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.

Daryl Zion M. Ali

Indian Classical Ensemble - (Recital)

 Date for Entry: (Monday 27th November 2017)

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

Dear Diary,

    This afternoon after my Western History I met with Mrs. Neaves when she came into class and then we had a little chat. I asked her permission be to be excused from class because today I would have to be with the Indian Classical group assisting in moving instruments with other students for our recital. We were also going to be marked based on our performance as well. I also went into Practice room 12 to change my clothes in the dark. Going into the bathroom would have been too nasty to do.

    For the concert, I had to play the same songs with Eshay and Brandon on the Steelpan which were “Raag Sohini,” “Ek Ajnabi” and “Mehendi Laga Ke Rakhana.” We did not get to do a run-through on the songs before the function but I was really busy making sure that Brandon had his music in order. I was also assisting the pianist who I knew by a face from Certificate but I got to make friends a bit. His music was missing something so I took my folder where I scored out all the music and went through parts of the song to help him figure it out.

    During the concert, we did not play all the songs together. Different songs were being performed in between. For the songs, I could hear parts where the sound was too soft for the pans but I was not sure if they were playing, I was trying to focus more of the music so that I did not get lost in the song and couldn’t find back where we reached in the music. It was only at the end that Brandon told me he skated through everything and then there were some parts where I saw Eshay stop too but I was able to help her some parts of the way to come back in.

    I carried a lot of things back and forward from the Pan Theatre. At the end of this, they got us Pizza Hut and I took a slice after some of the members took photographs in our Indian clothing. It was really fun and I also got to meet some of the drama students. I went over and asked them for their advice on playwriting and their suggestions were really helpful. Wearing the clothes today felt really nice.

Link(s):

1. Raag Sohini.
2. Ek Ajnabi.
3. Mehendi Laga.
4. Pictures from the Recital.

 

Daryl Zion M. Ali

Aramalaya Choir Concert

 Date for Entry: (Saturday 26th November 2017)

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

Dear Diary,

    This afternoon I dressed myself up in my long-sleeve white shirt and black pants as I had to go to church to play steelpan with the Sunday School children. 

    They had to perform at a choir concert. The two pieces we were “Jesus Loves the Little Children” & "Hallu" by Mr. Sharma and “Ode to Joy” and "Jesus Loves Me" I did. 

   I got the music to what I had to play on the Double Tenor. This was fun doing the Double Tenor for the first time but I prefer this more than the Double Seconds. Some slips were made during the performance but I had a lot of fun still.

 

 

Link(s): 

1. Performance Video.**

 

Daryl Zion M. Ali

Jingle Bells & Silent Night - Arrangement

 Date for Entry: (Unknown/Forgotten)

[Friday 2017]

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

Dear Diary,

    Today is Friday and another Music Theory class to end the very long week. I also had to get to school quickly on time because I know that today is a day that Mr. Sharma leaves school early and wouldn’t come back. I had to get him the corrections to the “Jingle Bells & Silent Night” arrangement which he gave me to do. When I got to school I saw his wife there and they were in the parking area of the new area. I ran over quickly after getting the music from my bag and gave him it before he got into the car and drove away.

 

Link(s): 

1. "Jingle Bells & Silent Night" - Steelpan Arrangement.**

(UPDATE)

Sunday 5th November 2017.

    This morning in Church Mr. Sharma continued to teach the “Jingle Bells and Silent Night” arrangement that I did from where we left out last week. I was looking forward to going back on the six basses and trying the rest of the song but the little girl who was there wanted to go back on it since she couldn’t make up her mind to which instrument she wanted to play. The next part was that we had a new student coming today and I think she was Jimmy’s daughter. Mr. Sharma put me to teach her the song on Double Seconds and then now had to think of easy ways of getting the song to her.

    The class went well except for the new girl who I was teaching. I gave her tips about where to stand where to be when playing the instrument and how to hold the sticks as well as roll the notes. The only problem she had was understanding to play with the group and trying to feel the timing on her own, which made her semibreve rolls come off short-lasting to about a minim.

    Later that same evening I returned to Curepe where I went to write out the music for my Indian Classical Ensemble because from class on Monday after recording the music, I realize that some of my rhythms I originally had needed for editing and that Mr. Maharaj had put in extra things again. It took me about one hour and a half to sit down by the computer and write it out back from various replays on the cell phone. Dad was keeping check because he and Andrew were waiting for me to finish for long and this was talking long itself because there were some other difficulties in trying to figure out the rhythms for particular parts.

