Quest to Grade 2 Handbook

  Date for Entry: (Thursday 29th October 2015)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Tuesday 7th September 2021)

Dear Diary,

    Today I got up early-ish and began to gather topics from my ABRSM and Trinity Booklets as content for a Grade 2 Study Guide. This time I made it easier for myself by using a whiteboard I hadn’t used since CXC. There was a question about completing the square on it. It was a topic I liked but would always get wrong. Thank God, I passed my Maths, lolz. 

    I coloured the written areas with a whiteboard marker to get the stained ink out and then passed a wet napkin over the surface. It was long but fun to do. The only music topic that produced difficulty was finding a place for intervals. I know that it is the same thing as Grade 1 and questioned if it was really necessary. This book was completed later over the weekend. No idea about printing was done.

 **Unfortunately, this project was discontinued and late discarded.**

Daryl Zion M. Ali

Revised Grade 1 Book

  Date for Entry: (Tuesday 27th October 2015)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Tuesday 7th September 2021)

Dear Diary,

    This morning I hurried down to Isa again to make another copy of the Grade 1 Study Guide from my flash drive. This time the MLA was incomplete because I didn’t bother to follow the rules involving spacing. The printing machine took longer this time. 

    I couldn’t wait for Isa to return to the store because I had to get to class. Dad couldn’t believe me when I left a copy there and looking through the book as we waited, he said, “Buh Dar, you are nuh ah teacha.” I know I was not one because I’m not certified and I have no experience but I hope to one day. It did not matter to me it was not a teacher. I knew how to put the book together and so I did.

    Onward from there, we had to go to the Stationary store at the back of Massy’s to get the other document bound. The other place didn’t punch the paper properly. Then when I reached school and sat down, Ms. Neaves told me that she got my text on her phone for being late. But then she said, “You picked a good day to be late.” Apparently, some of the class members from another performance group went on a field trip. 

    At the end of class, I left the book with Mrs. Neaves. I had asked her if she can take a look through it for me until the next Tuesday, just in case she thought that I can add something or change it in a way to suit.

    I rush myself home because none of the group members in my English class had submitted our second credit assignment to Ms. Jesshop for marking and the time had already come to pass the deadline. Many others were in the same situation.

Daryl Zion M. Ali

Vessigny Secondary School (SONG)

  Date for Entry: (Thursday 15th October 2015)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Thursday 11th November 2021) 

[Written as Updated Report]

Dear Diary,

    On Thursday 15th of October 2015, I was able to succeed in completing a music transcription of the Vessigny College Song. This was a music 'summer challenge' that came from Uncle Ram. He said that he wanted me to learn it and I was thinking that I would have to play the song back at some time. I did not know when exactly I would have been. I preferred to have written music for the playing with me so I took off to a LONG process of having that done personally. Uncle Ram gave me a recording of their college song on a disc and I tried my best to get everything I heard out on Musescore.

    My first thought of the score was that it should be a piano and melody one because of the lady singing with piano accompaniment. I wished that there was music for it so that the work would have been easier. This attempt in the eyes of a musician will not look appealing but somehow the trial sounded like something useable (see archives for Voice and Piano score).

    I recall there was a general election period when mommy was working for the season. Daddy and I had to go up home to Tunapuna because they were coming to get the recording. Uncle only wanted to get the pan music so I got headphones to play what I had on Musescore and uncle sat on the floor to get the sound from the instrument before. We did three separate recordings that evening. I learned that a teacher was leaving and that the person liked steelpan. 

STEELPAN ARRANGEMENT (V1).

    Towards the early beginning of Summer Vacation after the completion of my Certificate program at UWI, I decided to visit the piano and voice score that I made and create a score of the same song to a steelband version. I thought that if the school had a Steelband maybe they might have wanted that too. The idea came after I had finally been able to get Hillview's College anthem written out for Steelband. 

    Even though I knew in the case of Hillview the steelpan tutor said "nobody goes wants to have that," I still found that it was good to have. I could have seen that some of the boys in the group had appreciated it when I made copies for them.

STEELPAN ARRANGEMENT (V2).

    I think that at the end of my Steelpan Arranging 1 course, I decided to revise and fix the entire score I did in version one. I could see that from this second version that a huge improvement was seen but I had to leave it as it was when I revised it again (as seen in the provided PDF). 

    As the sound and the 'feeling' of the arrangement felt like it was coming along and I was satisfied to some small percentage, I still knew it was not good enough in my view. I felt that if a real arranger for steelpan was to take on this arrangement it would have needed more and been better than mine. 

STEELPAN ARRANGEMENT (V4).

** Monday 11th October 2021. **

    At this period in my life, I completed with Degree program at UWI. It was on Thursday the 3rd of June 2021 that a plan was taken to review the Vessigny College Anthem again for the fourth time. My mind was not so focused on the project and ideas for tackling this was not many resulting in a longer completion date. 

