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Introducing the steelpan to Swedish Schools

By Stokely Taylor. 2016-04-20

SETTING THE STAGE

After 12 years of study and research, and even deep spiritual insight. I am presenting this project to Ystad'kommun's kultur chef.

That Steelpan Talent

Susan Herbert


A recent lecture by Dr. Brian Copeland on steelpan technology provided new insights in the potential of the pan for innovation in many spheres of social life and also in terms of the genius of the inventors. Dr. Copeland explained some of the scientific principles underpinning the manufacture (including tuning) and use (including amplification) of the instrument, and indicated that there is now a much wider body of research on the instrument—some of the scientific theories about the behaviour of steel have been challenged and hitherto unknown properties of steel have been unearthed.

  • We note the initiation of The Pan in Schools project, which utilizes the pan as the
  • instrument for teaching music. However, throughout Dr. Copeland’s presentation
  • it was evident that in addition to being used to teach music, the steelpan could be used to in, physics, history, economics, and social studies among other“subjects.” In other words, the steelpan can itself be used as the basis for developing an innovative curriculum within the formal school environment.us might easily be able to relate to music as a language, and it is highly likely that teachers of English language could find ways to use music to teach the elements of
  • required for essay writing, and for narrative structure in general. The lecture
  • also explored the intimate relationship between music and mathematics.
  • It is public knowledge that student performance in mathematics and English language at the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) examinations is unsatisfactory. In 2004, amere 36% achieved a passing grade (Grades I to III) in the CXC General Proficiency examinations. Only 49% of the candidates achieved Grades I to III on the General

Proficiency examination in English. Juxtaposed against this is the clear evidence of an abundance of musical talent in Trinidad and Tobago and the Caribbean in general. The results of the CSEC 2004 examinations in music provide formal evidence of this. Music is not a compulsory subject like mathematics and English, so comparisons are not readily intelligences?

classroom activity, which aims at doing just that. Gardner believes that any intelligence be used as a means for communicating the content of instruction, and that the child’s strength in any of the intelligences could be used to assist in the development of the concepts within any selected domain of study. Therefore, it seems reasonable to conclude teachers could use students’ musical intelligence to develop some aspects of the mathematical and linguistic intelligences. Music by its nature could be used to illustrate patterns, number, story (beginning, development, end), and mood which are characteristiclinguistic intelligence and mathematical intelligence., mathematics has not been traditionally presented in a manner that allows students to discern the relationship between music and mathematics at an epistemic level.

Therefore, an approach/undertaking of this nature would require research and development. The steelpan has spawned a research and development agenda involving academics such as Derek Gay, Clem Imbert, Anthony Achong, and Brian Copeland inTrinidad and Tobago, and others in foreign countries. Perhaps it is now time for the steelpan, in those schools that have embraced the pan as the instrument of choice in music, to act as the central point for collaboration among the teachers of music,mathematics, and language arts. Let’s celebrate that steelpan talent.

Pan Lovers Finland

Notting Hill Riots - London 1958

Notting Hill Riots - London 1958

TASPO | Sterling Betancourt | The 1951 Festival of Britain

Sterling Betancourt


Sir Sterling Betancourt MBE plays for the Queen

Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo 2014 - Trinidad and Tobago Steel Orchestra Marching Band

LONDON PANORAMA

Metronomes Steel Orchestra
2016

 Mangrove Steelband 2016

Real Steel 2016

Ebony Steelband 2016

 CSI Steelband 2016

London All Stars - UK National Panorama Steelband Competition 2016

Croydon Steel Orchestra 2016

USA SUMMER STEELBAND BOOTHCAMP

Inside out Steelband Concert 4/19/2016

Inside Out Carnival Concert February 23, 2016 in Austin, TX.

