HighLite Vibes Chatter

The steelpan no longer Trinidadian?

The steelpan instrument was invented in Trinidad and has its history and growth on several sites all over the internet. Trinidadians are among the best pan players in the world. However, what exactly ranks you among the best? Is it your level of skill or how many records you sell? How about how many fans you have? That could be an entire discussion in itself, but that’s not really what I want to talk about. Somehow, I have this feeling that the steelpan is no longer a “Trinidadian” or “West Indian” or “Caribbean” instrument. Yes how shocking is that - it caused quite a stirring debate with my trinidadian friends when I uttered those words but here’s why I say that.

When the steelpan started growing in popularity, I am sure it was the vision of many pioneers to share this part of their culture with as many persons they could in the world. However, once more individuals and countries started embracing the instrument, its identity became blurred and it is categorized more and more as a musical instrument rather than a “trinidadian instrument.” For example, where was the flute invented? Or where was the clarinet, oboe, trumpet invented? The “ordinary man” most likely cannot answer these questions but yet these instruments are always present in a standard orchestra and are known around the world.

My point is this, for the Steelpan to become even more standardized, it may have to let go of its roots and this might not be a bad thing even though so many Trinidadians do dread it, I say relax, we’re going to come and go - but the steelpan will remain here…yes its already entering into that eternal musical instrument home - (The symphony Orchestra)

Check out this clip of steelpan and orchestra from HighLite Vibes here.

Dealing with Nerves

Do you ever wonder how some folks are able to stand in front of an audience and deliver a performance of a lifetime. Be it a music production, poetry, drama, dance, some people simply have nerves of steel or at least it would appear this way. Ever wonder how they do it? I do - all the time. How do you guys do it? Across the years, I have come to discover that the level of nerves is directly related to the level of preparedness. If you have prepared well, practiced well, its more likely that you would not feel the stresses of nervousness. On the other hand, poor preparation almost always result in a nerve wrecking performance.

Just like an examination, the hardest part of performing seems to be in the preparation. And when you are fully prepared, the performance becomes the reward rather than the burden and nervousness becomes a myth.

Brief Updates

Its another Wednesday, and well, not much have been done on my part - how are you guys doing? I have begun writing an analysis on the pieces, and I soon discovered that we really do not have much documentation or analysis of steel pan pieces, or is it that I am looking in the wrong places. Regardless, I am in the process of writing my first paper and when it is completed, I will publish it on this blog, or at least links to it - hopefully I could continue to write more and more and build a useful library.

Secondly, I am actually going to be writing over all the music in the folk catalogue - it is much easier to scan the images in and publish it, but I feel that would not be as elegant a solution as completely re-doing the entire thing. Further, I want to set it up so that searches are optimized and anyone can find what they are looking for. Keep checking back.

Pan Analysis

Once again I was searching for information online, this time, I wanted to find a musical analysis of some of the Panorama pieces presented over the years. One of my favorite pieces “Pan in A minor” by Kitchener was arranged by Jit Samaroo and performed by BP Renegades (at that time I think they were Amoco Renegades), so I searched briefly for it - of course I found no information pertaining to the analysis or structures or anything musical but there are quite a few youtube videos and various arrangements of this steel pan classic. Therefore, I will work on an analysis through this month and publish it on the HighLite Vibes website

Additionally, I will attempt to create similar documents for several of the winning panorama arrangements across the years. If you know any resources that would provide me assistance please forward it to me, or comment it on this post!