Steelbands - they are the heart of the Trinidadian Carnival. During the carnival season up to 120 musicians play in one band. Competitions end in the “National Panorama Final”, were the best steelband of this season will be found. On carnival Monday and Tuesday the bands celebrate - in a decreased form - the parade on trucks in the capital of Trindidad & Tobaga Port of Spain, between thousands of dancing people. Who has experienced this, will never forget it!

The Trinidad and Tobago Bureau of Standards wrote 1992:

“The steel pan is a musical instrument indigenous to Trinidad and Tobago. During the mid 1930’s the first “steel bands” appeared and were mainly made up of metallic rhythm instruments in the form of dustbin covers, discarded biscuit tins, motor car hub caps and the like.

In the early 1940’s, the instrument evolved from an indefinite pitch rhythm instrument to a rhythmic instrument containing some definite pitch notes. These instruments included Ping Pong, Tenor Kittle with five notes, Cuff Boom and the Dudup (Bass Kittle). The rest of the decade saw a tremendous spontaneous surge in the development of the instrument. The sweet-oil drum (ping-pong) sunk in convex fashion, with five to seven notes, held up in one hand and played with a rubber-less stick in the other, gave way to the oil drum, sunk in concave fashion, with fifteen notes played with rubber-tipped sticks.

With the establishment of the Trinidad All Steel Percussion Orchestra (TASPO) in 1951, which was formed specially to perform at the Festival of Britain of that year, the entire orchestra was augmented with the inclusion for the first time of the 3-drum bass-boom and the 2-drum cello-boom, establishing a complete chromatic range of notes from bass to ping-pong.
This development not only enhanced the entire musical capability of the orchestra but spurred on the further development before the end of the decade, of families of steel pan instruments that were chromatic.

Modern steel orchestras are of two types:

(a) Pan-around-neck steel bands which are essentially bands where the instruments are hung or suspended around the neck or shoulder of the pannist. The instruments are single pans the range of which is limited and usually not chromatic. Some of the instruments used in the pan-around-neck are tenors, harmony pans (high single second), single second (low single second), single guitar and single bass (5-note bass).

(b) Conventional steel bands are bands in which the instruments are suspended from pan racks or pan stands. The instruments range from single pans to groups of twelve pans and are usually chromatic. Some of the instruments used in conventional steel bands are tenors, double tenors, double seconds, double guitars, triple guitars, tripple cellos, four cellos, quadrophonic, tenor bass, six bass, nine bass and twelve bass.

While the steel pan instrument was evolving from a rudimentary rhythm instrument into an internationally accepted musical instrument, the knowledge and skill of the pioneers - tuners, arrangers and pannists - evolved to such an extent that they are now all experts or specialists in their own right.

An anomaly exists in the naming of some steel pan instruments. For example, the frontline or lead pan in the steel band is called the Tenor Pan although it carries notes in the soprano voice range.”