STEELPAN PROJECTS IN  BRITISH  SCHOOLS

World record breaking 1000 Steel Drums - London UK, Sept 8 2012

Eltham Hill School

Dover Steel Drum Band



Pan in the Classroom Unit

HISTORY

During the period June to September 2000, a joint committee of the Ministry of Education, Pan Trinbago and the Pan in Schools Coordinating Council met to consider a proposal for the establishment of a “Pan in the Classroom” project. Primary and Secondary School teachers were then invited to a Consultation on “Pan in Schools” in October 2000, where views were received and a “Survey of Steelband Activities” was distributed. After tabulation of the survey results and consideration of the views expressed at the consultation, a report was presented. This report was reviewed by the Ministry of Education officials and representatives of the Pan In Schools Coordinating Council, who together formed a Committee that prepared and submitted a Final Report to the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Education.

After an internal review of the Report’s contents, the view was that it presented significant justification for a programme of the general nature proposed in the report, with such a programme holding the promise of important benefits for the Education system, the Pan movement and the country as a whole. In this regard, the Honourable Minister of Education took a Note to Cabinet on the subject and on June 13th 2002 Cabinet agreed to the establishment of a National Programme for “Pan in the Classroom”. The Pan in the Classroom Project Unit officially began work in 2003 and today is in its sixth year of existence, continuing to grow from strength to strength. Following are some of the principles that guide its operations:

 

GOALS

 To implement the Ministry of Education’s music curricula in schools, utilizing the steelpan as the primary instrument.

 To facilitate all schools in Trinidad and Tobago in the acquisition of steelpan instruments and other accessories on a phased basis.

OBJECTIVES

 To establish a framework for supervision and evaluation of the programme.

 To develop a programme database to provide accurate and timely information to aid programme planning, networking and execution

 To develop common approaches for implementation through a continuous programme of teacher training

 To adapt the existing music curriculum as it relates to the steelpan

 To guide in the development of building infrastructure for sound-proof classrooms and adequate storage areas to enable the curriculum to be effectively implemented during school hours

 To guide in the establishment of the standardisation of the steelpan instruments for use in schools

 To liaise with stakeholders and other interest groups who share the vision of the programme

 To establish policies for:

 the selection of schools to receive instruments

 the selection of pan tuners to provide instruments

 

ACHIEVEMENTS TO DATE

 Over one hundred and fifty schools have been provided with a sixteen-piece steelband ensemble, while another thirty five are expected to receive instruments in this financial year (2009-2010).

 Over two hundred and fifty primary and secondary teachers have been trained in utilizing the steelpan to implement the music curricula of Trinidad and Tobago.

 Specifications for standardised steelpan instruments for use in schools have been developed and distributed to tuners selected to supply instruments for the programme.

 Finalising arrangements for the National Junior Steelband Music Festival which should be held in November 2010 in collaboration with our stakeholders – Pan Trinbago and the Pan In Schools Coordinating Council.

 

Pan in the Classroom Project Unit Coordinators

 

Mr Victor N. Prescod Project Coordinator

Mr Paul Massy Regional Coordinator, Caroni

Ms Josephine Torrel-Taylor Regional Coordinator, North Eastern

Mr Victor McGill Regional Coordinator, P.O.S. & Environs

Mr Mark Hosten Regional Coordinator, St George East

Mr. Kevin Millien Regional Coordinator, St Patrick

Mr Stephen Mohammed Regional Coordinator, South Eastern

Mr Gofrey Joseph Regional Coordinator, Tobago

Ms Nubia Williams Regional Coordinator, Victoria

 

Music Instructors

Peter Rory Aleong

Damyon Alexander

Ahva Alexis

Maria Antoine

Aquil Arrindell

Gerard Balfour

Carl Caton

Kenneth Clarke

Rachel Clarke

Ayoka Craigwell

Aneysha De Coteau

Curtis Edwards

Akini Gill

Koreece Graham

Richard Gittens

  Alexis Hope

Curtis Jones

Malomo Joseph

Roland Joseph

Kendall Lewis

Kevin McLeod

Anna Noel

Kyle Noel

Petal Pereira

Natacia Ramsay

Preston Richardson

Akinola Sennon

Wayne Serrieaux

Noel Skair

Marissa Theodore Timothy

Sydney Thomas

 

 

Pan in the Classroom Project Unit Clerical Staff

Ayanna Best Project Secretary

Gillian Payne Clerical Assistant

Support Staff

Khadija Charles Administrative Assistant (OJT)








Steel Bands in American Schools: What They Are, What They Do, and Why They're Growing!



