Hillview College (SONG)

Date for Entry: (Thursday 16th September 2010)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Monday 19th December 2022)

Dear Diary,

    The following sections are my trials and attempts at completing music notation for Hillview’s College Song.

 

LEARNING THE MELODY & WORDS.

** Thursday 16th September 2010 **

Today during the last three periods, every Form 1 student was sent over to the School Auditorium to sit and practice the School Song. My English Teacher, Miss Charis Sieunarine – Thompson, who sang on the first day of school was there. I was amazed at the way this lady could sing. I listened closely for that “Here every creed” part of the National Anthem and she nailed it.

    The four boys from the first day on the steelpans were there too. The music was fairly okay but if the rest of the pans were played the quality would have been better. But Miss Sieunarine made up the rest with her voice. 

    I'm glad that at the end of the evening, I was able to keep the melody in my mind. Around ten o'clock in the night, I was able to play the melody easily on the keyboard at Tunapuna’s home. I did not write it out on manuscript paper but I kept it in memory. 

    During lunchtime in school, I would take my pan sticks and try to figure out the same melody on a Tenor pan. Somewhere around that time, I was acquainted with Ifeaye not formally but we would have spoken before I was about to enter the Steel Ensemble by his invitation.

 

FIRST NOTATION OF MELODY.

** Unknown/Forgotten: Form 2 (2011) **

Today after Hillview and pan practice, I tried searching for music notation software that could help me to write music professionally. I was feeling a bit disadvantaged because I saw musicians being able to do this and not me. I had tried Finale, but they would only give me a thirty-day trial and then either I pay for it or have none.

    Finally, I found something at www.Sheetmusiceditor.com. I found a place where could write music. It was very difficult and too troublesome to use. But I had a lot of patience and do-overs to overcome. I so wanted to have a copy of the college song but there was a strong feeling that the school did not have it. There must have been someone who at least attempted transcribing the thing.  

    With one wrong little click, I lost all the hard work I did. There was no way to save it because that was only on a website. It was very hard to do over that short melody. I rewrote it and saw how simple a song can be.

    All my life I saw people with scores, and it made me constantly wonder how they managed to have the pieces written over the computer. What program did they use? Even if they had arranged music, it is something I wish I could do too, but I do not have the feeling that many books can teach you steelpan arranging.

    A copy of the music was made to save. I knew the website would not save my transcription. This was shared with Miss Saunders at some point, and she verified it making sure it was correct. I recall the stained patterns that came on the paper.

Link(s):

• Hillview College Song (Melody) –First Attempt.

 

FIRST STEELPAN ARRANGEMENT.

** Form 2 (2011) – From 5 (2015) **

It took me from the end of Form Two until the end of the first term in Form Five to complete music notation for the college song. I had to beg the boys one at a time to write out their parts on the separate steelpan instruments. I knew that most of the boys did not know how to write music notation properly, so I asked them to write out the pitch letters instead.

    Once the letters were written, I asked them to show me the rhythm that was given to them to play. The difference between this section entry and reality is that it took me a great amount of time in between asking each member playing a different steelpan instrument to write out their parts.

    All the sheets were compiled in a folder until Form 5 where Ifeaye gave me the pitches and rhythm for ‘his’ three cellos. I did appreciate that he told me about the rhythms for all the parts grouped within the bars of a common time meter. I had my transcription from Form 1 as the tenor pan part. I did meet one of the Double Tenor players and he said that it played the same as the tenor pan.

    At some point, I opened up Musescore (which I discovered in Form 3) and began to transcribe all the different parts that were given to me. Playing it back on the program was special. It felt like for once I had something close to what the document should have been. Most likely, it may have been the only one that exists.

    The full notation was not printed in a rush. I had it saved at home. Only a small portion of this college song was used during my difficult trials of CXC Music. I am still not sure I there were others before my time that had continued to do CXC Music through Hillview.  

 

STEELPAN ARRANGEMENT (V1) – FOR YOUTUBE.

** From 5 (2015) **

First YouTube Video Attempt

At this point in my life, I was having my first experience with an electronic tablet. There was a time during the summer vacation I recorded the transcription that I did to playback. I was about to set up my YouTube channel after discovering how to obtain it by listening to a passerby in Tobago.

    At that time also I had to wait some three days for such a channel to be prepared and created. This was my first channel before I lost the account. Having that wild idea, I made the first post about the college song. The tablet was not able to record the entire video clearly so it would have been a bit too dark and blurry in some parts. I hoped that it would have served well on that platform.

 

STEELPAN ARRANGEMENT (V3).

** Friday 28th April 2017 **

I was in the final semester of my Music Certificate at UWI. I had a trip up to Hillview in the morning to play the anthem and college song with the steel ensemble. We all planned to play at the prayer service for the final time as an ensemble. It was only we who created that ensemble from Form 1 and the others who did Form 6 remained. I had brought copies of the full score for the college song to share with a view of them.

    One copy was for Miss Saunders along with copies of parts for all the steelpan instruments. I had the Fundamentals of Pan Arranging course in session at the time and I took the opportunity to revise what I had done in 2015. This time around chord symbols were inserted into the full score when I added a line to make a lead sheet. Other people again from the past might tell me that it isn’t needed but I personally believe it is necessary.

Link(s):

• Journal Entry: “Hillview Surprise Visit & Performance.”

 

STEELPAN ARRANGEMENT (V4) – FOR YOUTUBE.

** Friday 11th February 2022 **

On Monday of this week, I was contacted by Miss and she said that my YouTube video for Hillview’s College song was used to teach the students. This period was the COVID-19 lockdown and schools were opening back after two years. I had completely forgotten about the first video I made.

    I decided to take the third version of the transcription I had and have a final review. I found out how to video record a score being played from Musescore and began working on a proper video that would be friendly towards a student now starting to learn the song.

    In this same process, the third version becoming version four was now a “short version”. This one was used as parts and sent to Miss by email to give to the school. I’m not sure if all the several parts made it. There was another one created as a “long sore” that was used for making the actual video presently created. 

    On Monday 12th December 2022, the first video of the college song was deleted. The updated video is provided in the link below.

Link(s):

• Hillview College Song – YouTube Link.

DELIVERY OF SONG BOOKLETS.

** April 2023 **

The entry's date was forgotten. My arrival at the compound was during the Easter vacation. Not many people were there in the school. I was able to speak with Miss Ramdeen. She was acting as Vice Principal at the time. It took her some time to remember me. We had a wonderful conversation in the Vice Principal's office. 

    I got to share the books with her and explained the issue of housing for each one within the school's compound. At that moment of handing over the books, it completed a wish of mine from Form 1. The music notation was made and is now freely accessible to the students that will be learning to play it on the steelpan instruments in the future. 

    Special thanks to Almighty God for his guidance and training over the years. And, thanks to the Gentlemen of our year group in the Hillview College Steel Ensemble, for the assistance in aiding this project: 

• Joshua Ojar (Tenor), Alex Jalsa (Tenor), Zachary Mongroo (Tenor, 2013), Christian Jaggernauth (Double Tenor), Isaiah John (Double Seconds), Jordon Sooknanan (Double Guitar), Ifeaye Murray (3 Cello), Stephen Mohammed (Tenor Bass), Stephen Messiah & Davonic Bailey (Six Bass).

    The first steelpan arrangement score took from Form 1 (2010) to Form 5 (2015; Term 2). It has been amended approximately three times to its current state seen in the YouTube video presented above. I wish the future students enjoyment using these scores and that they will continue to chant their cheer and to "Let the name Hillview ring across the campus clear."

Daryl Zion M. Ali