How to Play Steel Pan Drums in a Band

Alan Mark Lightner generates excitement through his energetic, charismatic, and highly skilled approach to playing and teaching music. His unique style, vast knowledge, and kind hearted spirit have wooed audiences and classrooms around the world. During his studies in the music program at the University of California at Berkeley, Lightner also pursued private instruction from masters in his fields of interest. Those fields were Afro-Caribbean music including the art of steel pans and the vast world of Afro-Cuban rhythms and instruments, Afro-Brazilian percussion, West African music, European classical percussion and the Afro-American art form of jazz. After receiving his B.A. in music in 1991, Lightner became a master faculty member at the East Bay Center for Performing Arts where he served as the director of the steel pans and drum set departments. Within his eight years as director/arranger for the advanced steel pan performing ensemble, he and the band received many honors.