Summary:

 

The article focuses on the inclusion of steel drum bands within public music education programs throughout the United States. An overview of the growing popularity of steel band music at the turn of the 21st century is given, highlighting its usefulness in promoting multicultural education. The history of steel drum music in 1940s Trinidad and Tobago is mentioned. Additional discussion is also given outlining the factors which made steel band music effective in classrooms, such as the relative simplicity of technique, it's exotic appeal to students, and its inclusion of multiple genres within its repertoire such as calypso, reggae and popular music.


Excerpt from Article:

Steel drum ensembles promote multicultural music education and attract a wide range of students.

In 1988, a survey of music educators found a disturbing trend. The survey revealed that music education teachers were not implementing multicultural education to the same degree that general education teachers were.(n1) Even though MENC and leading music educators at the Tanglewood Music Education Symposium of 1967 had enthusiastically endorsed a greater emphasis on world musics in American classrooms, little had changed since then. Studies based upon these discrepancies produced a variety of responses. One survey by Jerrold Moore found that even though 75 percent of educators interviewed believed in the inclusion of world musics, most stated that their training did not prepare them for incorporating them into the classroom, and that they felt they did not have the knowledge necessary to teach them.(n2)  instruments in culturally sensitive environments.(n3) Music educators and '80s--to instead having students actually make music on authentic who first participated in the revolution, however, recall that such an educational hypothesis stood a distant second to the element that first attracted them to music to begin with: the sound.

"In 1973 I took my marching band to play at the Orange Bowl in Florida," recalls early steel drum pioneer Marc Svaline, director of bands at Washington High School in Washington, Pennsylvania. "While there, we performed at Disney World … My first time at Disney World, andI spent most of the day standing outside the 'Pirates of the Caribbean' ride listening to this little steel band play. I had never heard anything like it! … [Years later] I got hold of a cheap tourist pan from Miami. We miked it, put it on the marching field--I had no idea what I was doing, I think I had a student play it with xylophone mallets--and the crowd went crazy! I figured there was something there!"(n4)

The unique sound of the Trinidadian steel band has captivated listeners ever since its invention in 1940s Trinidad and Tobago. Born in the slums of Port of Spain, this unique instrument shares a history as fascinating as its tone. Invented by school-age youths seeking a way to create music for the festive Carnival celebrations of Trinidad, the drums were first hammered out of metallic tubs and dustbins until the fortuitous arrival of Allied ships during World War II brought thousands of 55-gallon oil drums to the island. Eventually, gangs of "ruffians" composed of unemployed boys and men roamed the streets of Port of Spain playing the evolving instruments, where they fought with their fists, their music and their instruments as each band tried to outfight and outplay the others. Within a few decades, the unmistakable sound of the instrument and the calypso music most closely associated with it had created an international following fueled by migrating Trinidadian performers and instrument craftsmen, who relocated to the United States, Europe, and elsewhere.

Known today as "steel pans" in Trinidad and "steel drums" in North America, the ensemble represents a unique hybridization of Western, Caribbean, Latin, and even African influences. Taught and learned almost entirely by rote in Trinidad, the music has been adapted in North America to Western music education models that rely upon music literacy and Western ensemble rehearsal techniques. A standard steel drum "orchestra" in Trinidad can involve up to one hundred players and nine or more varieties of the instruments, which range from one pan per player up to eight pans per individual. In North America, most public school ensembles utilize anywhere from fifteen to thirty student performers on five basic instruments, each of which cover one-and-a-half to two or more chromatic octaves to make a complete palette from soprano to bass for musical expression: the tenor pan, the double tenor, the double seconds, the cello/guitars, and the bass pans.

In addition to the steel drums, both Trinidadian and North American ensembles use a group of percussionists known collectively as the engine room. The engine room incorporates a variety of rhythm instruments ranging from a drumset and congas to metal rasps and the ubiquitous automotive brake drum (played with sticks in a syncopated ostinato rhythm for a high-pitched, bell-like sound), all of which combine toprovide the energy behind both calypso and the more recently invented soca music styles that are often a prevalent part of any steel ensemble's repertoire (see the sidebar on music of the steel band).

