Transforming an Oil Drum Into an Instrument - Sounds Like Steel BTS Clip 2

when I started working on sounds like steel I knew I needed to film the process of making a steel pan from an oil drum it's a direct link to the history of pan as an improvised musical instrument made from whatever was available and that remains in the culture of pan today steel bands make their own equipment they do their own repairs and even now the vast majority of steel pans start their life as 55 gallon oil drums well my name is Jim Jimmy Philip I started playing pan when I was about five years old with a band called Wonderland still I'm from Saint Thomas Village in chevonas also known as Boot Hill later on I wanted to learn to not really be upon tuna because that was my career like but I wanted to be able to I would just imagine it if I have a plan I wanted to be able to fix a note if I am somewhere where there is no pantura and then I met um Wallace Austin he's now this is about five years now and he needed somebody to walk with him so I had some experience in Sinking and things so I started working with Wallace Austin and I learned all the tuning from Wallace Austin I want to mention that um basically before before this pneumatic tool we Hammer like this right so this is the earlier although we still do so This Is How We Do It but they say well you know we had the time so a man maybe while they're doing that a man pick up a hub from a car thing a man see a pizza anything to make a noise and while you're hitting it no it it dented anything and then something started song though you know so we are like hey this might be it's only like something right so we start a move but we'll use this tool now which goes a little faster because by the time you hit one hammer here this is about 10. right I hope you you switch it off just now yeah I had it on um is the one that started with the the oil drum and it didn't you just think it that deep and it had a Plucky Plucky kind of song like a marima more I remember kind of song and then they keep they keep getting ideas and they start to go deeper which you could get more brighter Song and more you know and things like that so after this is done it will look like this that is also like this so this is a cleaner one so I will use this to do the drawing right to me how right with this with this machine maybe 45 minutes or half an hour right but but with this with your hand it takes a one or one something right so we take our half an hour also so um what we're going to do is still put the marking for the outer notes so normally we will first find the center of the drum by doing this it doesn't matter the distance here right we choose any distance here and we and we draw this these lines we actually making our box make a box and a new XD box and that's the center so if you have to find center right because all the lines so the notes have to go wrong to the center I have this device here right and this has been measurement for all the Palms in the orchestra only pants is on this right it and um have the finished look but uh issue will line up to a hole to give you the according to respond you're making right so no I locked this in here right and the process that I went through to find the center I don't have to go through the process with this I just have to look through this hole and I will see the center so if you're watching the whole you will see the center for yourself so all I have to do is take my luxury hole and just take my pen and do that boom so I don't have to go through that drawing thing right I know it have circles it have circles and each circle represent apan or a side of a pan so the first circle is for the soprano pan so I use any measurement of this full circle by lining up these holes here and putting my thick hair and line up these holes and put my tick right now I have it in line all right line up and I put my ticks and then I take this off and then I will take the rule I know and follow each stick down here I thought it might be blue one more right you have a measurement for here it might vary with different plant tuners right you do this right and another measurement for the center of the note here so if it varies with with different Palm tuna it varies with different with different pumps right I know we have this to give you the Curve oh right we have this and so that is that is all flexible effects a flexible ruler that is exactly a flexible Rule and they call it before that we do like this yes that's how we know it before that so I'll just do this quick right yeah oh it's cool this is old school this is how we do it and it works right so even those are saving some time so you know the wavelength of whatever notice whatever or they just developed this over time well well it's a science so somebody had to determine some measurements right but then it varies with different people but they had to come to some kind of and say well yeah I'm making this note this link and I doing that with on this size note so there is a science so they came down to that right and let me just show you something too the only happens was not with his clothes in the front too much they had it straight lines are closed like this I will just do this one and they have it like that watch and they had it like that right so right here I know you're getting one two three octave one time so that's all they had it they call it spider web so it was just straight so right yeah and everything would be in a straight line right that's already had it before recording but you know but the Groove Line would just be next door one and I wouldn't have any space in between but they would tune it like like if they tune in I know they would tune it like that you understand did that change because that seems like it might have been simpler and player well maybe they needed it they wanted separation between you know so so they might be just get that space in between instead of that one line borderline but you know it's still happening with like you know with that so they call it spider web these are good ideas because you get you get more octaves right than five in the center you again you gain 12 in the center right yeah I don't know the two of them12 right yeah yeah to get a space something because the two not to have inside a was not easy so we have um we have stencils no to draw like the inner notes right like the inner notes we have these