Lessons pay off for steel drummers from SML

Those who attended the New Pan Steel Orchestra performance on Sunday may have seen a couple of familiar faces among the big pink drums and the 30 or so musicians dressed in bright green T-shirts.

“Sauce Pan” and “Claylypso,” also known as Dave Moran and Clay Johnston, were among those who got the beat for almost 200 guests at the W.E. Skelton 4-H Educational Conference Center. The event, sponsored by the Smith Mountain Arts Council, featured the band performing an array of tunes from “Louie, Louie” and “Tequila” to hits of Harry Belafonte and Jimmy Buffett.

Lake residents Moran — who may be best known for his quest-to-become-famous campaign — and Johnston are part of the 30-member band comprised of music students taught and directed by long time band teacher and director Richard Rudolph.

Rudolph and his wife, Delilah, began offering steel drum music lessons through their Roanoke-based Quest School of Music about 18 years ago.

Moran and Johnston started taking lessons earlier this year.

“My wife gave me a beginner steel drum for my 60th birthday last November, which served as an incentive for me to find someone who could teach one with no musical background at all,” said Johnston. “I took four lessons from Richard and graduated to his beginner band and started playing with his New Pan Band, which is his advanced band, about four to five weeks ago, and [I] will continue playing with them in September. I’m having a blast doing it.”

Unlike other musical instruments, such as the violin or piano, steel drums are easier to learn to play, said Rudolph.

“In about an hour, you can learn to play a couple of songs from the islands,” he said. “Then you build on that with more complexity, and you’re up and running in no time at all.”

Of the musicians in the New Pan Band, Rudolph added, “I don’t think they’ve completed their first year [of lessons].”

Rudolph plans to expand his teaching of steel drums by offering weekly workshops to lake-area residents (the first one was held last weekend at Trinity Ecumenical Parish) and in three Franklin County public schools.

“Our hope is [that] within the next year we can find a location to teach regularly,” said Rudolph.

During the concert, the Rudolph s’ love and admiration for music was evident as Richard Rudolph gave the crowd educational snippets about the origin of steel drums between songs.

“Trinidad is the birthplace of steel drums,” he said. “During Carnival, steel drum bands are playing like crazy, and in Trinidad, bands run in size of 200 members or more.”

Although he and Delilah give lessons on how to play other musical instruments , the steel drums remain a favorite. Delilah has her own all-female steel drum group — the Bahama Mamas . They get together weekly to practice and perform.

“There’s something about the steel drums that creates an island vacation feel in people’s minds,” said Rudolph. “If you’ve got cares or problems, they all tend to go away when you’re in that Jimmy Buffett frame of mind.”

To learn more about upcoming performances by the New Pan Band, which has just recently been renamed Panamania, and to find out about steel drum workshops at the lake, visit www.questschoolofmusic.com or contact Rudolph at 312-4411.

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