The tenor pan. Why tenor? Ask me another day. It is the highest pan, range from around around middle C (often D, sometimes a bit lower) up at least two and half octaves. The notes are tuned to carry harmonics of an octave and a fifth above, giving a very bright sound. Generally used to play the melody; often two notes are played together to bring in a harmony line.

An innovation from the early 90's is that the notes are arranged in the cycle of fifths. This makes it great to play - transposition is simply rotation, a diatonic scale is made by one half of the pan, every interval is a fixed angle. It makes complete nonsense of a piano keyboard.

Two pans together make one instrument, as the notes are bigger and won't fit on a single pan. Generally one pan is a semitone lower than the other, so each contains a whole note scale. Usual plays chords, either rolled notes or 'strummed' off beat patterns or broken chords beneath the melody. Range usually from F below middle C up two and a half octaves.

The bottom of the band. This is a six bass, but you can get as many as nine full size oil drums making one instrument. You need some speed of movement to play these. A hugely effective bass instrument with string attack and a big sound.