Fundamentals of Pan Arranging (Final Exam)

Date for Entry: (Friday 12th May 2017)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Wednesday 24th November, 2021)

Dear Diary,

    Today was my pan arranging exam and this one was to be done in the JFK Auditorium down in the Open Campus. Again, I didn’t know what exactly to learn from my textbook, so I took the book summarized things and made my own notes on what I thought would come as well as the aspect of the book dealing with the rules and functions of the different pans. These notes became my “Ultimate Project” and were dedicated to this course. It looks like at the end of the second semester of the year, I make these scrolls of notes and dedicate it to the most difficult subject of the four.

    This was the subject I did not want to repeat and I felt like it was one that I was not going to pass. I took my notes and went through them and then went to hand in my bookbag at the stall where they will take it and give you a number for it. I placed the number into my pocket and went to the Auditorium with my identification card around my neck. The moment the examination began and I opened the examination paper, I was just so surprised at some of the simplest of questions to come. I answered all of them and then there was the final question at the back which was a four-bar arrangement. We had to work out the chords and do a harmony along with a bass line. That was fun but I was worried about it. 

    I completed the exam paper and checked it over four times properly and felt so much pain in my back and a bit dizzy from all of that nonstop concentration I gave all of that time. I had to sit there for a long while because when I asked one of the invigilators if it was okay to leave, she said that we had to wait because they were looking for a release form that had to be found before we could leave the Auditorium. About ten minutes going to four o'clock they finally allowed us to hand in our papers and leave.

    Upon leaving the Auditorium, I went and hand in the number and collected my bag. Then I took out my blue folder placed the receipt gently into it and then made sure I had the composition I did. I printed out a full score for Samantha this time since the last day after the Steelpan Literature class, I gave her a copy of the Piano part. 

    As I took it out to give her she said, “Daryl! What is that?” I knew that was the 'I don’t really care' sound and mixed with pain that she had at the time. Seeing that Natasha was interested in the music I gave her it and she started sight-reading it and I listened to her sing out the first two pages and when she discovered the lyrics and the girl ran out to stop her from singing the words. I simply smiled and walked off into the car and went home. That was the last of seeing my friends from the Certificate. I was wondering if they were going to have a picture taken of the whole class but it seemed like the answer was no when most of them started disappearing. 

[UPDATE] 

    Over some time, the large Bristol board paged book I made as the Ultimate Project was bound and sealed by green treasury tags. In 2019, just before the national lockdown for the Covid-19 Coronavirus, twin copies were made by my hands. One was gifted to the Festival Library at the Department of Creative and the second copy was gifted to UWI's West Indiana Collections of the Alma Jordon library. Additional information was added for the aid of Dr. Remy's future students doing the Music Literatures of the Steelpan course. 

 

Link(s):

1. Exam Receipt and Study Notes.
2. Photographs of Ultimate Project.**

 

Daryl Zion M. Ali