Date for Entry: (Monday 21st January 2019)
Actual Date of Online
Entry: (Monday 14th
March 2022)
Dear
Diary,
This course began on the first Monday of the new semester. I was truly excited
to do this course because it was something that I was into and because it had
music writing involved. I was able to save some of the handwritten notes from classes.
I apologize if they are not legible.
I have heard a lot of troubling conversations from persons in school
about the final examination and how impossible it is. I did not bother to let
it worry me. I decided to take it and face it when that time came. Hopefully, I
will be able to figure it out and work it through.
I look forward to another semester of music notation with Dr. Remy. The
sad part was that I was forced to use Sibelius again as in Steelpan Arranging
1. Not many people choose to do this course because it is not compulsory and
there are not always that many students who want to arrange for steelpan. This course
gave us homework to do along with assignments. All of them would add scores
that went to our final grade. All homework and coursework assignments were to
be submitted on the same Dropbox file that Dr. Remy had shared with us by
email.
Link(s):
Steelpan Arranging 2 – Course Outline.**
Steelpan Arranging 2 - Class Notes.
Homework.
The beginning started with a lot of revision work in chords.
There were some worksheets that Dr. Remy had created for us to do and submit in
the Dropbox file.
In worksheet 1, we were given a chord and asked to circle the notes
involved and amend them with the correct accidentals if needed. Worksheet 2
asked us to add in the accidentals necessary to make the cord. Worksheet 4 was
a combination of worksheets 1 and 2. Worksheet 3 asked us to write out the chord
tones. All four were given in the first class as homework.
In the second class, we were given two more worksheets as homework. The first was a Melody in F and we were asked to write out the chord on a treble staff. The last one was to reharmonize the song happy birthday. We were given the freedom to use whichever chords we wanted.
Link(s):
Bomb Tune (Assignment): "Shape of You".
* Monday 25th March 2019 *
This piece was my Bomb Tune selection as an assignment for marks. I
decided to look on YouTube for hit songs. I was hearing this song in my mind
but did not know the name of it. When I heard the boy singing the tune, I knew
immediately it was the piece I wanted to present to the class.
Link(s):
- “Shape of You” Assignment.**
- “Shape of You” Assignment's Recording.**
WESTERN MUSIC BOMB
TUNES (ASSIGNMENT #): FUR ELISE.
* Friday 5th April 2019 *
We were given another Bomb Tune
piece to do but using a Western-style piece this time. I did not have a single
piece in mind to do so I went to Dr. Remy during office hours and asked her to pick
a piece or me to do. She wanted me to pick one at first but then she ended up
finding one for me. It was “Fur Elise” and by the time I saw the three-eight, I
saw the challenge and wondered how I was going to find an introduction.
I took the rest of the week
coming up with the music. I was able to work out the whole piece on Musescore
for the first attempt and then have it converted to a Sibelius. The class’
reaction was screams of amazement and joy. The only problematic thing was the introduction and that Dr. Remy had wanted me to have the music in
cut-time, which I also did not like.
By the next week for office
hours, I had done over the entire piece from three-four to three-two and Dr. Remy helped me work out the introduction.
She said that the arrangement of the chords “is not giving that type of
particular progression that we want to hear.” Personally, I did not know what
progression that was. It did sound better by the time we were forced to finish
early. She had another class and could not get to see the jam that I was
supposed to attempt.
The next class came and Dr. Remy
played by assignment again like all the others. I was very proud of the piece. The
class seemed to like it and she did say, “I liked how you got the piece to
sound in three when written as two. That was genius.” It did really sound like
three but written it two-two. No other errors or comments occurred so I
submitted the piece to the Dropbox file for marking.
I think that one of the fun things in this assignment and the first was being introduced to the word calypsitisation and knowing how to do it.
Link(s):
- “Fur Elise” Printout.
- “Fur Elise” Assignment.**
- “Fur Elise” Assignment (Recording).**
SONG AUDITIONS.
**
There was a weekend during this semester I decided to run an 'audition' to select two Soca songs from 2019. As every year, there would be several songs to choose from. My main goal was to make sure that the pieces came from the Caribbean people living in the Caribbean only.
The procedure was like a panorama judging experience. There was a preliminary round (more than 130 songs), Semifinals (124 songs), Finals (45 songs), Grand Finals (16 songs), and the Overall Results were my top 10 selections to choose from.
The preliminary, semifinal and final rounds were each conducted on individual Saturdays one after the next for proper repeated listening sessions. Based on the top ten, I had a top-four comprising of (1) "Right for Somebody", (2) "Alive and Well", (3) "Warm-up", and (4) "Trouble in the Morning".
