Date for Entry: (Tuesday 5th September, 2017)
Actual Date of Online Entry: (Tuesday 18th January, 2022)
Dear Diary,
The writing below is an account of the course "Music Theory 1" for Semester 1, Year one of the Degree Program. This curse was split into two compulsory classes (as first half and second half) for one and a half hours each on Tuesday and Friday.
FIRST-CLASS.
* Tuesday 5th September 2017 *
Today's first Music Theory was surprising to see Miss Ramlal again. We had our class in
Studio One. The next surprising thing about today was that as soon as I
entered before class and take my seat, I looked at the ears of the boy playing the Grand
piano. His back was facing me but as I looked at his ears I immediately knew
who it was and wondered if he was going to be doing the degree too.
When Miss Ramlal walked into class he got up and took his
book and as he turned around I knew I was correct. It was Andrew Samlal and realised that he would have been taking the same program as me when sat down at the start of class. I still have him
as a friend on Facebook after my friend Amir from TML told me to add him. I know
he is a piano person and I know for sure that this whole time of his degree, we will hear the
music he likes to play.
Continuing with today’s lesson, we had a worksheet to do with clefs and it was a bit easy. Somewhere in the middle of it, I realized that it was one of the “Sound of Music" songs I know. There were song tricky parts because the paper wasn’t printed so well but it was fun.
Link(s):
SECOND
HALF – WEEK 1.
* Friday
8 September 2017 *
Today Miss Ramlal was there again for the
last class of the week. I really believed that the first week was over and done
with. Today’s class topic was scaling for Major, Natural minor, Harmonic minor,
and Melodic minor. For me this was a trip I took back in my mind to my Grade 3
days, however, it was not so nice. The way that Miss Ramlal explained it was a
bit too confusing and then the notes and explanations were mixed up all over
the board.
While this was happening for a moment I was
wondering if he was really talking in the Musical language, I could understand
natural, or if my mind was just blocking out what she was saying. I did manage
to take down notes into my little copybook and I was working at a faster paste
too because I did not have a manuscript book in my bookbag and had to draw out
the staves by hand, but how hard could that be? It is just three printed lines
to trace and two lines in between and that was my staff.
Another nicer point to note was that I got
to sit with Andrew Sammy too in the class. It is still so nice to finally have
an Andrew friend this time in my schooling life that understands music just like
me. We had a good conversation later tonight and chat about class. He too
agreed about class today, but we soon cut since he left to go to bed, and it
was after eight in the night.
FIRST HALF – WEEK 2.
* Tuesday 12th September 2017 *
Today I got back my homework from last week with Key signatures and scales. Honestly speaking, these were not so easy. It was a bit challenging but getting back that eight-five from the marks I got on it was good. The part of homework with this was that we were getting marked on it and parts of the marks coming from it will go towards our final grade and this has me so scared. I tried to get the homework a more neat and presentable look as well so that it would be good enough to understand.
Link(s):
SECOND HALF - WEEK 2.
* Friday 15th September 2017 *
Today we’re back in Studio 4 and I got back my homework from Miss Ramlal. Seeing ninety-one was nice but this exercise was really not nice at all. There was a lot of writing on the sheet of paper in Miss Ramlal’s signature colour. Since she and Mrs. Neaves use green and blue I soon came to see how they fit perfectly in the Magical Creatures if they were to act the parts of the Enchanted Ladies because they are good at music and with the two ladies, one wore blue and the other wore green
Link(s):
PRINTED TEXTBOOK & TRIADS.
* Tuesday 19th September 2017 *
Today I
returned to my beautiful school feeling much happier and confident that I got
through with the Indian Classical Ensemble. It was three big accomplishments
yesterday where I got to submit my gate forms stapled with the Fee Sheet and
Receipt, joined the Indian Classical and earlier that morning, Daddy went to
the Photocopy shop that was opposite Laxmi High School and near the UWI Tunnel
to purchase my Music Theory Textbook which was for one hundred and ten dollars.
I got the information from Justin in class on Friday when I saw him with his
book.
Today I got back the homework I gave in on Friday. It was a worksheet on the key signature, triads, and determining the correct quality. This was really difficult at the start. I even had to cheat and use my phone to get the right answers on the internet in Curepe while I was doing it last minute before the class.
ASSESSMENT #2.
* Tuesday 14th November 2017 *
I had my second Music Theory examination today. I was a bit excited and I was slightly confident about it. Not much of my usual nervousness came today because I knew the little that I did for the exam was good enough. The only thing I was worried about was the Non-chord tones that were coming but I just tried to keep in mind what was sticking well with me.
As the examination began and Mrs. Ramlal sat at the desk to the front of the class, I took my pen and filled in the required information at the top of the sheet of paper and then below in a wide space wrote out in block letters “Do not double leading tone” where I could see it and for the first question, I made sure to write out what that leading tone was next to the note. The first question gave me the Bass of the SATB and figured bass so all I had to do was to put in the ripieno which was the Soprano, Alto and Tenor voice. There were a few seventh chords but I knew to resolve the seventh by step or to hold it out if the notes were not able to go down.
The second question as well as the third question was to label the key of the excerpt and label the chords by inserting the correct figured bass at the bottom and too also label the non-chord tones that occur in the music. I made sure to check over well and then I gave up about two minutes before the exam was over and to a sit outside to cool off from that long exam.
Having brighter news, I got back my homework from last week Friday that I had to present to the class and play what I did to get ten extra marks on the homework. Altogether I got eighty-seven out of one hundred in it and I felt very good in it. I understood the notes that Mrs. Ramlal left and then the funny thing about it is that every time I check it over and then Mrs. Ramlal correct it I se errors that I did not even see so I know that there are some more things to learn.
On Friday 17th November 2017, As I got back into class today, not many people were there and I got my front seat back which I felt good to sit there. I got back my exam paper and at the top of the paper, I was really surprised again. I got seventy-seven out of one hundred and this time I really enjoyed it. I held up my paper in my hands and went through the comments for some of the mistakes that I made.
We also began the final topic for the semester and that was secondary dominants. I began to ask myself again if Mrs. Ramlal was speaking English. For the entire lesson, it was not making sense to me so I would have to go home and do my other work and reading and hopefully I will get it.
Link(s):
Daryl Zion M. Ali
No comments:
Post a Comment