    In completing this, I printed out the four pages of music, had them scanned and then uploaded which was then copied and pasted into a Microsoft word document and then email to Karen, Eshay and Brandon. I also send it to Mr. Maharaj too. This made me feel good and special that I was able to do this and help my friends out who was getting problems with the song, as well as translating the Hindi solfege on the spot to the instrument we had to play.

    One thing I will be looking forward to tomorrow would be the Aural Training workshop where Mrs. Neaves has a Mr. Sadaphal coming in to teach us. This is a class we did not have to take but I wanted to go because even though I might not need it I would still like to see how it would be taught to a student and to also get more materials or methods of Solfeg practice. 

    The next thing I need to text Mrs. Neaves and ask her if it is still okay to attend the class and then if she says to send a message to Mr. Maharaj that I would be coming late to class. This was the next thing I did not like about the Aural training Tutorial because it was starting and ending at eight o’ cock in the night which meant that I was going to be missing a whole hour of my ensemble classes which happening at the same time.

Daryl Zion M. Ali

Aural Training 1 - "Workshop" #2

 Date for Entry: (Monday 13th November, 2017)

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

Dear Diary,

    The English went really fast and quick, Thank God. The Auditorium was still so very cold. I carried in the baby blanket I use to cover my Tenor pan at home and it came in good use today because my leg gave me some pain. It reminds me of mama when she covers her knees when it's making cold. It was also the last day of the English Plenaries for the semester and that was great news to hear.

    When class ended, I spoke to my lecturer Ms. Denis for the last time on how to do the conclusion. While this was happening I had Justin, Kayla and Chekia waiting in the car. I had to make them wait this time because all semester long I was waiting to see Ms. Denis and ask her questions. She always seemed to disappear so quickly.

    As we got into the yard of my lovely school, I came out today because Mr. Maharaj had asked me last Monday to meet with two certificate students on the pan and help them out with the songs. I came out and wait on the side because the Certificate Brandon was with his friend talking and he said that he admired me for the way I was humble. That was very nice although I was not sure what it means and then the three of us were talking while I answered their questions. Two of the questions that came from the girl were as if I talk a lot and then the other was to know what instruments I could play. He then went back to talking and he said that he would wait for the girl to finish her individual pan class.

    As I sat there near a pole with Brandon and his friend, I decided to take out my “Practice of Harmony” textbook and review some of the topics in it for the second quiz tomorrow in Music Theory class. While I was reading, I saw Mrs. Neaves coming out from the Practice Rooms 2-8 door. She told me “hi” and then asked me how I was doing. In return, I asked her how she was and she said that it was an interesting question and told me that “it was one of the days when everything was all over the place.” 

    As the certificate Brandon was telling Mrs. Neaves what he told me about me last Monday night after class about me being humble, she said that I was on a different level from everyone. I appreciated it but at the same time wondered exactly what she was meant. In the Aural Training class, I got some more quotes from her to the class:

• “Never enter a room thinking that you know everything. You will fail.”
• “Sometimes we like to resolve a chord but nothing holds the tension of the Tritone.”
• “Line up the 7ths to the triads and it will give you the scale of 7ths.”
• “You might have a plan, but do not always look to follow it. Go your own way.”

I appreciated these very much and then also in the Tutorial with Mr. Sadaphal, he as well had another useful piece of information to help me fill more gaps. He said, "The pulse is an accent or change in the pattern of beats." I on the other hand did not know this and I was glad again that I had attended the class to see if I can learn morning things that I did not know. Then again it was a free course for aural music practice that you don’t get all the time so available.

There was a Finale software that Mr. Sadaphal placed upon the projector from his laptop. It had a similar look to Finale so I had guessed it was that. The Brandon from my Degree class was there sitting in the front row on my side. I had to take a middle row today because people took all the right-handed table-and-chairs in the front row. Mr. Sadaphal had us clap out some rhythms which were scored on the Treble staff and they all were done using the pitch of F4. I was glad that I had my tablet in my bookbag to take a picture of the exercise for the journal and also to practice.

