Vessigny Secondary School (SONG)

Date for Entry: (Unknown/Forgotten; JULY 2012)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Monday 28 July 2025)

Dear Diary,

    The following relates to the works associated with achieving accomplishment on works to the works of Vessigny Secondary School. Compilation of information for this journal entry began in 2025, and many dates from 2011 to the present may not have been recorded/recalled. Not all work (either used or outdated versions) may have been saved or video recorded for the presentation.

 

MUSIC REQUEST.

**  July 2012 **

This afternoon, there was a special visit from my Uncle Ram and Aunty Annmarie. At this point in my life, I was in Form Two at Hillview College. There was a request from Uncle Ram. He has asked to “do the music for this song”. I was given a sheet of lyrics and a disc. I learned from him that this was his school’s song.

    The challenge was accepted in my mind. I hoped at the time that I would be able to fulfil the task. Just before leaving, he managed to sing me a few parts of the song he could recall. The rest of the song would come by exploring the disc’s recording provided to me. The project became a ‘Universal Challenge’. This term did not exist at the time (probably until 2018 or earlier).

 

SONG’S TRANSCRIPTION.

** Unknown/Forgotten **

The recording provided to me by Uncle Ram was a vocal piece with piano accompaniment. The voice was sung by a female. I admired the depth that she went to in the chorus. Since my main task was to play the song on the Tenor pan, I worked on transcribing the melody alone. I made sure to insert the lyrics. I used the same recording to practice the music and follow the score I created. It was ready, but I was not sure when the time was to play it.

LINK(S):

• Recording from Disc. [Disc Lost]

 

PERFORMANCE.

** Sunday 20 October 2013 **

This afternoon, Aunty and Uncle came up from Princess Town in the cooler part of the evening. It was nice to see Joshua also. Daddy had to rush me home to meet them. I was helping mommy and her coworkers set up the polling station for the Local Government elections that will be conducted tomorrow. They were situated in the Curepe Community Centre.

    I got to share with Uncle the music that I did. Mommy suggested that I go through the song first. He was only interested in getting the steelpan music. Luckily, I had the idea to use headphones to hear the recording and play the pan.

    The first two attempts to record the pan playing were still quiet. On the third attempt, Uncle sat beside the pan and held his phone just below its belly. This time, the recording was clear enough. We learned that this recording would be used for a teacher’s retirement event. He also mentioned that the teacher was very fond of steelpan music.

 

PIANO SCORE.

** Unknown/Forgotten **

From 2013 to 2018, there were about five attempts to transcribe the piano part of the school song. It was my wish to have a complete score of the work for archival purposes and for the school to keep. The final attempt was the best that I possibly could, but sadly, it remained a nightmare. I’m not sure when the next attempt will be made.

STEELBAND ARRANGEMENT.

** May 2017 **

During the summer of 2017, I completed my Certificate in music. The final semester ended with a course in the Fundamentals of Steelpan Arranging. I decided to take the knowledge gained from the course and begin a trial of transforming my previous work into a steelpan arrangement.

    Just like the attempts of the piano score, the same occurrences occurred. I would not have known how many trials there would have been needed to get to where it is today. In total, there were eight attempts made, and they were finally accomplished.

    The final attempt that brought the completion was done after my degree in music at the University of the West Indies (UWI-DCFA). There were two more steelpan arranging courses in that programme, which had me return to the song for another review. 

STEELPAN ARRANGEMENT (V1).

    Towards the early beginning of the Summer Vacation, after the completion of my Certificate program at UWI, I decided to visit the piano and voice score that I made and attempted to do 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 College's anthem written out for Steelpan in 2015. 

    In the case of Hillview, even though I knew the steelpan tutor said "nobody wants to have that," I saw the necessity to have it. I also received appreciation from the boys in the band when I made copies for them.

STEELPAN ARRANGEMENT (V2).

    I think that at the end of my Steelpan Arranging 1 course (in the degree programme), I decided to revise and fix the entire score I did in version one. The second version brought a huge improvement. The song still remained incomplete in my view. I found it not pleasing enough to be shared. 

    I was still satisfied to some small percentage, knowing that the song was one step closer to completion. I was not going to give up that easily. I knew that someday it would be reviewed again. 

STEELPAN ARRANGEMENT (V4).

