Most rock bands have a drummer to help create the group’s sound — but none rely solely on drummers.

Stanley Dahl, Central College visiting instructor of music and director of the Central College Flying Pans, a percussion group built around steel drums, is using his interest in steel drumming to bring the instrument into a genre not-so-typical of the instrument’s origins — rock ‘n’ roll.

Dahl says he has been interested in arranging rock songs for steel drums since he got the idea from a student a few years ago.

“I started this whole different kind of concert series at Central College two years ago with a tribute to Led Zeppelin called ‘Led Pans,'” Dahl says. “And then it just kind of was one of those things where I just had to keep trying to do another show each fall because everybody really wanted something.

“So last year I did Santana, then this year I had a great idea for a logo, which I thought was pretty cool, so I wanted to do Aerosmith,” he says. “I think the music just lends itself great to pans.”

Dahl says he believes using steel drums, which originated on the Caribbean island of Trinidad in the early 20th century, to play rock music will increase appreciation of steel pans as more than just novelty instruments.

“I have tons of pan friends out there around the country, and this is the only program of its kind that has taken the pan into the rock genre and to produce a whole concert of just one person’s music,” Dahl says. “I’m always trying to advance the music of the steel drum, making it more of a professional instrument, knowing you can play other types of music besides the Caribbean stuff.”

For the Aerosmith production, Dahl listened to the band extensively, picked out parts of songs he liked and arranged those parts for the different steel drum instruments.

Dahl says there are several different instruments within the steel drum family.

“Within the steel drum family, it’s pretty much like a concert band or orchestra,” he says. “There’s lots of different pitch classes with steel bands.”

Dahl begins arranging several months before the concert because, he says, even with good time management, arranging all the music can be a tedious process.

“I always start at the beginning of the summer, but it usually ends up finishing about a month or month and a half before the concert,” he says. “And it all depends about time. Some charts are a little bit easier to write than others.”

Dahl’s interest in steel drums started when he learned about steel drum construction at a percussion clinic he attended.

“I started getting involved with steel drums back in ’91,” he says. “I went to a steel drum workshop where I learned how to make some steel drums up in Oshkosh, Wis.

After attending graduate school at Arizona State, Dahl moved back to Iowa and immediately started playing steel drums, which he has done for a decade.

Dahl says his ensemble has seen growth in numbers from 34 to 54 and has had to add another group because of the number of new members.

Danette Love, a student at Central College who has been a member of the ensemble for the past four years, says she puts in at least one hour a day for practicing in addition to taking lessons. She is also involved in a group outside of the main ensemble.

“I’ve started taking this pretty seriously,” Love says. “I already play in a small group with some of the other members of the steel band. We do some gigging around by ourselves.”

Dahl says the main ensemble tours a couple of time during the year. Its big tour this year will take place during Spring Break.

Making a Dudup

(a steel drum instrument) using household items

• Buy a 35-gallon barrel, preferably steel since you are trying to make a steel pan instrument. You need to get a hold of a heavy-duty ball-peen hammer to work the metal of the barrel properly.

• To make a stick to strike the barrel with, glue half of a rubber ball on to the end of an 8 1/2-inch rod.

• Draw a line across the center and divide the barrel into half circles of different sizes. Pound the line with the hammer. This will force the metal in the center down. The two side areas should stretch and resonate.

• The note given off by each end will become apparent as you continue pounding. Strike with the hammer in one hand and the rod in the other to test how the notes are sounding. If it sounds horrible, go inside the barrel and pound up until you get a better sound.

Source: www.toucans.net