    Some of these rhythms I saw in music scores before but they were challenging only into the third bar and the fourth of line four alone. As the class was over my and my Degree Brandon walked over to Studio one. I had to leave him along the way because he was talking to someone. I told Mr. Maharaj good evening as I opened the door and rest my pan as it was hooked to the pan stand and then the bookstand was together with it. Usually, I do this too had all the things together and that I can carry everything at once. The Certificate Brandon and then Eshay looked glad to see me arrived I know that one reason was that I had the music I wrote out for the songs. For the rest of the night, it was the “Mehendi Laga” song and it went quite well for me.

    I still had to teach Eshay and the Certificate Bandon some extra things along the way. I also took them through the parts of this same song today after Eshay finished her individual pan class. It was for a short while because four o'clock came upon us so early that I had to run over to studio four in time for Western History with my Tenor pan. At the end of the Indian Classical class, the Certificate Brandon was asking Mr. Maharaj if the pans were good and he said that it was “very good and when he thanked me I then felt like the job I did today with Brandon and Eshay was successful.

 

Link(s): 

1. Final Examination Notifications - Aural Training 1.
2. Practice Sheet from the Workshop.

 

Daryl Zion M. Ali

Mini Revision Group - Music Theory 1

 Date for Entry: (Friday 10th November 2017)

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

Dear Diary,

This morning I woke up from sleep very early because I was going with dad to Port of Spain to accompany Andrew to his Swearing-in Ceremony to become an attorney. I did not get much sleep because I was up on the Tablet through the morning and the time on it was not correct. When we got down there to the Hall of Justice there were two women in white soldier uniforms. They were not polite even they said good morning, it was so fake I knew it.

We had to wait a long while. Dad saw one of this Attorney friends and she moved as if I did not exist. I did not even bother to tell her a word. I looked at another area of the Cafeteria which was located at the bottom below the streets probably. She sat there and chat for a long but I didn’t really care anyways. I wanted to get home quickly after the ceremony because I had my homework for Mrs. Ramlal to hurry up and finish. It took a long to start and then there was a problem with the workers who were in charge of it was in the Hall already. On the bright side, it finished in one hour and it was one of the most stupid functions I ever attended. Just a few words and they drag people out of their home for all of that little thing. I did however appreciate a short bit of Ms. Jillian Lucky’s speech. 

When we got outside, Andrew forced me to get too many pictures. We eventually started walking off and then he walked down the stairs and headed down the road. He then came following us because it was already twelve o’ o'clock and all of my homework for Mrs. Ramlal’s class was incomplete. As we walked through Woodford Square I heard a melody played by the bells of the Church across the street. I immediately detected the Perfect fourth of Middle C to F4. At first, it made me think that it was in C when I knew I felt wrong and later guessed F Major because of the various usage of Bb throughout the melody. Only until we crossed the road the song was over. I could still remember a foolish lady trying to take pictures on a cellphone and she dropped out three brown envelopes of certificates in her hands in the wet puddled pavement. Instead of picking them up she left them in there and tried to take the picture even though she knew it fell and I said laoud, “She really foolish. Before she spoil de good thing now she guh look tuh keep takin’ pictures.” Then again, no one cared or even know I was there and I felt good saying that aloud.

When we got to Curepe, Andrew wanted to go to the Photo Studio to get the pictures taken in the suit and another in the gown. The man in the Studio took forever and my stomach was now paining me with gas pain since I did not eat for the morning. I got home in Tunapuna after one o'clock and began to do my homework. Ricky was outside in the yard. I just left him talking to Andrew and move like a ghost that everyone can see again. I might be male but that is not the way my personality moves.

I had to go to class a bit late. I got dressed immediately when dad came back up Tunapuna for me and then I finished the speech I was working on for the presentation of my homework. For this homework, Mrs. Ramlal made a deal with us that if we shared our homework we would get an extra ten marks free. Every hump, bump, note in the road and turn of the corner was a stop for me when I was writing the last parts of the speech which came up to four-sided pages in total.

When I came today from Curepe, I did not have my book bag with me so I had to take my course copybook, the orange masked Manuscript book I had with my Pencil case and a bottle of water. I did also carry my “Practice of Harmony” textbook in my purple briefcase too.  

There was a short wait for my turn in class and I hooked up my phone onto the speakers and set my homework down for the scanner to put it up on the projector. I took my time and went through the speech and I got to make jokes. The loudest yell out from the class was from, “Well I rell glad allyuh laugh cause if ah grasshopper buss through dah glass window and make noise, it guh be the loudest thing in here.” I could see Mrs. Ramlal with her eyes wildly open and a bright smile on her face.