** Monday 11th October 2021. **

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

    One morning, I sat down from 12:00 AM until 5:00 AM and got the entire fourth version completed. I must admit Sections C and E were super challenging. I was now proud of myself for being able to accomplish them, along with the entire arrangement. 

    There were still a few insecurities (about less than five), which may have left me feeling as the first version. However, 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 Uncle copies of the separate parts. Getting pitch names levelled was a challenge. It was my first time using the inspector feature in Musescore to do this. Thanks to the kind people in the Musescore Facebook group for their assistance.

    In case the school chooses to use this arrangement, 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 made 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. For some reason, I still found myself not feeling satisfied with the work. 

 

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 image was stained with a grey colour. The shape of the symbol in the lower portion had to be edited.

    It took about two and a half hours in total to clean the image and fix the shape of the ‘shield’. My biggest insecurity was spoiling the image in the process of trying to fix it. Because of this new change to the score, all separate parts had to be regenerated and relabelled.

 

SONG BOOKLETS.

** Thursday 16 December 2021 **

At that time, the COVID-19 pandemic was causing terror around the world. It may have been nearing its end around the date mentioned. On that day, I was visited again by Aunty Annmarie and Uncle Ram during the Christmas holiday from their trip up north. I had already prepared copies of the song booklets to bring to the school.

    There were twelve copies in total: one for myself and another for my aunty and uncle. The remaining booklets were copies that would be shared around the school’s compound. It was sad that I could not go with them to meet the Principal, and also to play the music myself at the school. I hope that in time these gifts from me will become useful to the students.

    Just as my working on anthems for other schools, the song needed a title. This was the only time that a person who was credited for creating a song was still alive. I was able to ask Miss County-Henry, through Uncle, to provide a name for the song. Within a few days, she named it “Our Very Own”. I was pleased that I did not have to decide on naming the song myself, as with all the other songs I previously worked on.

YOUTUBE VIDEO.

** Monday 28 July 2025 **

A few years of waiting had passed after the completion of the steelpan arrangement. I was requested by Miss County-Henry to wait until certain arrangements could be achieved before the video could be uploaded to YouTube.

    After waiting three years, I decided to move ahead with the YouTube video, which would then complete the work and finally bring an end to this project. The only difficulty at first was sourcing a workable logo and editing.

    Usually, at the end of the video, I liked inserting a picture of the school and its name printed clearly, but it was not provided. Instead of that image, the logo with a white background was used. I pray that after all these years of work, the video will be a beneficial teaching resource to the school and its students.

Daryl Zion M. Ali

Aural Training 1 - "Lacrimosa" Class Performance

  Date for Entry: (Wednesday 29th November 2017)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Wednesday 19th January 2022)

Dear Diary,

    Today we had our final hearing examination which will go towards the end of Semester exams. The plan was to play “Lacrimosa” for Mrs. Neaves as a group for her since her mom died the week before. We knew it was one of her favourite songs so we got music in parts for those who were interested and we had our practice on Tuesday 28^th after our Music Theory class with Mrs. Ramlal in Studio one.

    For this composition by Mozart, I played the Tenor pan to one of the soprano parts they got me and Nella was there on the next one. We had fun skating in some of the middle parts but we got it out well towards the end. We had a keyboard, Steelpan, Timpani, Saxophone, Trombone, and Voice going together. I find playing outside in the grass was a nice idea but doing it in the open space was probably what made the sound more difficult to hear.

    I also had a recording of the song on my WhatsApp account that someone posted in the “Degree 2016” group. The day I was added to it was the day that Mrs. Neaves's mom had passed away. It was also a sad time for me because the class was still going on and then when she broke out, I broke out silently as tears ran down my face. It took me a little while to calm down because tears were just pouring down my face and then a nice girl gave me a tissue. I had to hold it in because my Indian Classical group was going to start. It was only during class that Brandon asked me if I was feeling okay and I told him when Eshay was there what had happened.

Link(s): 

1. Funeral Program & Obituary for Urmilta Cox.
2. "Lacrimosa" Score - (Tenor) from Performance.
3. Two "Lacrimosa" Group Performance Photographs.

VIDEO MAKING.

** Wednesday 3rd August 2022 **

    On this day, I was able to get a copy of the "Lacrimosa" performance and edit it for YouTube to send to the journal. It became a DAPHA Project at that point. I tried my best to work with what was done in the recording in a professional manner such as shakings and taking out extra periods of waiting. 

