News — hang pan blog

Dr. Anthony Achong recently rendered a decisive GUILTY verdict against PANart on When Steel Talks (WST), which is the Supreme Court of the Pan world. Dr. Achong, who is a distinguished Pan Scientist, Physicist, Advisor to the Steelpan Tuners Guild of Trinidad & Tobago, and author of the preeminent, steelpan tuning book entitled, ''Secrets of the Steelpan - Unlocking the Secrets of the Science, Technology, Tuning and Operation of the Steelpan'', is a highly credible Supreme Court Justice, if not the Chief Justice where steelpan tuning is concerned. Dr. Achong wrote the steelpan tuning book after all, all 1200 pages of it!  This case...

The steelpan via the hang/handpan is not the only sacred, cultural institution of an instrument that has been co-opted, colonized and corrupted by Europeans on a wide scale. As I have discussed this particular matter in previous blog posts as it pertains to the handpan, I will add another example which proves my point about the erroneous sense of entitlement that most people of European descent have when it comes to culturally misappropriating the sacred cultural institutions of indigenous cultures globally.  The digeridoo/yidaki comes immediately to mind as an instrument that is intimately connected to the the handpan community at...