In the middle of the speech, I just decided to stop and play the pieces instead. Nervousness was getting control of my voice and it was starting to make it shiver. As I also looked down to the middle of the paper at the words, it did not look like English as well so I had no choice. At the end of the playing, I took my seat. I stood back after class to ask Mrs. Ramlal for some help in the Suspensions. Leon was there too and the three of us had to move to the old Staff Kitchen with is now a Student’s common room. I got through a good bit and understood a lot.

I thanked Mrs. Ramlal and left her there with Leon in the room. I was glad I did not get to talk to Andrew like we sometimes do but this is a very hurtful thing to say right now. I sometimes feel like that person in some shows who find it difficult and need help in accepting the good. I saw him sitting on the concrete chair outside by the tree located to the pedestrian gate of the prison.

 

Daryl Zion M. Ali

Aural Training 1 - Workshop #1

 Date for Entry: (Monday 6th November, 2017)

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

Dear Diary,

    Today in my early morning English Plenary. I sat down with Karen in class again and we were with Anton as he called his sitting area “the south side” which was really not south. The lecture today was on the topic of the Extended Definition. This looked complex because in everything it was explaining everything and contained too many definitions. In the next part to make the complex even more complex, this style of writing was one that is used to combine the six different types and I still needed to learn all.

    The good thing about this class was that it was an hour and a half and it was still very extremely cold in there. I could not stay with Karen today as she always wants me to stay by with her and keep her company. I had started to make some charts for my Music Theory class so that I can learn it for the big exam to come in the few remaining days to come around.

    Today I got back my exam paper from Mrs. Ramlal for the History class and I was a bit shocked when I saw the mark but I was beginning to say in my mind “Well, just shut up and be happy because yuh pass de thing.” That was still making me feel as if I failed. We had our first Aural Training Assessment today and it went very well. Throughout this assessment, we had to listen to what Mrs. Neaves played for us on the Piano and then wrote back exactly what was asked for. I took a little longer at the end to hand up because there was a tricky question but I find it was very easy and nice to do.

    For the Aural Training workshop with Mr. Sadaphal. We went through the scale singing it as (doh: doh-re-doh, Doh-me-doh, Doh-fah-doh) and so on up the scale and descending in G Major. There was some confusion about what we should do because it was a mixed group of Certificate and Degree Students together in one room. We also did melodic writing where we had to write in a melody that he played on the piano onto the manuscript sheet. I only had one sheet of manuscript paper at the end of my textbook for the Aural Training class so I used that instead.

    Along with the first melodic dictation line, we had a second one and it was four bars long. The first one was given and this one when Mr. Sadaphal asked us to write it out no one went up so I corrected it. I did remember that when he came around to check what the students were writing he showed me the wrong note in bar three which was G4 and then I changed it to F^#4. I knew what I wrote at first was wrong because I did not know which note to write in. After writing in my answer on the board, he then reminded us that a stem had to be almost an octave long.

    Before the class concluded, we also had two more sets of work to be done. The first one was to write out intervals on the manuscript paper I had to a given tonic note that Mr. Sadaphal would write on the board. Each one he played two to three times each. I was glad that I was able to get all correct. The final part of the class came from a hand-out with music for singing and this time we had to use SolSolfegefeg. I had wished myself good luck and began with everyone.

    The first one was easy enough to do because it was in C Major in exercise seven in the printed sheet that he gave us. The second was good and I did not make many mistakes again because I wrote out the Solfeg on the bottom of each note with my pencil for number eight and then nine which we did afterwards. When the exercise was over he asked us what was the purpose of the rest. Having this question asked I knew it was a good idea coming because when he answers that question, I know that a small gap missing knowledge such as this one will be filled. The answer was “A rest is not a pause. It is a stop for the singer to breathe.” 

    This made perfect sense but not fully since I then looked at his definition and compared it to the Tenor pan. I then took the Tenor pan that I had saved with the book stand in the classroom since the beginning of Western History Class. I went off forgetting that it had Brandon from the same class I could have walked over to Indian Classical with but I was now afraid that Mr. Maharaj did not get my message about me being late that I send him via cellular text message.

    I got inside Studio one and set the pan with Eshay and the Certificate Brandon as they still wanted to see my scores for the songs. There was a whole set of work for me to get but it was not that much since I noticed that the parts repeated themselves in the “Mehindi Laga Ke Rakhana” song. I heard that this was the only song they had been working on so far the whole evening and it was the only one too for the rest of the night. I made sure to take out my cellphone and record the song from top to bottom when we had the whole song.