    This was not an easy task but I was proud of it and the group effort. Creating a cover picture for the video was another challenge but it was soon resolved when thinking of Mr. Archie. Thank you, Mr. Archie.

Link(s): 

1. Group Performance of "Lacrimosa" - Recording.

OPTIONAL CLASS MEETING.

** Thursday 30 November 2017 **

    Yesterday was our class performance of Mozart’s “Lacrimosa” for Mrs. Neaves on her mom’s passing. We were not going to have any more classes for the semester so they decided that yesterday would have been the perfect time for the group performance after the final sight-singing and rhythmic reading exam.

    Today, we had an optional meeting in class to do some extra practice. We did both rhythm and melodic dictation. Some of the class members took turns playing the melody for us to write out and we wrote on the whiteboard too. It was a lot of fun that day.

    We were able to take out a group picture again and we had one recording of the question we worked out. Half of the class clapped one rhythmic line and the second half and another line to clap.

Link(s):

• Class Practice Question – Recording.

Daryl Zion M. Ali

Dance Wraps

Date for Entry: (Saturday 4 November 2017)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Saturday 13th August 2022)

Dear Diary,

    During the week I was asked by aunty Donna to draw something for her on two waist wraps that she had made for a daughter and a friend to do African dancing in. She said to “be creative and do something nice.”

    On the said date above, the two paintings were done. It was not a very easy fabric to work with. I had to use a lot of paint and coating to get the full colour. The sad part was that aunty Donna did not like what I had done I was still proud of it.

    This DAPHA Project was rushed down because it came with a deadline. She had to collect the two pieces around eight in the evening. Too much of my week was spent on these two wraps.

 

Daryl Zion M. Ali

Western Music History 1 - (TEXTBOOK)

  Date for Entry: (Wednesday 18th October 2017)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Tuesday 18th January 2022)

Dear Diary,

    Tonight, I have finished a milestone of my goal for this semester which is to make and compile information for a Western History Textbook. All together Mrs. Ramlal gave us two PowerPoint Presentation Documents on the MyElearning site from UWI and it had the things we had to learn for our course. It focused more on the Medieval Period (the Middle Ages). It felt so good.

    At the beginning of making these notes into a Microsoft Document from the information of the Internet, I decided to make a special sheet like a lottery slip or like one of those multiple-choice sheets that you might get in an exam and make it easier for me to see which slides I had completed already and then have that accompanied by another sheet which lists the topics of the various slides. This was really helpful seeing that the topics were mixed up all over the place in the PowerPoint Presentation file.

    The only thing that I regret not doing is getting the idea to do this from the start of the semester. Seeing that I got this idea late the work will be a lot and also when it comes to putting in references and credits to people for their work in the book this takes a good deal of time to sit down and do but I know I will get it over with very soon. Plus, I have to get the slides for the Renaissance Era and the Classical Eras to do also and the time is just so little each week to do them.

(UPDATE)

    It was somewhere in the Christmas vacation that this textbook for the course was completed. An estimated time of completion would be around the third day after boxing day.

 

Link(s): 

1. Checklist for PowerPoint Slides.**b10
2. Western History Textbook - DAPHA Projects 2017.**

 

Daryl Zion M. Ali

Aural Training 1 - (MUSC 1102): "Hand & Flower"

Date for Entry: (Monday 2nd October 2017)

Actual Date of Online Entry: Wednesday 3rd August 2022)

    There were sessions when a specific experiment and meditation were done. Through one of these, I was able to see an image in my mind with a dark background and a shining flower. I cannot recall exactly the date that I saw this image in my mind at one of the sessions. 

    The pencil sketch was done earlier on a Friday afternoon before Music Theory. I got to share it with the UWI Andrew when he was around as it was being done on the corridor floor. The class was small in number that day. Over the weekend the sketch was completed and then handed over as a gift. 

Link(s):

1. Original Painting & Black and White Version (Pictures).
2. Aural Training 1 (MUSC 1102) - Music Journal Entry.

 

Daryl Zion M. Ali

Indian Classical Ensemble - Note on Hindi Notation

 Date for Entry: (Monday 18th September 2017)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Thursday 24th March 2022)

[Written as Report]

Dear Diary,

    On Monday 18th September, minutes going to seven in the night, was my first night of being a member of the UWI Indian Classical Ensemble. I first saw the teacher Mr. Maharaj and got his permission to join the group. Once he said that I "yes, sure" I rest down my bags and began to get a Tenor pan from the storeroom. I did not know if I had to audition to be in the ensemble. 

