Date for Entry: (Wednesday 1st May 2019)
Actual Date of Online Entry: (Wednesday 16th March 2022)
Dear Diary,
I decided to do music for the
second semester of the academic year. During the first three weeks, I continued
using the “Joining the Dots” book two until I had finished it on my own. When
I told Mr. Sharma that I did not know what his reaction or response would have
been. I was glad that he allowed me to start book three right away. It was a
green-covered book. When we began the warmup practice, it was not so easy at
all. They took a scale and made a game using both hands. They were similar in
sound but each pattern may have carried a different feeling.
NEW PIECES: PIANO
JURY.
* Wednesday 1 May
2019 *
I was given two new pieces to try
out from a Grade One piano ABRSM exam book. The first was Egyptian Level and it
was fun. I learned it out quickly within three to five practices at home. My
challenge in it was to look out for the dynamics and the ending, poco rit.
“Wiegenlied” piece was given to
me and really did not like it. It was too troublesome at first. I am still
surprised that I actually did this piece for a final piano jury at UWI.
Link(s):
- “The Egyptian Level”.** [Permission was not granted.]
- “Wiegenlied”.** [Permission was not granted.]
STEELPAN HISTORY
& DEVELOPMENT.
* Friday 3 May 2019 *
I stayed up all night trying to
go through some of the things that Dr. Remy gave me from the course’s Dropbox
file. It was a cram I did and there were a learn a lot of things. The venue for
the examination was in one of the temporary classrooms down by the sciences
area of UWI. Dr. Remy came in later towards the end of the duration. For me,
this was a hard exam. An essay was provided and I chose to speak on the topic
of the standardization and patent of steelpan instruments. I took six check
overs and then handed in my paper to many people before time.
Link(s):
- Steelpan History &
Development – Candidate’s Receipt.
STEELPAN ARRANGING
2.
* Wednesday 8 May
2019. *
My exam for steelpan arranging
was at four in the evening. The sun was already in. That evening was very cool
and chilly so I knew for sure that the computer lab would be more than a
freezer. I was lucky to keep a copy of the question paper for good record and
it stated that there were eight of us doing that evening.
It was only when I was finished
and exiting the computer lab that I heard all o them complaining about the time
and that they could not finish. For me, I would complain that IT IS an
injustice having only two hours to do the exam, however; I was able to complete
the entire examination with a total of ninety-eight measures of music notation
for a full band.
We were all given headphones to
use for replaying our pieces during the test. Some of them were allowed to use
their own laptops with the Sibelius. I did my one on the school laptop. There
were three pieces of music given for use to choose from which were “The
Flintstones”, “Mr. Walker” or “There is a Light”. Having heard some poor versions UWI anthem
and chose to stay away from it. I did not think the Flintstones one was for me.
However, in the “Mr. Walker”
piece I could tell just by the visual before playing it that it was a calypso.
I chose that one immediately because it had the potential for a good piece. I still
wonder what was Dr. Remy’s comments would have been on this creation. A copy of
the final examination submission to the invigilators and a recording of it are provided below. This version was written over in Musescore.
Link(s):
- Candidate’s Receipt & Final Exam
Question Paper.
- Final Exam
Submission (Musescore Version).**
- Final Exam
Recording.**
PERFORMANCE MUSIC
4: INDIVIDUAL STEELPAN JURY.
* Thursday 9th May 2019
*
I had my individual steelpan jury
examination in studio four again. I was not able to save the score for the
second piece. This class for my year group each time usually had four people so it was a quick exam. Usually, there were persons repeating the ‘course’ and
had to do over the final exam for some reason would have joined us. I don’t
think there were ever more than six people for our year group.
At the end of the exam, I went upstairs and sat back down in that freezing cold computer lab where the big
steelpan arranging examination was and went to play over what I had done. There
was nothing that needed changing for me. I loved the whole thing. I took a
recording from my phone of the Sibelius and took pictures of the full score to
recreate on Musescore at home. I hope that it hopes me well.
On this day too, I was given a
score by my friend Nella. I saw from one of her Instagram posts that she was
playing the piece “Presto”. I learned that she was doing this piece for her
final jury o this semester. It is four pages in length and has a single melodic
line. I hope that one day I will find the time and go through the piece myself.
Link(s):
- “The Favourite and Ragtime Two-Step”.**
- Presto.**
INDIAN CLASSICAL
MUSIC CLASS.
* Friday 17 May 2019
*
On this Friday afternoon, all
twenty-two students of the class waited outside of the JFK Auditorium for the
finals of the Indian Classical Music class. Even though I had gotten the nineteen
out of twenty in the written mid-term theory exam, I was still worried. There
was still a lot that I did not know. One of the nice things was that on the
Saturday or Sunday of this exam, Mr. Maharaj emailed everyone individually and
gave our coursework marks. When I continued reading the short message, I saw
that my overall mark was now 49 out of 50. I was so excited.
I sat down and when they said
“you may now begin,” I opened the questions and viewed them all before attempting
them. We were asked to answer five of the eight. I cannot recall all of the
questions that I attempted. I can only remember that questions two, three, and
five were answered. Question four seemed like one I would enjoy discussing in
full detail.
At the end of the exam, we were
all outside because there was a hold-up with certain documents being required
in order to let us leave. My nice friend Nella asked me how I felt about the
test and if I was worried. I told her, “No. I just need one mark again to
pass.” We both had a good laugh. Everyone else moved onto some part of the main
campus to lime for a while. I on the other hand chose to forget them and go
back up the road with daddy to DCFA and enjoy that place more. Probably it
would help me get that main campus nervousness out of me.
I had to wait a while in the carpark
because there was a meeting for the students going into the final year of the
degree program. All of us from the exam this evening are those persons except
for the few that took the class for extra credit or had transferred.
The meeting felt forever and boring
probably because I did not have an ounce of interest in doing that thesis. It makes me
feel lazy to say so but it was not like it was a textbook I could do on my own
terms. It was in that meeting that we discovered because of the Ministry of
Education’s update, we are not mandated to take certain courses and it meant
that we have no electives at all. Some of those courses were Jazz Theory and
Composition. However, the composition was one that I’ve been waiting for some
LOONG semesters ago. I hope that it will go well if I am allowed to do it sometime soon.
Link(s):
- Candidate’s Receipt & Question Paper.
Daryl Zion M. Ali
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