As many music educators called for increased awareness of non-Western musics in American classrooms during the latter part of the twentieth century, steel drum ensembles gradually emerged in American universities as a viable form of handson multicultural music instruction. In 1980, only three university-affiliated steel bands existed in the United States. By 2001, one North American pan tuner ascertained that there were over 650 university and public school steel drum ensembles in his files alone.(n5)

What fueled this rapid growth? The immigration of gifted steel drum builders and educators from Trinidad provided both the instruments and the instruction that allowed the art form to flourish for the first time outside of Trinidad. North American university percussion professors, fascinated by the possibilities of the ensemble, began to incorporate the instruments into their curriculum, where they were soon absorbed by anew generation of future music educators.(n6)

Recently, steel drum programs have begun to emerge at high schools across the country. Some programs were created as a direct result of the North American university steel band movement, as recent university graduates moved into their first teaching positions. "When I was hired,"states Ed LeBorgne, director of the Walnut Hills High School ensemble in Cincinnati, Ohio, "the school had a strong music program to begin with. I mentioned a desire to incorporate a steel drum program in my jobinterview, and I was hired with the expectation that I would get onegoing."(n7)

Other programs were formed by band directors who had no steel band experience, but who were looking for new ways to excite their students about music. "I heard some drums once at the Port of Miami and loved the sound," recalls director Art Glenn, who is a woodwind specialist and band director at Carrollton High School in Carrollton, Ohio. "A bit later, I received a flyer from Villanova about a one-week summer course over how to start a steel band program … I attended, and invited the teacher to give an informational concert at my school. Kids, parents,the school board, and even the superintendent came. Afterward, I proposed a $30,000 budget to create an ensemble and really pushed themulticultural/world exposure angle. The response was incredibly positive!"(n8)

The profound impact of this emerging ensemble can be found in elementary and middle school programs, as well. The appeal of pan at the elementary level is obvious. Within a very short time frame, even the youngest beginner can play a melody or strum a tune without having toworry about breath support or the fine-motor skills inherent in learning recorder or guitar fingerings. After introducing a steel band programin an elementary school in Manitoba, Canada, educator Linda Hildebrandnoted improved self-confidence and self-image among her students, and the students responded with comments such as: "[Steel drums] are interesting and fun to use," and "They keep me in music."(n9) The teacher in one middle school program remarked, "[The steel drum ensemble] shows cultural diversity and the students learn about music from another culture. It's a great public relations tool. It's a great teaching tool. It's a great motivational instrument."(n10)

 At the high school level, students can benefit from learning the many international musical styles and rhythms often associated with steel drums--including soca, calypso, reggae, and a broad scope of Latin music--in a performing context that allows for an in-depth exploration of these varying genres. Most high school steel bands are made up of a variety of instrumentalists from varying backgrounds, including wood wind and brass players, and choir members. Percussionists, especially, tend to be attracted to steel bands because of the opportunity to perform as an integral part of the ensemble rather than as a mere coloristic addition in the back of the room. However, an unrecognize for beginners at all levels is the fact that the techniquenecessary to make a good sound is very simple, and no participant is

handicapped by a lack of previous experience with other instruments such

as the piano (unlike in a percussion ensemble setting).

One of the most appealing elements of steel bands in public schools is the wide range of students they attract. Since rote learning and music reading are considered equally valid educational methods for many steel band programs, the ensembles can draw both high-achieving music students and at-risk students with no musical background. Larry Ordener, director of the Steel Ambassadors of the A. J. Moore Academy/

Professional Development school in Waco, Texas, works with inner-city students, the overwhelming majority of whom are on a free- or reduced-lunch program and have little to no interest in "traditional"music programs such as band or orchestra. Instead, the music program at A. J. Moore consists entirely of one jazz band, four beginning steel drum ensembles, and one advanced steel drum ensemble, all of which learn simple selections by rote before they are introduced to music reading and more advanced repertoire.(n11)

