Samuel DuBois self-taught steel pan player joined us at Westminster School of Media, Arts and Design to perform at one of our Music Masterclasses and discuss his musical experience.

He gained the title Steel Band Soloist of the year by the British Association and was the youngest arranger to win the Panorama competition in 2007 and 2010.

Samuel has toured and done a live recording with saxophonist Courtney Pine and is currently working on his own album.

He started playing at the age of 14 and joined a band called Ebony. Later he took a break and embarked on a more business career but he shared that it didn’t make him happy.

After a five years break at the age of 23 Samuel decided to become a full time musician and started busking and gigging and worked his way up.

His top advice was to not be scared and perform as much as you can. He said: “Never tell yourself you are not ready. You will always tell yourself that so take every opportunity you can to perform in front of an audience.”

“It’s like an exercise, like doing push ups, you have to add to your development constantly.  Once you practised something a lot, you get to a stage where you want people to hear it.”

He explained that great bands such as Snarky Puppy and musicians like Charlie Parker inspire his own music. And added that learning how to play new songs using the steel pan is always exciting which stops it from feeling like hard work.

You can listen to Samuel’s music here.



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