The thing is , sometimes we get so caught up in thoughts , ideas , and opinions , that we forget reality .
The reality is that we've never standardized TUNING, and since we still have pioneering tuners around, some of whom may still have their preferences, there is no urgency to do so.
Then you have the steelbands themselves, who have made substantial investments in their pans, and pans are not cheap.
I don't know if it's changed, but I doubt anyone would join a steelband because of the styling. You just use the pans that are there, so there is no real incentive for the bands to change their pans.
So the bands will maintain these pans as long as they can ,and probably add to them when necessary.
(Probably unless someone may wish to buy them out which is highly unlikely.)
And then we have personal preferences, and that's like religion and many would like to maintain theirs, and not have the "government " force a style on them.
So there you are.
Just a few things to think about when you talk of standardization.
Personally, I think this is one area where the market will choose, and I think we are seeing it already.
Panists are deciding on which formats are the best and most practical, and those are the ones they wish to use.
Over time the market will choose the format.
And, maybe that 's the way it should be.
Replies
Who are the players involved in the standardization of pan?
Wayne:
Good to hear that the former "pan in the Classroom" initiative has begun/will begin to bear fruit.
I still maintain, however, that pan is already mostly standardised. Any pan person in the world can come to TnT right now and recognize and play a tenor or seconds. Probably even a triple-cello. Double-tenors still have some curious variants, though.
Peter
Peter
Excuse me while I say to Glen, Great topic Glen!
Peter,this year we borrowed some tenors as we didn't have enough,and we thought we were good to go....but when players started coming in, we realized we had a problem....what happened was,almost all the tenor players were accustomed to High C Tenors and we had borrowed Low C Tenors,which meant we had to return the Low Cs and rent some High Cs.
We also had to increase on the Double Guitars and Seconds and we encountered the same problem.....I believe the triple cello and the four pan are about standardized. We may have to change or other bands may have to change....but standardization has to be the prime objective,soonest!
Oswald:
First of all, back in 1978 -79, when I was arranging for Tropical [Enterprise] Angel Harps, most of the tenors were high-C, but that did not interfere in any way with the band's transition to low-C tenors.
Furthermore, any tenor player who cannot switch from low-C to high-C tenor (AND VICE VERSA) is not really a tenor player, just an undergraduate who doesn't understand that both instruments are 4ths-and-fifths in design. I have done the same myself, so I'm not speaking from theory ... standardisation should not occur because lack of it makes life tedious for the incompetent. Rather, those limited ones should make themselves more informed about the various pan designs/formats..
Peter
Peter
Allow me to quote myself from my earlier post....."We may have to change or other bands may have to change....but standardization has to be the prime objective,soonest!"
I am the incompetent one for not recognizing that 17 players were learning the music on 8 high C tenors and then borrowed 9 low Cs.....I should have known that the players muscle memory would have been affected....so the blame is on me.I mentioned the experience to reinforce the standardization argument,sorry if it was taken as an excuse for limited and incompetent players.
Oswald, on the 4 pan some are tunes Augmented and some are tuned 4ths and 5ths, as long as they decide on one Style let's Standardized, other Pans can be made it's up to the Tuners, but at the end they will realized that the Money is in the Standardized Style, and they will tune to suit.
Bede,it seems that most bands have the 4th and 5th,I suppose as bands replace their old instruments they would go to 4th and 5th.
Many composers have written songs about standardizing the pan, good or bad idea?
well one more was done this year 2014 by '' Tunapuna Scanty " it would be so much easier
as a player that travels around the world promoting the culture of Trinidad & Tobago and getting there
and then having access to the instrument. myself I started to play my first year in 1970 with then
Golden Stars of Arima and then " LJ Williams Nutones " of Arima so my time as a competing player
is done and probably many aged ex-players like myself .
and now that pan is all over the globe why don't we put it to a vote to the young and new and current
player around the world where pan is being played as we speak, ( Would it be easier to fly anywhere and just join
in any band and having the ability to just play ) if the pan became standardized ?
like a Keyboard a Sax and a Drum-kit.
they were talking about this 30 years ago and here we are 30 years later we are still talking instead
of just doing . it is no longer about the older heads but of the children of tomorrow that will be carrying
on the sounds of steel from every corner of this Globe that we live on..
Pan as we know it belongs to the culture of T&T but it is now being played in competitions around the
world by kids who are enjoying it and people who are loving it and judges who are judging it.
so if they happen to fly to Africa or Australia , England or Japan they could just stand behind
any pan and just play.... just play....
Miguel:
Are you related to Egbert Reyes?
Peter
Well said Miguel. This is happening at the primary school level in Trinidad and Tobago. Any school can leave their pans at home and go to another school and perform on the host school's pans. Again I remind you that it has been happening at Junior Panorama for at least three years now. The Multicultural Music Programme Unit (formerly Pan in the Classroom Unit) is not talking but walking and because many of our school children are using the same style of pans the steelbands may be forced to make a decision concerning the style of pans they use. Recognition of the Pan in Schools Coordinating Council is in order for initiating this project in schools.
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