A similar program can be found at the Brighton Heritage Academy in Brighton, Colorado. There, Donald Prorack directs three classes of steel band every morning--the only music classes offered at the academy, which enrolls only at-risk students. The allure of the steel band can also have a positive effect for underperforming students within a more traditional public school program.(n12) Brad Shores, the director of the Haven High School program in Haven, Kansas, recalls, "I've been told by the principal, 'This kid's in school because of your steel band; otherwise, he'd have dropped out of here by now.'"(n13)…




University Of The West  Indies

Dr. Brian Copeland 

RUDY KING the Man who introduced Steelpan to America

RUDY KING 



STEELPAN IN AMERICAN UNIVERSITIES


Dr. Jonathan Haas of New York University 


STEELPAN MOVEMENT IN THE  USA

Mr. Willam Jones

All Star Steel Band- Conder

The Cultural Academy for Excellence (CAFE)

Gregory Boyd in New York 

Ellie Mannette speaks

Pan in Schools Trinidad and Tobago

St Augustine 2011

St Augustine 2015

Pan in School - Michelle Huggins-Watts

Pan In Schools 2014 - Stacy Alcantara

Pan in Schools - Cheriese Pierre

Pan in Schools - Josiah Didier

It's Show Business - Steelpan Goes To Hollywood & Broadway

MEMORIES ARE MADE OF THESE

PAN DOWN MEMORY LANE

GIVE TO GET

MORE LOVE

A success story

THE STORY

Success Stars Pan Sound - Roxanne - Junior Panorama Finals (2016)

STEELPAN TEACHING POSSIBILITIES


Internet 2 - Northern Illinois University School of Music

Northern Illinois University School of Music 2

THE JOURNEY BEGINS

Conversation with Swedish Pannist Stokely Taylor & Aquil Arrindell - July 14, 2016

Opening up PANdoras box for school kids in Ystad, Sweden

LOOK WHO I MET IN TRINIDAD

By Stokely Taylor. Posted July 13  2016

PRESENTING

GOLDENHANDS YoungAndFree - Official Video - Young And Free 2016

Vanessa Headley 


Pan In D Galaxy (FINAL Golden Hands)2015

Ensembles Finals - Golden Hands - Respect The Steelband (Test Piece)


Golden Hands - Endless Vibrations

Golden Hands 2013 Small Band Prelim in South

23 YEARS ANNIVERSARY GOLDENHANDS

Sweden's Stokely Taylor & Bobby Mohammed Visit Golden Hands Music School 17,7,2016

SUMMARY AND CONTINUITY

By Stokely Taylor 18th December 2016



The Steelpan "pan-yard" is the backbone of community life in Trinidad and Tobago

PCS NITROGEN SILVER STARS STEELPAN COMMUNITY PANYARD

PHASE 2 STEELPAN
COMMUNITY PANYARD

TRINIDAD ALL STARS
COMMUNITY PANYARD

RENEGADES STEELPAN
COMMUNITY PANYARD

STOKELY AND AQUILL

My first spontaneous interview on arrival in Trinidad and Tobago

In support for the Steelpan in
Swedish Schools Project  

AN OUT OF BODY EXPERIENCE

BEAT PAN NOT MAN

THE MAYOR OF SAN FERNANDO

 San Fernando is the town in which I was born,and the town with which I will try to form  a twin affiliation  with Ystad  Sweden where I presently reside.

Steelpan playing has no bondaries as to age nor race.It is the perfect integrating tool.

By John Smith posted July 30, 2015

A confident young man.

Proud young girls.

Phase2 with  Mr.Sharpe (watch on youtube instead)

Pan a'la Michael Jackson

Another Japanese steelpan band

The Jap's have it, don't they

MY  FIRST ADMONITION

By Stokely Taylor posted  2/24/2017

BOTTOM-UP APPROACH

ADDRESS
Jorgensgatan 1
27140 Ystad
Sweden

CONTACT
taylorstokely@hotmail.com
Phone: +46 411 12498 (Home)
Mobile  +46 760 958384



Summary:

 

The article focuses on the inclusion of steel drum bands within public music education programs throughout the United States. An overview of the growing popularity of steel band music at the turn of the 21st century is given, highlighting itsusefulness in promoting multicultural education. The history of steel drum music in 1940s Trinidad and Tobago is mentioned. Additional discussion is also given outlining the factors which made steel band music effective in classrooms, such as the relative simplicity oftechnique, it's exotic appeal to students, and its inclusion of multiple genres within its repertoire such as calypso, reggae and popular music.


