It is said that as Pythagoras, the 6th century Greek philosopher was walking past a brazier's shop and heard hammers beating out a piece of iron. This led him to discover the harmonic or overtone series. The sounds Pythogoras heard have resonated down the centuries. Today Trinidadians refer to playing pan as beating iron. The steel drum, or pan, is a unique instrument, one of the most recently invented and indigenous of the islands of Trinidad and Tobago. It is a skillfully hammered 55-gallon oil drum, which has been carefully tuned to produce tones. The steel drum carries a full chromatic range of notes and produces any kind of music one can imagine. During British Colonial rule of Trinidad and Tobago in the 1800's, hand drums were used as a call for the then slaves to reinvent their African heritage. At times they were used to call neighborhood gangs to "mash up" with other gangs. Hoping to curb the violence, the government outlawed hand drums in 1886. Deprived of the drums, the Trinidadians turned to the "Tamboo Bamboo" where each member of a group carried a length of bamboo and struck it on the ground as the group walked through the streets, producing distinctive rhythmic "signatures" which identified each gang. When two groups met on the march, they would pull out machetes, which were hidden in the long bamboo poles, which solved none of the violence problems. Soon, the government outlawed the Tamboo Bamboo. .............................................................................................................more about us