Beginning Steel Drum

Owner Reviews
Unless you already know how to play a musical instrument (or at least know how to read music) this book will be of little value to you. Actually, it's not so much a book as it is a pamphlet. The only thing it accomplishes is that it shows you where the notes are on the pan. After a few introductory words, here is the 6th sentence in the "book": "The tuning consists of a circle of 5ths or 4ths, there are two circles of a complete octave and one circle of five notes. The range of the drum is from middle C up two octaves and a major third to E." If that quote doesn't mean anything to you, don't expect to really understand it after reading the pamphlet. Admittedly, the words are, in fact, followed by two diagrams that show what "up a 4th" and "down a 5th" mean. But add that to all the following discussion about scales, and you still have no idea why any of it matters. The section entitled "Technique" consists of a picture of a hand holding a drum stick and the words: "The stick has to be able to bounce off the notes. There is a slightly tighter grip employed when sticking the higher notes..." Add to that the handy note to play the left side of the drum with the left hand and the right side with the right hand and...well...I guess you're ready to start practicing sticking, because there's not much more info on the subject. Finally, the CD consists of 30-second clips, not complete songs. Oh yeh, unless you know how to read music, there's no clue as to where even the first note is in any of the "songs".