Friday, May 8, 2015

Passion and Pan

                                                                                     Image courtesy of Zazzle

Fridays are great for reflecting on what happened earlier in the week. As you know, the SPC board and our volunteers are working hard on the Pan People Music Festival in Denver. Each day we make significant progress and every once in a while there is an obstacle that surprises us. But we persevere. Looking back on it all, it is entirely worth it.

This week's Friday reflection is the connection between pan and passion. The pan community is a passionate group. It shows in our love for the instrument. We live, eat and sleep pan. Why else would a bunch of volunteers work so hard to put on a festival in a country not exactly overflowing with Trinidadians? Because we love pan, that's why. It is that love of pans that's gets us talking passionately about the instrument to anyone who will listen. It doesn't matter if they are festival vendor or our neighbor. Pan is new, fresh, and cool.

Come on, admit it. We play a very fun instrument. We aren't mainstream - at least not yet. Maybe that's the appeal. We are doing something special that not a lot of people are doing. Yes, we still have  some educating in terms of our audiences. But that's ok. It just makes it easier to fall and stay in love with the instrument.

As Dr. Kim Johnson said in his TedTalk, this community is very much like family. There is a connection and bonding that just doesn't happen if you are playing piano, or a saxophone, or even in a symphony. We have an awful lot of fun and it shows. We struggle together. We achieve together. There is nothing like the sound of a band who has nailed a musical piece.

Ok - clearly I could go on. But you get it. So this weekend if someone comes up to you and talks to you about steel pan or steel drum, go ahead and tell them. Let you passion show. Just know - you aren't alone. Somewhere out there, another pannist is doing the same thing.




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