Patent ID: 8299343

Claim:
An ensemble comprising four or fewer acoustic steelpan musical instruments, the ensemble being capable of covering the entire musical spectrum of G 1 , G 1 ♯ , A 1 , A 1 ♯ , B 1 , C 2 , C 2 ♯ , D 2 , D 2 ♯ , E 2 , F 2 , F 2 ♯ , G 2 , G 2 ♯ , A 2 , A 2 ♯ , B 2 , C 3 , C 3 ♯ , D 3 , D 3 ♯ , E 3 , F 3 , F 3 ♯ , G 3 , G 3 ♯ , A 3 , A 3 ♯ , B 3 , C 4 , C 4 ♯ , D 4 , D 4 ♯ , E 4 , F 4 , F 4 ♯ , G 4 , G 4 ♯ , A 4 , A 4 ♯ , B 4 , C 5 , C 5 ♯ , D 5 , D 5 ♯ , E 5 , F 5 , F 5 ♯ , G 5 , G 5 ♯ , A 5 , A 5 ♯ , B 5 , C 6 , C 6 ♯ , D 6 , D 6 ♯ , E 6 , F 6 , F 6 ♯ , G 6 , G 6 ♯ , A 6 , A 6 ♯ , and B 6 , wherein the four instruments comprise: a soprano instrument comprising one drum and configured to span the musical range C 4 to B 6 ; a second instrument comprising two drums and configured to span the musical range D 3 to C ♯ 6 ; a mid instrument comprising three drums and configured to span the musical range A 2 to G ♯ 5 ; and a bass instrument comprising six drums and configured to span the musical range G 1 to C 4 ; and wherein each instrument has a playing surface having an area of S instrument = kS B ⁢ ⁢ 1 ⁢ α J ⁡ ( 1 - α n 1 - α ) , where S B1 is the area of a B 1 note, α is the ratio of the area between consecutive notes, typically 0.93, n is the number of notes on the playing surface and, for the playing surface in the form of a spherical bowl mutatis mutandis, the radius of said playing surface is r = S instrument π - d 2 where d is the depth of the bowl that forms the playing surface, and the number of drums of an instrument is given by n drums ≧S instrument /S soprano .