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