    I knew that I was going to have to be on the lookout for any new types of music coming. There was no one to really talk to about what the class was like. I still felt glad that they allowed steelpan to be a part of the group. I know that whatever was to be given for us to learn, I would give it a lot of hard work. I would try my best to do what was given no matter how hard it may come.

    Mr. Maharaj began the class with a welcome. He began to write out some things on the whiteboard which I soon began to understand was the song. But I had a feeling it would be the piece we would be starting off with because of the solfege. I learned that night that they called the solfege SARGAM in their style of music (as their version of Doh, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, Ti, Doh). 

    In addition to the introduction of the Hindi Sargam, we were given some extra notes. I made sure to write down all of the instructions so that I can learn them and detect them and know how to play them if they should show up in the notation from sir. 

Here are some of the things I learned from the lesson:

Hindi Word / Articulation	English meaning
Thaat	Scale
Thaat Marwa	Main scale
Vedi Swar (Main Note)	Sa (or Doh)
Samuadi Swar (2nd Note)	Re (or Ra)
Jaati – Shaduv	6 up to 6 down
Aaroh (Ascending)	Sa, Re, Ga, Ma, Pa, Dha, Ni Sa (Doh, Re, Me, Fa, Sol, La, Ti Doh)
Avroh (Descending)	Sa, Ni, Dha, Pa, Ma, Ga, Re, Sa. (Doh, Ti, La, Sol, Fa, Me, Ra, Doh)
Pakad	Identifying phrase
Raag	A cluster of notes (melodic structure) that are set to rules, which depicts emotions and is pleasing to the mind of the listener.
Alankar (An Exercise)	An exercise in any particular scale that can be done either fast or slow. Most often times it can be done in simple triple or simple quadruple.
Jeati	Omitted note
	The note is flattened
	Note is to be played an octave Higher
	Note is to be played an octave lower that

    We also did seven out of ten alankaars (exercises). Some were tough but easy and we all did in the key of D Major. They are quite similar to the pan examination proficiency exercises that I usually do with Mr. Sharma. I took a picture of the music solfege he wrote out and put it up on the projector. 

Before beginning the piece, were given the pakad to play a very times and after listening to sir singing out the first section, we were given some time to figure out the same on our instruments. We were also given the pattern of the Raag Sohini notes.

    Towards the end of the week, I was sent an email by Mr. Maharaj with a sheet of the ten alankaars. I decided to score it out and put a book together with the course outline that he included for everyone. Over time we were given the ten Indian Thaats from Pundit Bhatkhandi. I also scored them out and had them included in the little 'handbook' that I had complied.

 

Link(s):

1. Indian Classical Handbook.

 

Daryl Zion M. Ali

Indian Classical Ensemble - Degree (Yr1, Sem1)

  Date for Entry: (Monday 18th September 2017)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Thursday 24th March 2022)

[WRITTEN AS REPORT]

Dear Diary,

The entry below will discuss the various pieces of music done for this ensemble.

RAAG SOHINI.

Raag Sohini: (D, Eb, F#, G#, B, C#, D) – Fifth degree omitted.

    The ensemble was given this piece called “Raag Sohini” on the first night. On Monday 23rd September 2017 in the Indian Classical Ensemble while running through “Raag Sohini” we got more pieces to the songs. These new parts were called Taans. It was really tough because they had more complicated rhythms and then to figure out the music to it was not nice at all. 

    I knew I had to try and listen to what Mr. Maharaj was singing to figure it out but when I had my mind forgetting everything like they are in a river floating away, it doesn’t come back, it just goes away and down the waterfall until it disappears completed. Sir had a long time trying to have me get the music but memory wasn't my best apparently, lolz. 

    It was that same week that I took out the papers I had and went to score the music. I had a feeling that there would have been 'no such thing as scores' in the ensemble so I decided to do it myself. You will see that over some time that there would be several pencil markings since all of the music was under editing and changed in class. In addition, the same could have been done when a new section(s) were added for us to learn. 

    The score version below was used for the mid-term. Each of the four alaaps was chosen for us to play individually and then sir wrote the mark secretly on his mark sheet. I recall being asked to play alaaps two. I don't remember which of the ten scales I was asked to play. There were two of them and I think each play that you made was final. 