Link(s): 

1. Sight-reading Exercise Sheet.

 

Daryl Zion M. Ali

Aural Training 1 - Silent Night / Optional Harmonization Homework

 Date for Entry: (Wednesday 1st November 2017)

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

Dear Diary,

    Last week was assessments. Today's pan lessons with Mr. Sharma came very early again, meaning that I was late. Well, almost late. When I got there, I saw him with a new book and he was practicing his music really hard. As I knocked on the door and opened it I greeted him with a good morning and a good smile and then he gave me the key to the storeroom. Walking down the corridor, it sounds really good, and then when I came back with the pan already hooked to the stand as I carried it into the room of Practice room fourteen he gave me the score for the Christmas Service Concert at church which was “Oh Holy Night.”

    When I saw the first line of it I was a bit shocked with the compound quadruple of the twelve-eight meter and then the six-eight but as I began to sigh-read it as Mr. Sharma said “this would count as a good exercise for sight-reading for today,” it was really that. Certain things I began to observe when I was playing, I was able to teach myself something from my mind. It came in good hands too, because it worked for the entire song and I was able to play the whole thing.

    For Intermediate Ensemble, we went through all the songs but we endured the harder sections first. Today was one of the more successful days of class. It went well and I also got to help a new certificate boy named Daniel with some of the rhythms like last Wednesday.

    When I got out of that class, I went to put my bags in Studio four and then went to the restroom and went back. I got a single chair to take off my sandals and put my feet up because my back and legs were still hurting from that torturous Intermediate class. I took out the binder to admire the composition “Wishing Well Appearance” I did for the story. Before class was to bring I saw that when Mrs. Neaves came by my right side and took a little peek into my binder folder with the last page of the composition on it and then went by the piano.

    The rest of the class went quickly and well. We had rhythmic clapping and dictation to write it out. At the end of the class, we had to do a short presentation. During last class’ melodic dictation, Mrs. Neaves gave us that same one for homework but this was optional. The weird part was that only Anton and I did it and we had to present. Since I was sitting in front as I usually do, Mrs. Neaves wanted me to go first. When she finished speaking to the rest of the students in the back, I asked her for some assistance getting the plug to connect my phone to the speakers. While I was playing it, it was there on the projector and everyone watched. It felt nice to have this happen because it was special.

    When playing was done, I had to say a little something about the work. I gave them the honest truth about having the song written out and that "there was no inspiration at all." No one said a word and then when miss asked me “What do you mean.” I just replied, "I just wrote it out like a normal assignment for Mrs. Ramlal" and everyone listened. 

    After they had a chat over the homework, Mrs. Neaves came and point out to them the techniques I used such as the second inversion and then the use of the figured bass at the bottom. There was another part where she asked me why I had so many changes in chords. To answer that I said that I wanted it to add a surprise effect to the second line and that made the class wonder what had just happened.

    She understood me and when she asked me to play it over, the phone battery died so I had to take off the phone from the jack and then return to my seat. Then Anton came up with his tablet and then he went on with his presentation. For his presentation he had the melody in a voice line and then a piano accompaniment happening. It was interesting but it sounded like the piano part was a bit empty. I truly didn't mean that as a bad thing.

    When Natasha came back during Anton’s presentation, she had to tell Mrs. Neaves that Mrs. Nicholas wanted to take the classroom earlier for her class. I was going to talk to Mrs. Neaves and then she walked everyone out so that Miss Nicholas in her Wheelchair can come in. I went on the side and showed her the composition I did for the story and she read it through with the lyrics. She said that I should send her a recording of it to check it for me. 

    I then went home to Curepe but after eating my dinner, I wanted to go back to my Tunapuna home since tomorrow is my Western History listening Quiz and I needed to prepare for it. It took me until after two in the morning to stop because I had no idea what to learn. However, I made some points from stuff about people and musical elements we did in class over this long and frustrating time. Some time afterward, I was grateful that Mrs. Ramlal was able to check out the same assignment. She left some pencil mark comments for me on the score.

Link(s): 

1. "Oh Holy Night" - Score.
2. Optional Harmonization Homework - Score.
3. Optional Harmonization Homework - Recording.**

 

Daryl Zion M. Ali