The very "first pan" was called a ping pong as well, then it changed to tenor pan but no actual tenor notes contained in it. Then a second pan was made after the first pan, but the name second pan remained. Then the double seconds came in and then triple seconds. Then the guitar pan was made but it had no strings attached. Then the cello pans were made without playing it with a bow and also had no strings. Then the bass pan was made and also no bow or strings attached.
The pan is a worldwide member of the musical family of instruments. It belongs to the percussive family of musical instruments and in many ways it's birth was from a drum also known as a barrel. In this way it still retains the look and feel of a "drum " in that sense but does not contain oil or any other substance. The pan contained notes of the universal scale of European music specifically Italian designed music scales. So there are soprano notes, alto notes, tenor notes bass note and other types of musical note and pitches most of which the entire pan instrument contains.
The pan was mostly created by African descendants in the first instance but was heavily pushed by non African descent person both in Trinidad and elsewhere. The drums to make them came from American oil company containers called the barrel. Also American sailors first became interested in it. They were white in skin color and first took it back to the USA especially. The sailors were themselves trained musicians. As trained musicians they had to describe to other musicians in the rest of the world how the various pans fitted into the theoretical names of music and the various classes of musical instruments.
Closer to home it was a trained musician of Barbados (name forgotten) a Lieutenant, who advised the pan creators at that time, if they wanted to gain the full respect of the English audience when they visited England in the TASPO, that they needed to place sharps and flats as well and they should tune their pans like that of the piano using middle C as their starting note up one semitone and also down one semitone down as far as they can reach either ways. So is it any surprise that some of the names like "steel drum" and "mallets" would have been first introduced to foreigners?.
Trinidadians can no longer claim the pan at 100% as they really think. This kind of boastfulness has kept the pan back badly in the place of its birth. When one becomes to proud of one's inventions, one becomes foolish in thinking and holds himself back from spreading his inventions. This can be seen by the fact by the pan inventors who stayed in Trinidad, did not do well. Everyone of them. The ones who migrated did well and did not hold people back from calling the steelpan "steel drum" or sticks for playing them "mallets". If one is intelligent enough, both articles when examined intellectually can be referenced to its foreign counterpart names " musically tuned steel drums" in America as the people already were taught that oil drums/barrels were first used and when one plays either or note on a musical instrument with a stick covered by felt or other substance, that it is also called by the name "mallet".
The music industry world wide has accepted that name. So folks we made a musical instrument -the steel pan. We placed names on them locally. However, if the pan is really a musical instrument, it also cannot be placed on the bare concrete or grass. At least that should be avoided at all cost. Today it must be respected from start to finish as a musical instrument which can take on all the professional and intellectual names of the international music industry from production to sales. Then and only then millions can take the pan musical instrument seriously.
Pan is taught is schools and colleges/universities across the globe. Those taught also learn the crude names that were used in Trinidad. But they also have to be taught what those crude names mean in the actual professional music industry. I don't know if people know that "Music" is the highest form of material education. It is not a space scientist or medical scientist that is the highest material education. It is a musician. Music science is the science of the first element "sound". Sound influences everything we do or say or hear or breathe. When a child is born or animal is born, what is the first thing they do? So the educated persons must also be explained in an educated way and not just on a folk level. That folk level will remain just folk, if it is not properly harnessed into a professional and intelligent manner. Always remember, intelligent people buy knowledge and intelligence first at a cost. Unintelligent folks only want to be handed it for for free and also not place any more time and value into it. So these topics can always be ripped apart by actual intelligence. Finally no one is changing the original names in the rest of the world, but the rest of the world is far greater than the population of Trinidad, So it makes for greater intelligence, that these names can also be referred in consideration of what they mean scientifically and intellectually. Also the names used in Trinidad are not actually patented as the only names to be used. So no force can be applied by any Trinidadian. The Sidd.
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