    For the taans section, we were allowed to play any of the four. The funny thing was that everyone selected the easier ones because they found it difficult. So they most likely would have selected tan one or two. When it was my turn, I took the most difficult one which was Taan four and went with it. Everyone shouted like pepper burned them. By the time I was done, I could only hear surprised laughter and shouting. Sir did not say anything except for "good" and that was the assessment for us.

    Being able to notate the entire piece, I was given confidence and knowledge of what I was supposed to do. Yes, it will sound difficult. The secret I realized was that the tempo was just fast. That was the only trick to the ear. While the tempo was quick, the only types of notes involved were a semibreve being the longest note to a quaver being the shortest. And yes, the quavers will sound like semiquavers.

    Some weeks had gone by and I was very anxious because there would have been several versions of the score created. I did not know o the process that Sir would use to give us the music. It was really a lot of music to notate but I had it one during the weeks and then emailed it to some of the other groups' members. 

    From five versions of the piece, an ending was given and no more music was given to add or deduct again. The ending was a short repeat of the main idea and a rallentando. Version 7 was lost with other documents. I plan on doing over the notation. I see several other errors from those first times transcribing the piece.

Link(s):

1. “Raag Sohini” - Versions 5 & 8.** [Available by Request Only.]
2. “Raag Sohini” (V9) FINAL.**

EK AJNABI.

* Monday 23rd October 2017 *

Today in Daaga Auditorium it was very cold. It was a good thing that the lecturer cut class and allowed us to go home early. All of us had to wait outside first because a class was going on before. To me, it looked like an English class because someone was looking like a student who was reading a speech or report. When class was over Chekiea and Kayla waited with me to get a drop back at DCFA and then it was there that the three of us were talking about Assessment on Wednesday and they spoke about Mr. Mannette sending us reminder messages. I met Karen at the back after class and we walked outside down the stairs. She looked like she was looking forward to going to lunch with me again as we did last week but I had to go home.

    In Western Music today, we finally finished the Renaissance Era and began a part of the Baroque. There was a lot of writing and a lot I could understand what Miss Ramlal was talking about. Miss Neaves class went alright. Today I sat in between Andrew on my left and Samantha on my right. She had the cough and old just as I did and we both had the same deep voice tone with our noses clogged. I kept a pan stand and a bookstand so that when my class for Aural Training is over, I would not find a problem trying to get a good one while students in UWI Steel take all of them.

    During the Indian Classical class, we went through “Raag Sohini” that we had. Since I wrote out the music on my Musescore software, there were three printings done for it. Tonight, I see that there will be a fourth printing to be made and tape the pages together. As I got home that night, I went through the music from the recording I made last week on my phone and tried to remember what exactly we did, I made a few sight adjustments on the first page and then the correction on the third page caused the music to go onto another one. This now told me that I had to find a folder and clear pocket pages to hold my sheet music quickly.

    The other interesting part about Indian Classical tonight was that Mr. Maharaj gave us a group assignment that would be for marks. We had to practice an Indian song and decide how it should go and have it ready in time for the Concert at the end of November. This sounded like fun but it was tough trying to figure out the rhythms in the video from the singing men and women. One thing I did not like about the video was that it had a Bollywood actor I did not like so much in it so I look either on the floor most of the time or the roof and took in the sound of the music. Even taking in the sound of the music.

In addition to tonight, “Ek Ajnabi” which was the second song we got to learn tonight needed a slight correction. I could remember about two or four times when Eshay the girl on the other Tenor pan and Brandon the next boy on the Double Tenor ended up making mistakes because there were new changes to the song that we did not know about. I still got to make the changes and I made them on the Musescore software after correcting “Raag Sohini.”

Link(s):

1. "Ek Ajnabi" - Sargam Sheet.
2. "Ek Ajnabi" - V4, 5, 6, 7, 8.** [Available by Request Only.]
3. "Ek Ajnabi" (V9) - FINAL.

MEHENDI LAGA KE RAKHANA.

* Date Unknown/Forgotten *

This piece was introduced very late in the semester. About only three to four classes were spent on it. The score used for the recital was version three. It was a rushed down score and all the rhythmic patterns were not notated properly. 

A lot of rhythmic patterns were difficult to understand. It was corrected in the fourth version and the sargan was added. 

Link(s):

1. "Mehendi Laga" - Versions 3.** [Available by Request Only.]
2. "Mehendi Laga" (V4) - FINAL.

Daryl Zion M. Ali