to terms with the 7flat 9 chord (say C7b9), I could play it easily on the sax but it did not have the naturalness that I found when I played it on the triple guitar pan, until I took what I learnt on the pan back to the saxophone.
The reason for this is because on the triple guitar, three of the four notes of any flat nine chord are in a single pan. For example, for C7b9, the C or root is in one pan, and the E, G, Bb and Db are in a separate, single pan, This is because the notes E G Bb Db makeup a diminished chord, which is the basis of the layout of each of the three pans of the triple guitar. So when I have a C7 chord on the triple guitar, I very easily and visually (and understandingly) play low C in one pan, play the E G Bb Dd in another pan and go back to the high C in the first pan I started on. So now, a 7b9 is a natural, beautiful sound in my ears; thanks to the triple guitar.
There are more lessons to learn from pan, including the circular nature of pan allowing a clear concept of the cycle of 5ths/4ths from the single tenor. The irony is that some musicians with the musical knowledge are not playing pan and some pan players are contented to play without a deeper understanding of the musical knowledge.
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Says who? Who made it offficial that "steelpan" is more correct than "dteeldrum", the original word? It's a case of euphemism, or perhaps a weak attempt to "dignify" the name. Is the instrument not a drum?
Peter
Just to add to the discussion as a sax player trying to play pan, I have to relate that all sax players try to play and understand the Coltrane Changes, the chord progression that John Coltrane used in Giant Steps.
In a book called, ‘Coltrane, A Players Guide to His Harmony” by Walt Weiskopf and Ramon Ricker, the authors explain that the basis of the progression is descending minor thirds (B Major 7 to G Major 7 to Eb major 7). The beauty here is that Coltrane takes a perfect figure (the circle, of 5ths or 4ths) and inserts another perfect figure (an equilateral triangle). This can be easily seen by looking at the single tenor and outlining the roots of the major chords B to G to Eb; they form an equilateral triangle. The authors go on to explain that in approaching the major 7 chords, Coltrane inserts the dominant of the upcoming major 7. So the progression becomes B major and D7 (bar 1) to G major 7 and Bb7 (bar 2) to Eb Major (bar 3). I will not bore you with the details since the authors explain the changes so well. And of course, the root of the dominant, like a good neighbor, is as close to the root of the major chord as one can get.
The key point is that the musical symmetry of the single tenor makes it a wonderful musical tool. After all, music, like life, is a journey starting from one point and ending up either back at the same point or diametrically opposite or anywhere else for that matter. I know a lot of pan players will be mad at me for saying this but I suspect that the logic of the pan assists many pan players in playing well and some of them are just too lazy to take on the beautiful theory behind the beautiful logic of their playing. This may well explain why many pan solos sound similar, if the logic of the theory does not meet the logic of the physicality of playing the pan
Last panorama in Antigua I was amazed when, in excitement over a part of an arrangement by a young arranger (Khan Cordis) I told an ace tenor player (who could run rings around me) that he was playing parallel 4th separated by semitones, and I remembered reading many years ago in a theory book that parallel 4ths and 5ths were forbidden (with a footnote that great composers defied the rule). It was all lost on the ace player; which makes me lament on the job of the arranger telling his story and I wonder just how much “sweeter” pan would be if the players understood the theory and the musical journey the arranger is taking.
But alas, do we have to know the fine points of architecture or painting or anatomy to know when a building or a painting or a person is simply and naturally beautiful? Can it be then that the same story of the arranger is played by all the pan players, including children, each with a parallel concept of the story?
There is a lot of merit in your discussion, As an author of Steelpan Textbooks the importance of Music Literacy is a definite need for the Steelpan world
Salah