Date for Entry: (Friday 12th February, 2016)
Actual Date of Online Entry: (Sunday 12th September, 2021)
Today was a long and enjoyable day but there was a long
time spent in school with my Introduction to World Music group. We all decided
to meet up at Studio 1. There was a lot of laughter to some of the various
jokes I told and everything went a bit well. Some of them had to work out the
rhythms and Eric and Tinesha used a different set of teaching for the Grand piano in the room and the keyboard we got permission to use from practice room 5. The sad part was that we weren’t
getting permission to use any of the xylophones from the percussion room so the keyboard was set on xylophone mode.
After a short while, we got kicked out by a teacher
because she had a class in there after about two o'clock. We had nowhere else
to go until I told the group to move out from thereto Practice rooms 4 and 5. It was too small and cramped up. The biggest problem right there was the group had to use
both rooms to accommodate the instruments and we couldn’t get to see each other because the group was divided
into both rooms. So, now this meant that I had to go running from my pan to the next room and back constantly.
After switching Christine from the Tambourine to the metronome,
she had a next problem with staying on time but the other new girl (Ishan) was getting
through. Our friends Milano and Justin were there for a little while and then
they left. Soon after, not a long time from staying in the practice rooms, we
had to leave because Mr. Sharma also had to take the practice room for one of his classes with
another student. We had nowhere to go for practice again.
With quick thinking in my mind, I got permission from
Mrs. Ramlal to use the staff Kitchen area to practice. It was the same kitchen I did
my Grade 1 Pan Practical Examination in that Dr Remy conducted. She gave me permission and told me to “make sure to put back all the
instruments and everything where ‘I’ got them after using them” when she asked me about what instruments
are going to be used.
They looked relieved that I got us the room too. So, what we now had to do, was to move the instruments into the kitchen. The Gong wasn’t that difficult to move except for one of the single six bass barrels. I had to strain myself twice moving it until I got help from Quianna to move it from Practice room 5 all the way up the corridor for the second time. I did this walking backway and then I told her at the same time, “Ah doin’ ah backwards moonwalk dey boy!”
We both laughed out and then finally the pan was in the room. My fingers felt to fall off and my palms we burning. As we set up, there was this older foreign teacher who came in and acted too dumb in character with us. I guess it was because of how she spoke to us that we freaked out. It was not our intention of doing anything wrong to her. We would have allowed her to have her bag, which she simply came for.
For me personally, I couldn’t handle that from her so I just walked outside in the corridor and calmed my disturbed feeling in the breeze until I saw the teacher lady come outside and walk down the corridor. I was like “oh gosh lady” in my mind “the whole school is so big and yet it doesn’t even have a proper place to practice.”
Practice went well for the rest of the day. I got to help the new girl Ishan, on the Tambourine and found an easy method to help her work out the rhythms in her score. this method is one that a music theory teacher would absolutely dismiss on the spot and I knew it was not the correct way but I knew it might have been "something" enough to help the girl immediately to understand what she had to do and how to play the entire piece. And, her piece being a continued rhythmic pattern by measure, it would be easy duplication for her.
There were four special areas of Ishan's score I had to train her using the same 'incorrect' method. Surprisingly and amazingly, when I decided if I can test her with remembering the little things I told her, the girl was able to play out the entire piece by herself and keep the time herself. She told me it really helped a lot. That made me feel really special as I could see Quianna and Eric smile a little away from me.
When we were finished for the day, I shared with them my spiral-bound book with the pages I wrote the sonnets in my fancy handwriting. Then Quianna told me that she had a lot of poems too but she never wrote them down and forget. It was still nice to share until she brought up the part with the wheel and said, “The day when yuh bought in de wheel, that was incredible. Ah did know you were a special person. Because not everybody could do those kinds ah thing Nah.” I also forgot to say that earlier today mom and I went to Priya’s to buy myself something that looks Indian for the presentation. It had to look red because that was the colour our group decided to wear.
(Update)
More editing was needed to the full score. ew, parts with rhythm change and the entire part were taken out because Tinesha was not confident about the first xylophone part and had asked to do something else.
Quiana and I decided to do two instruments a the same time for the performance. She did Dholak and filled in for the Gong part. I did the tenor pan and filled in for the single six bass barrel. This was because Maggie had left the group first and soon after Rouchell had left the class also.
With Christine not being able to do the xylophone part, we put her on a woodblock to tap the pulse with Tinesha. Thinking about this move now, I wished that I had the idea to create a separate rhythm for her. It would have avoided two persons doing the same thing. Some years after my Degree, very early, I learned with some of us that Christine had passed away.
We had the only transferred student remaining (Rachel) who was doing tabla with us. She had decided to try it. No one in the group knew how to lay tabla and Musescore only gave to sounds for the table: one high and one lower. So, this was the way she had to play the instrument by tapping the rhythms correctly to the right drum. I must say that I was very proud of her for being able to work out the music all on her own. She did not find much difficulty in any of the versions in the piece.
However, there were times where I had to do multitask between her and the rest of the group. I knew it was coming but I personally did not mind because it might be a repeat occurrence in the future years from now, perhaps. Very early I was able to recognise that she was taught music theory like us, yes, but using the American styles of names for notes and rests, and vocabulary in music. So, while I spoke to the rest of the group during the session, I then had to look over to her as she knew it was her turn and use the American terms for her to understand.
It was an exciting challenge because now my mind and thinking had to be able to do both together at the very same time. Great teaching experience for me I must say, even though I did know the American way that good. So sometimes I might be looking to the ceiling and trying to figure out the word before I could speak to Rachel.
Also, very proud of Ishan for working out the music. I was hoping that another percussionist in school who knew about the tambourine would have been able to tell me how it is supposed to be held properly. Instead of that, I had to show her a way that I preferred it to be held. Once she did that exactly, the sound of the tambourine would have NO problem getting to another person. The sound was heard. I felt glad that the idea had worked again. I'm not sure if Ishan had music training before but she was able to understand from my very short conversation separately while the group session was going on.
Link(s):
Daryl Zion M. Ali
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