Today’s Google Doodle made an attempt to shed some light on the acoustic instrument Steelpan. Steelpan is an acoustic instrument invented in the 20th century. It was invented in Trinidad and Tobago. Today’s Google Doodle thus celebrated T&T’s national instrument and the underlying history of it.
#DYK there was only ONE acoustic instrument invented during the 20th century? The steelpan was created by resilient and innovative musicians in Trinidad and Tobago 🎶
Today’s #GoogleDoodle celebrates T&T's national instrument and the history behind it → https://t.co/qv9ufxK9T9 pic.twitter.com/ex6ljSieG0
— Google Doodles (@GoogleDoodles) July 26, 2022
Some resilient and innovative musicians in Trinidad and Tobago created the steelpan. Musicians who play the steelpan are called pannists.
The pan is played with a pair of straight sticks tipped with rubber. Some pannists even use four pansticks, holding two in each hand.
The instrument also appeared as their former national airline, BWIA’s logo and on the tails of the aircraft.
The instrument varies in size from instrument to instrument. The cylindrical part of the drum is called skirt. The size of the drum corresponds to the skirt. It may have almost all of the “skirt” cut off and around 30 soprano-range notes. The size of the note of the instrument corresponds to the pitch-the larger the oval, the lower the tone.
The drum may use the entire drum with only three bass notes per pan. One person can play six such pans in such a case. The length of the skirt corresponds to the high or low range of the drum.