tensors here right so I'll put a stencil here this is C this tensor will go here and then we will draw it out right let me do a C sharp and so you just have these positions memorized Yeah well yeah I I could say I have a site you know I could do it by site or you could measure between here and here three quarter of an inch or something or right now I averaging it you know so but um we'll put our next one this is d put our next one E flat works the same size notes in different areas will make a different sound yeah because the right now this is the the biggest note on on the pan and this is the lowest note and as it goes higher the note the space will be smaller so as it goes for a higher pitch the area will be smaller so this is how it goes so each node chromatically will be a slightly smaller and all right when you tune in you could squeeze and things like that so you just have an area to work with right right a guide right you could you could be within you could go in in air you could squeeze it and make it smaller with your Hammer because you're shipping but I just have borderline right right tgda right foreign right yeah and and and you see how there's no small if if this note was like like this no if you do this like this the size of this note you see how small it is so to get that note you would have a hammer all here and squeeze in all that to reach that motorcycle right so right you see right so an opportunity um the final Center ones final Center one will be SVC no you could always adjust as we go along you know because it's not preparation we have to do still and we could always um adjust as we go along what we're making here is what most people would call right yeah yes but you know I say in Soprano right because really and truly if you put it into music it's in a soprano range right so I just want I just sometimes I don't see it I want to mention 10 am but I don't feel funny saying it I'm telling you I don't feel funny what they call it tenor but Tana is a range but this is not an itinerary but I I tell you something right I read it musically Tena is said to be the highest male voice the highest male voice so like like male voice is not high as a female voice so it's in that is so maybe the guys who call less than a demo you feel well that's the highest question also we call it tenor if you understand because the highest team over here I think is the highest pitch the highest male voice but this is a soprano range this is not tenorraine so they call it tenor but I mean I didn't see them corrected and so they leave it so but it is it'll have a conflict all the time in terms of the the notes pattern so the the different pans have different note relationships between them right so sometimes they're in like a circle of thoughts is there like a a musical reason that the notes are arranged like this because they're taking up a certain space but it could really be any configuration right there could be any configuration but you wouldn't want to put a C note next to a C sharp right because they are semitone apart and you go get a fighting to tune them right so they place them in certain positions that it will be easier to tune and they wouldn't Hamp out one another because if you have a cnx RC shop pressure because you put them almost close so it's still separated that you could tune it but you put enough for some fifth order some have it in a chosen photos some have it in uh like the second pan I think one side is a is a whole tone scale right it's a whole tone so so heavy node Skipper semitone so if you have C you skip C sharp you have D you skip d e right and and you see and it is still not close to each other the the apart right so you get separation you get separation yeah okay yeah yeah I could do that this is natural China and Tobago right yeah yeah yeah nice to see you all right this is dog pass and no barking that's anything too close to the screw yeah they stay quiet they wanted this too so all right so we will share right good so the next step now the pan is drone and we have something we call contesting so Contra signal is where your shape in the outer notes only not the inside note it remain flat but we need a tighten on this line to get more more tension only notes them as it will be too Slack here so I only hamaina wrong the line not in the center the center supposed to raise right so that's why you're shipping your Channel foreign and sometimes you're using half and sometimes according because remember you're on a slant so yeah you wanted you you want to go deeper inside On the Groove so you think it so so you get this land you want so sometimes you use in soil Sometimes using so and sometimes you're using flat I made it this is a plastic or Teflon or what they call it right yeah so it's better on the on the material like steel sometime and sometimes still got a little lamb and dig in and you didn't notice and it it scratched it it boosts right so I started making special hammers because the ball pin hammers your knuckles with hit on the pan it was too short so I started making them longer foreign [Music] [Music] next step is what we call Groove before I groove I like to what we call it's flat what we call it scribe I was just subscribe the note so I will get a better Clarity of if you're watching go see that that nice line there treated nice right right so you see that shiny line there to follow so I'm going to start the grooving foreign let me do this one here now you could do this one from right here this one so I won't know they're finished we get back with ihama no and we have to hammer back down these grooves to bring it back flat again so you won't see that deep that deep channel so we will do like this foreign foreign so say this whole pan is grooved right and it's done Groove and after this groove remark to cut so let me just show that let me just show that we already have the mark in here and let me just show it because we have things in place right here you can use that jigsaw you can use a grinder you could use whatever tools they have right Jimmy what do you use to decide the depth of this when you're making a standard pan is it the depth of the sink is how long you have the skirt no this skirt could be any length they want like right now this is about five some people make it six some people make it up to eight inches it it varies yeah it is yeah some people think it's longer is better and some people think