Excerpt from Article:

Steel drum ensembles promote multicultural music education and attract a wide range of students.

In 1988, a survey of music educators found a disturbing trend. The survey revealed that music education teachers were not implementing multicultural education to the same degree that general education teachers were.(n1) Even though MENC and leading music educators at the Tanglewood Music Education Symposium of 1967 had enthusiastically endorsed a greater emphasis on world musics in American classrooms, little had changed since then. Studies based upon these discrepancies produced a variety of responses. One survey by Jerrold Moore found that even though 75 percent of educators interviewed believed in the inclusion of world musics, most stated that their training did not prepare them for incorporating them into the classroom, and that they felt they did not have the knowledge necessary to teach them.(n2)  instruments in culturally sensitive environments.(n3) Music educators and '80s--to instead having students actually make music on authentic who first participated in the revolution, however, recall that such an educational hypothesis stood a distant second to the element that first attracted them to music to begin with: the sound.

"In 1973 I took my marching band to play at the Orange Bowl in Florida," recalls early steel drum pioneer Marc Svaline, director of bands at Washington High School in Washington, Pennsylvania. "While there, we performed at Disney World … My first time at Disney World, andI spent most of the day standing outside the 'Pirates of the Caribbean' ride listening to this little steel band play. I had never heard anything like it! … [Years later] I got hold of a cheap tourist pan from Miami. We miked it, put it on the marching field--I had no idea what I was doing, I think I had a student play it with xylophone mallets--and the crowd went crazy! I figured there was something there!"(n4)

The unique sound of the Trinidadian steel band has captivated listeners ever since its invention in 1940s Trinidad and Tobago. Born in the slums of Port of Spain, this unique instrument shares a history as fascinating as its tone. Invented by school-age youths seeking a way to create music for the festive Carnival celebrations of Trinidad, the drums were first hammered out of metallic tubs and dustbins until the fortuitous arrival of Allied ships during World War II brought thousands of 55-gallon oil drums to the island. Eventually, gangs of "ruffians" composed of unemployed boys and men roamed the streets of Port of Spain playing the evolving instruments, where they fought with their fists, their music and their instruments as each band tried to outfight and outplay the others. Within a few decades, the unmistakable sound of the instrument and the calypso music most closely associated with it had created an international following fueled by migrating Trinidadian performers and instrument craftsmen, who relocated to the United States, Europe, and elsewhere.

Known today as "steel pans" in Trinidad and "steel drums" in North America, the ensemble represents a unique hybridization of Western, Caribbean, Latin, and even African influences. Taught and learned almost entirely by rote in Trinidad, the music has been adapted in North America to Western music education models that rely upon music literacy and Western ensemble rehearsal techniques. A standard steel drum "orchestra" in Trinidad can involve up to one hundred players and nine or more varieties of the instruments, which range from one pan per player up to eight pans per individual. In North America, most public school ensembles utilize anywhere from fifteen to thirty student performers on five basic instruments, each of which cover one-and-a-half to two or more chromatic octaves to make a complete palette from soprano to bass for musical expression: the tenor pan, the double tenor, the double seconds, the cello/guitars, and the bass pans.

In addition to the steel drums, both Trinidadian and North American ensembles use a group of percussionists known collectively as the engine room. The engine room incorporates a variety of rhythm instruments ranging from a drumset and congas to metal rasps and the ubiquitous automotive brake drum (played with sticks in a syncopated ostinato rhythm for a high-pitched, bell-like sound), all of which combine toprovide the energy behind both calypso and the more recently invented soca music styles that are often a prevalent part of any steel ensemble's repertoire (see the sidebar on music of the steel band).