I found that the "Trouble in the Morning" would have been a good piece to do for fun in my private time and not for a DCFA coursework submission. The first three, all had the same chord progression which I knew would have made the job easier to complete. The "Alive and Well" by 'Voice' was eliminated by comparing the other two.
Understanding how sometimes the experience of UWI operated, I left the "Warm-Up" for the final panorama assignment because I found it to be easier to handle at the end of the semester. I knew I would have ad more time to work with the "Right for Somebody". Journal entries on working with these two pieces are provided below.
Link(s):
- Song Audition (2019) - Preliminaries.
- Song Audition (2019) - Semifinals.
- Song Audition (2019) - Finals.
- Song Audition (2019) - Grand Final.
- Song Audition (2019) - Overall Selections.
PANORAMA TUNE
(ASSIGNMENT #): “RIGHT FOR SOMEBODY”.
* Monday 6th May 2021 *
This was super fun and really easy piece of music to transcribe for the verse and chorus. It came up to
twenty-one pages in length and it was one of the top three that made the final
top ten of my adjudication for selections. A top three was selected and I chose
to go with “Right for Somebody” being the first of the three.
The introduction came in directly
from the YouTube recording. I was wondering how one finds a signature sound
so I could put it in the piece. Section D carried the melody in the background.
I did not know how to treat a situation like that. The question from me was, if
the melody is in the back, then what happens to the tenors, double tenors, and
double seconds? I decided to have them o the strumming instead.
Usually, like an intermediate
where I have heard this happen, the tenors would be given a counter melody and
it can sometimes clash or other members aren’t aware of what’s happening in other
sections. Everything becomes clustered too much and this is why I did not like
that.
Section F was a bit too much on
the duplications but coming up to the end of the second repeat that lead into
the modulation, I found that the tension created was excelled. The new key
helped ease it afterward. I’m not sure if there are musicians who would have
preferred me to do something else with that tension before doing the key
change. Anyone?
In terms of the modulation, it
meant that I would have had to use another key for the piece. My next question
and thinking would focus on which key would be best to use. I thought that
since the minor key in the “Fur Elise” moving downward to D minor was a good
gamble, then moving upward would be best since this “Right for Somebody” is
major in tonality. Hence, I moved from D major to E major (from two to three sharps).
From the thereafter to the end
of section J, it was a repeat of the verse and chorus in the new key. Section
J was the ending and it felt too abrupt to me. I did not even know how to end
the piece. I thought that a rhythm played by the whole band would have been
better.
Link(s):
- “Right for Somebody” – Assignment (Sibelius).**
- “Right for Somebody” – Assignment (Musescore).**
- “Right for Somebody” – Assignment (Recording).**
PANORAMA TUNE
(ASSIGNMENT #): “WARM UP”.
* Saturday 11th May
2021 *
This was the last of the steelpan
arranging 2 assignments. It was another panorama-styled assignment that we were
asked to do. The second tune of choice was done by Mr. Akeem “Preddy” Chance. I
went exactly by the YouTube recording. The nice thing about this piece and the
“Right for Somebody” previous assignment was that while they both maintained
all of the criteria, I looked for they had the same chord progression. So,
copy and pasting was an easy helper in the making of this creation. I was also
able to finish easier to seek assistance from Dr. Remy.
I measure ninety-seven to the
empty measure, I found a great need for that melodic or arpeggiated piece that
was used from the “Right for Somebody” piece. Section G followed the same
upward whole tone step for the modulation and it worked again.
In my office hour meeting with
Dr. Remy, she deleted the tenor line in Section G and she filled in the empty
measure to what is written in the score. She tried to show me how easy it was
to create that counter-melody for the tenor pan when the song’s melody
was sent to the background pans. She said, “It’s all about taking bits and
pieces of the music and coming up with something simple or as complex as you
want.” When we got to measures 114-115, she said also told me that it is always
nice to have a bit of chromatics here and there. I appreciated that extra very
much.
I found a lot of need for that
repeat of the ‘verse variation’ that I had. Still not sure if it is safe to
call it a verse variation. Whatever it was in that tenor and double tenor or
the variation was amazing to me, Lolz. This ending that I did was more rhythmic
than the “Right for Somebody” assignment. The Musescore version has been
updated and changed over the years after completing the course.
Link(s):
- “Warm Up” – Assignment (Sibelius).**
- “Warm Up” – Assignment (Musescore).**
- “Warm Up” – Assignment (Recording).**
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