even longer than the sink it will protect the belly of the pan yeah so all that too right so for the um so I I wouldn't cut the whole thing I would just give a start of of what will happen [Music] right I can't control the whole thing because we still have some more work to do on it well as it open no it opens so yes that's a good thing you do there you could see how oh it's smoking or nothing now right when it's done cut we go into the fire so you want to see the fire right because we can't show you this yet yeah [Music] close the door right supposed to close the door eight minutes or so right so I cut in half but I extend it with our other pieces cylinder and make the door so it cut in half extend and I make up that the makeup video fire right so right that's what this slide is for and then you throw it have something in here foreign right button then we throw water so that will harden it and give it that but some people leave it to cool off but I never tried that they say cool enough just so it's normalizing but it works but I find it takes a little longer to tune temper right and then you'd have to clean anything right the fire just smoking because of the type of flame coming out right so we could go back here when you're done so this is First Time songs I like to start with c it's just preparation along the note [Music] kind of stretching it still so I have to go from behind now [Music] behind I have to clean too so you could see the glue right [Music] quick please right stuff right it's a Scenic room now all right yes [Music] [Music] [Music] thank you no I don't know denote yet right so I just bring it to a point so now I'm going to I use this up here right now I'll use this up here right and you know it will so you say not B so I want to do it to a c right I want to do it I see so [Music] [Music] I see um it written on Pitch right it might not be the best Note yet but it's on Pitch so Jimmy you Hammer from the outside nice to decrease the picture the the height of the hump your kind only height of the hump right and on the outside just squeezing it in to bring it back up to the Titan okay so things like that right so so the Challenger of course is when you turn the next note your effects are not nodes well when there is no start and I are free to tune in note next door because I know this one going to go attitude so I I didn't like that at all but no we we control that we we have no problem with that okay it might go go out slight but not as we're not whether you know start like oh gosh boy you know so to to basically get it in like one or two parts yes yeah so it might go slight but not as as drastic right so but what you do when you go over when you go around the whole pan then you're coming back around and getting each note a little better again and you keep going around again and get each one better so you're getting them separate separate separate so right right you know so so so you know you don't fight don't get in like oh I know start is fine I don't not going to get this note to the best because oh you you have you have note on each side to tune so when you go on this side and that side you know it will hamper it so you're just getting that in and then after you gradually come in and once you know initial opportune slightly flat on a note because you know the next note is gonna bring it up or down but sometimes in cases you leave a year you leave a note chapter you leave it flat yeah yeah you leave it you do that yeah we will Shuffle right so let me just do one more again [Music] right so I'm going to do Renault [Music] so why are you hitting there you could hear the changes of the song yeah and you could have an idea when to stop you know [Music] foreign [Music] so I was just lucky to get it in so fast that's something I really don't come in so fast right yes come so quick are doing one [Music] you get in better you see when you know start and as you go along you're getting you know [Music] I wasn't really out I wanted this one no but I just wanted to show her outside note right so for this Old Tower no you have to use this because I press the Press of the outer one no you're gonna hit the really Hammer but you come on lumpy so we use a press to get this one up here yeah yeah look at it moving there right [Music] so it's pretty close [Music] right so that's the pre-tune we do the whole thing you go 253 come back and then we go to this so when I come back from the Chrome we put it on that still like on on duty tune in and then when it started a song all right [Music] this one [Music] this one is actually made from sheet right but it's a little bit rough on the edge we didn't notice what is made from seeds right so this now we come and be doing Financial like there's no they're so hot up right [Music] thank you any change [Music] thank you yay [Music] I never had a clear idea but you had to clear that something [Music] right should I basically one pitch but just sounds wrong yeah to do it like the shape of the door I know that yeah it's on Pitch but it didn't have the promo whatever they call it right [Music] they are pretty close enough for now [Music] it's pretty close but it takes time eh yeah but you can't be right now I just trying to hurry because we're eating and what so you had to relax yourself and do it I spend some time right [Music] no when you come back from the conversion at two hours Walker could have it playing you know yeah and then you know yeah this takes time some night one note to see what I had not doing it sometimes could take you somehow leave it and come back the next day right yeah let it rest and come back because I well all that too right because during hammer and it gets hotter right yeah the process of pulling upon is to improve its resistance to corrosion I guess yes is a finish is a finish paint painted and powder coat pants too they have that yeah [Music] it looks good too and and some people think it enhancy tuning but I I don't think so but some people think it makes a prime song better but yeah you could have a rope and a song and a sweet so this is just an enhancement and but after a while it will Rust after some years of New York you know but it's a finish [Music] that's fantastic to me

Channel: Chas Sheppard

Views: 925,988

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Id: i0kZgt6tTE0

Length: 37min 43sec (2263 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 14 2023