    One time I had a change in sleeping pattern and I sat down from twelve in the morning all the way until five in the morning and got the whole thing completed. I must admit for the journal that Sections C and E were super challenging but I was now proud of myself for being able to accomplish it along with the entire arrangement. I was not most pleased with it that it was good to share with Aunty Anmarie and Uncle Ram.

    On the Wednesday of that same week, I was able to send an email to Aunty for Uncle copies of the separate steelpan parts. Getting pitch names leveled was a challenge until I was taught how to make them in a straight line by someone on a Musescore Facebook group by inspecting. 

    In case the school chooses to use this arrangement that I have done in the future I hope that it brings them enjoyment and the proud amazing feeling that I would have gotten when singing Hillview's anthem at the school. Version four was the same as version three. Minor changes were done to the ending.

STEELPAN ARANGEMENT (V5).

** Thursday 8th December 2022 **

A matter with the school’s logo was difficult. We did not have an electronic logo to work with. I was only able to find one on their school’s website and use it. This created the steelband arrangement and all of its accompanying parts to become version five.

    I saw that the shape of the ‘shield’ was not shown properly but was darkened out to the lower portion. It was inserted and sent over by email. I did not feel satisfied with it but took it since the writing was bolder and more legible than the others provided to me on the internet.

 

STEELPAN ARANGEMENT (V6).

** Monday 19th December 2022 **

I saw another version of the same Vessigny logo given to me by aunty. It was pixelated lightly but I believed it was workable. However, the challenge presented was that it was stained with a grey colour that should have been white to give the particular shape.

    It took about two and a half hours in total to clean the image and ‘perfect’ the shape of the ‘shield’. My biggest insecurity was spoiling the image in the process of trying to fix it. The same thing occurred and I had to do the entire work to get it to how it stands today. I had all the score parts with the changed logo and they became version six.

 

SCHOOL SONG BOOKLETS.

** Tuesday 20th December 2022 **

Had a very late morning today in getting to Isa. I had all the parts for the school song and the national anthem sent over to print yesterday. It took me three hours in waiting on my legs to sort the pages of all twelve booklets. It was surprising to see that it was smaller in size compared to Tunapuna Secondary’s School Song.

    The back and front covers were inserted last. The moment I had seen the front over, I was very pleased with the work done on the school’s logo. It seems to feel like it is how it is intended to be. I should have been a white border around the edges to make it more effective.

Daryl Zion M. Ali

Wheel of Fifths & Fourths ("Presentation")

  Date for Entry: (Tuesday 29th September 2015)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Monday 6th September 2021)

Dear Diary,

    Last night I prepared a large wheel to create the circle of fifths and fourths that can show the relative keys between major and minor. I had assistance from the Trinity Guildhall book and some other ideas I had in class to show the Key Signature of each scale in both the treble and bass staves. 

    When I got in class, I told everyone good morning before taking my seat (in the front row as usual near the door's side of the room) and then raised my hands and told miss I had extra homework to show her. She watched me from behind the piano but came up to me and I took the wheel of the plastic Massy's bag I carried it in. I passed it to my friend (Monick; correctly spelt Monique) right next to me and she passed it on. My friend Adam told me by whisper "that looks really nice."

    As soon as class began, miss took down the Projector screen again and turned off the lights.  I had the full score I wanted to sing from but apparently, Mrs. Neaves had forgotten her score so she asked me if she could borrow mine. I gave her my full score to put on the projector and I decided to open the previous copy with all of the errors I inserted into my workbook for the class.

     During break time,  I hurried back to see if Mrs. Neaves was still in class. I shared with her and some of the class members a viewing of my Musical Journal in the large two-inch binder folder that it was in from the beginning (this was from Page 1 – 157). There were a few pages that I left home because I had run out of page protectors. That day was supposed to be my store to the stationery store to have the book fragments spiral bound.

    She had to skip through some pages because I knew it was hard to get a full reading of some. During the middle of the book, she said, “Wow Daryl! This is great. Don’t ever let anyone turn you down....you were meant for greater things in life.” That just made me feel happy and burst out a wide smile. In the end, she gave me back the Book and said, “This is Gold. Thank you for sharing it with me.”

    I went back to my seat and the rest of the class was already back inside. Then she finished a few sentences and called me up to the front of the class. I knew that she told me that she wanted to use it in class earlier on. So then I went ahead and told the class all about it with the easier way to remember the pan. They all watched it in silence and wondered if it was like a hidden message in a poem. I was literally scared if they were not liking it. Then a boy at the back asked if he could get a picture but then Mrs. Neaves said, “Doh ask me. Is the work.” So then he asked me and I said, “Sure.”

    Then Ms. Neaves came back to the front of the class from behind the piano. She said that I can make so much money for it and any teacher could pay me big for it. Then she pokes me about not allowing anyone to bully me for this. And this is where the Class lecture had turned from Musicianship to Bulling. Here are some of the things we spoke about:

    At the end of class, another person came to take a picture of the wheel I made. I asked him to WhatsApp it to me. Then a girl had asked me if I can play the Anthem for her so I gave her my scrap notebook to write down her name and phone number and also what part of the National Anthem she wanted to have. Then another boy asked me for it too. I made sure that by the end of the evening it was sent to them.

