Steel Pan Tuning

- a Handbook for Steel Pan Making and Tuning

- the one and only book of it's kind
- now on the Internet!

Presented here in full format, including pictures and drawings.

Web presentation done by the author, with courtesy of the publisher, Musikmuseet in Stockholm, Sweden.

Printed version of the handbook written by Ulf Kronman.Stockholm, December 1991. ©

The handbook was converted to web format by Ulf Kronman. Stockholm, July 1995 ©, and PDF format in August 1998. ©

Printed copies of the handbook may be ordered from PanYard, Inc.

The web material is copyrighted to the author, but may be copied and distributed for non-commercial use as long as the source of the material is stated.

This book is dedicated to
the rhythmic people of Trinidad and Tobago
and their master tuners

Cover design and layout of printed edition by
Logomotion

About the author

Ulf Kronman, 38, is a Swedish physicist and steel pan player. He has studied at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm and now pursues post-graduate studies in acoustics at the institute.

In 1979 Kronman went to the Caribbean and fell in love with the steel pan - a unique instrument and the only genuinely new invention in acoustic musical instruments during the twentieth century. He became a proponent of steelband music in Sweden and a founding member of the Stockholm steelband Hot Pans.

In 1987 he started to systematically investigate the manufacturing process and the acoustics of the pan, using advanced facilities of the Department of Music Acoustics at the Royal Institute of Technology.

Kronman has combined his keen interest in the making and tuning of pans with his knowledge of acoustics to produce this book - a thorough and detailed documentation of the steel pan and how to make it and tune it.