As many music educators called for increased awareness of non-Western musics in American classrooms during the latter part of the twentieth century, steel drum ensembles gradually emerged in American universities as a viable form of handson multicultural music instruction. In 1980, only three university-affiliated steel bands existed in the United States. By 2001, one North American pan tuner ascertained that there were over 650 university and public school steel drum ensembles in his files alone.(n5)

What fueled this rapid growth? The immigration of gifted steel drum builders and educators from Trinidad provided both the instruments and the instruction that allowed the art form to flourish for the first time outside of Trinidad. North American university percussion professors, fascinated by the possibilities of the ensemble, began to incorporate the instruments into their curriculum, where they were soon absorbed by anew generation of future music educators.(n6)

Recently, steel drum programs have begun to emerge at high schools across the country. Some programs were created as a direct result of the North American university steel band movement, as recent university graduates moved into their first teaching positions. "When I was hired,"states Ed LeBorgne, director of the Walnut Hills High School ensemble in Cincinnati, Ohio, "the school had a strong music program to begin with. I mentioned a desire to incorporate a steel drum program in my jobinterview, and I was hired with the expectation that I would get onegoing."(n7)

Other programs were formed by band directors who had no steel band experience, but who were looking for new ways to excite their students about music. "I heard some drums once at the Port of Miami and loved the sound," recalls director Art Glenn, who is a woodwind specialist and band director at Carrollton High School in Carrollton, Ohio. "A bit later, I received a flyer from Villanova about a one-week summer course over how to start a steel band program … I attended, and invited the teacher to give an informational concert at my school. Kids, parents,the school board, and even the superintendent came. Afterward, I proposed a $30,000 budget to create an ensemble and really pushed themulticultural/world exposure angle. The response was incredibly positive!"(n8)

The profound impact of this emerging ensemble can be found in elementary and middle school programs, as well. The appeal of pan at the elementary level is obvious. Within a very short time frame, even the youngest beginner can play a melody or strum a tune without having toworry about breath support or the fine-motor skills inherent in learning recorder or guitar fingerings. After introducing a steel band programin an elementary school in Manitoba, Canada, educator Linda Hildebrandnoted improved self-confidence and self-image among her students, and the students responded with comments such as: "[Steel drums] are interesting and fun to use," and "They keep me in music."(n9) The teacher in one middle school program remarked, "[The steel drum ensemble] shows cultural diversity and the students learn about music from another culture. It's a great public relations tool. It's a great teaching tool. It's a great motivational instrument."(n10)

 At the high school level, students can benefit from learning the many international musical styles and rhythms often associated with steel drums--including soca, calypso, reggae, and a broad scope of Latin music--in a performing context that allows for an in-depth exploration of these varying genres. Most high school steel bands are made up of a variety of instrumentalists from varying backgrounds, including wood wind and brass players, and choir members. Percussionists, especially, tend to be attracted to steel bands because of the opportunity to perform as an integral part of the ensemble rather than as a mere coloristic addition in the back of the room. However, an unrecognize for beginners at all levels is the fact that the techniquenecessary to make a good sound is very simple, and no participant is

handicapped by a lack of previous experience with other instruments such

as the piano (unlike in a percussion ensemble setting).

One of the most appealing elements of steel bands in public schools is the wide range of students they attract. Since rote learning and music reading are considered equally valid educational methods for many steel band programs, the ensembles can draw both high-achieving music students and at-risk students with no musical background. Larry Ordener, director of the Steel Ambassadors of the A. J. Moore Academy/

Professional Development school in Waco, Texas, works with inner-city students, the overwhelming majority of whom are on a free- or reduced-lunch program and have little to no interest in "traditional"music programs such as band or orchestra. Instead, the music program at A. J. Moore consists entirely of one jazz band, four beginning steel drum ensembles, and one advanced steel drum ensemble, all of which learn simple selections by rote before they are introduced to music reading and more advanced repertoire.(n11)

A similar program can be found at the Brighton Heritage Academy in Brighton, Colorado. There, Donald Prorack directs three classes of steel band every morning--the only music classes offered at the academy, which enrolls only at-risk students. The allure of the steel band can also have a positive effect for underperforming students within a more traditional public school program.(n12) Brad Shores, the director of the Haven High School program in Haven, Kansas, recalls, "I've been told by the principal, 'This kid's in school because of your steel band; otherwise, he'd have dropped out of here by now.'"(n13)…