Link(s):

1. DCFA Steelpan Exam Book - Grade 4 Tenor (**-***)
2. DCFA Steelpan Exam Book - Grade 4 Tenor (**-***) Receipt & Student Contact.

Daryl Zion M. Ali

Music Class CANCELLED

 Date for Entry: (Saturday 26th September 2015)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Wednesday 7th July 2021)

Dear Diary,

    Today in the Afternoon was my Youth Group Meeting at the Morton House in the Church Compound. The sad thing was that last Saturday I was supposed to teach the Group a piece on the Pan and also prepare a song or two for Reverend Adrian at his Farewell party.

    On walking to the meeting with my Pan and other musical stuff, Ria told me loudly as I walked up to them that the Church was locked. My face was firing hot inside as I couldn’t believe this but I just sit down and evaporated this whole bad feeling from my mind within.

    While the meeting was over Ria had asked me, “Dars? Was there anything you had planned to teach us any music or something on the pan today?” I said yes and went through some fun rhythmic reading with them.

    I was glad that Ms. Saunders was in school and helped them with a slight foundation to understand music. A few of them clapped it out. I know that Music is not their principal subject but I’m hoping that they can take an interest in this and make the Board and Church proud. 

(Update) 

    I was not surprised the next Saturday before I could realize that they were not serious about having the Youth Steelband but chose to waste time and not tell me anything. I was hoping that we would have been able to use the steelpans in the church that were there alone in the corner. It was since 2013 I was waiting for this so I went home and tried to move my mind away from this. 

    Over the years of my UWI certificate and degree, I choose to leave that alone and stay with the Sunday. If the Youth Group should ever become serious about the steelpan then I will step in and assist however I can.

    The same flashcards that I had made hoping to use with the Youth Group during our practice times were thrown away. I was too angered and it reminded me of what happened that day. All twenty-seven of them are gone. So this will result in n photographs of them for this journal entry. The book I made for the group was not deleted but still saved for the journal.

Link(s):

1.  Aramalaya Presbyterian Youth Group Steelpan Book.

Daryl Zion M. Ali

Homework can "Come Alive"??

 Date for Entry: (Tuesday 22nd September 2015)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Wednesday 7th July 2021)

Dear Diary,

    Today while singing the National Anthem as a group, Mrs. Neaves told us that we had to sing in parts so she looked at me twice and said, “So we are going to make your work come alive today.” During those two times, they felt nice to hear. This was about the vocal score for the National Anthem of Trinidad and Tobago that I did for homework last week. Not ever before was my work been performed after putting them to music notation. 

    I wanted to do Tenor but the worry was learning the melody line and then being confused by the other groups. Without being able to do Soprano voice, this gave me a big inspiration to sing in Bass but looking back to the score again, I couldn't do it so I stuck with the tenor. This wasn’t bad at all. I still loved it. Overall, we will just see what happens in these weeks to come. Thank you again for this wonderful experience, Mrs. Neaves.

Daryl Zion M. Ali

Extra Homework Is Great

 Date for Entry: (Tuesday 15th September 2015)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Wednesday 7th July 2021)

Dear Diary,

    Today in General Musicianship we did some rhythmic writing where Mrs. Neaves played a rhythm either by a melody or by using one note until the end. We had to write them down in the workbook's manuscript. At one random time during a period of silence my friend, Moonick (Monique) said she got one right. I knew that what Ms. Neaves had said when we burst out was true that within time, practice makes perfect.

    At the end of class, I was a bit sad because my favourite class of music had come to an end for the week but then it was the beginning of another interesting piece. When some of the students had already left the classroom I when to show missed my homework, which she had forgotten to pick up. I was happy to include the part where Miss asked us to find the members of Mr. Patrick Castagne’s Bandmates because one of the members had answered her question about who had originally written the National Anthem.

    It was the second name on my list, Curtis Pierre, I saw she smiled and said, “Yes! That’s him.” So I was glad then, Lolz. Then I took out my copy of the National Anthem to show her the extra homework I did for fun on Saturday. Something told me to give it to her so I asked her if she would have liked it and she said yes. She gave me her red pen to sign it just like the one below on this very same page but the space it had was not enough for me and it came out too squeezed up. I was given a copy of "For unto us a Child is born" SATB.

    I also showed Natasha the music and she looked amazed with the smile I saw on her face. Then she looked at Harmonizing and I could really understand what she and Ms. Neaves was talking about how beautiful the Double Tenor can sound in the Mezzo-soprano voice. She then said, “Thanks for sharing” before she left. I was hoping that Natasha would have been able to notice anything that needed fixing or something to change.

 

Link(s):

1. National Anthem of Trinidad and Tobago Homework.

Daryl Zion M. Ali