What are Cello Steel Drums?

What are Cello Steel Drums?
Hi. This is Alan Lightner with Expert Village. We're talking about the different roles of the members of the steel drum family and the parts that they play within a traditional setting in a steel band or a Calypso setting. We've demonstrated some of the instruments from the tinner pan to the double tinner pan, the double second pan, including a lot of strums. Now we're getting down to the guitar pans and the cello pans. I've got a set of freestanding, there are different size drums here. This is a, a set of cellos here. It's standing on, they're sitting on the ground. There are also some with the cello pan has a full skirt. Not actually a full barrel skirt, it's like about a three quarter skirt. And these are free standing. They're sitting on the ground. They've got legs on them to allow it to vibrate. That longer skirt allows for the lower frequencies to vibrate in, within the drum, before they come out into the audience's ears. The, the lowest note on this particular instrument, the cello pan or the guitar pan, guitar pan and cello pans have the same layout on the top, is this "b", which is below, well below the seconds note. The lowest note of the seconds, double seconds, was here, and this one is way down here. So the role of this instrument is to play quarterly underneath, play chords and support all of the melodies. Also occasionally, to support the bass, to join the bass in playing bass lines or bass melodies just because these, although they're low, you can still hear them and project as melodies. So the range on this instrument, as I showed you, starts out on this low "b", and they've got those same notes in a diminished scale on all of the drums a half step apart, a diminished chord that is. And that's how the guitar pan and cello pans work.