Date for Entry: (Wednesday 22nd January 2020)
Actual
Date of Online Entry: (Monday 27th June 2022)
**image of textbook cover.
Dear Diary,
This course took place in the Pan
Theatre/Studio 3 of the campus instructed by Mr. Sharma. It would be my second course
in there are the fundamentals of Steelpan Arranging in the Certificate programme.
We were given copies of the course textbook and a baton. They were to be paid
for from the second class which I did. I really did like the coloured paper of
the course textbook. It was a nice add as compared to all the other compiled
textbooks that were handed down to us in previous classes.
This course would have been a
practical one where each member would have a change to practice conducting
different full band excerpts. When one person was up in front, we were expected
to be paying attention of direction/instruction by Mr Sharma and playing the
music at the same time. Whenever other students were conducting, I had my book
and pencil to the side in case other notes were needed. I just wrote them out
in my course textbook instead for easy lesson finding.
I can remember that I was the
first in class to go up and do the conducting. I wasn’t scared but really
excited to try. There were two times in class that I was called on. The third
would have been the mid-term assessment. Other events occurring from this course
would be reflect on below.
Link(s):
MID-TERM
ASSESSMENT.
* Wednesday 11 March
2020 *
This was the day after my birthday
and that crazy exam from Mr. Murray. I also had my thesis interview done with
Dr. Remy earlier this morning. We had conducting exam today. I was the first
one to go up and do the exam. I got to school in all black. A dress code was
not given for the exam but I thought that would have been suitable for the exam
because it would given the class members playing more focus to my face and
hands.
There were four pieces to do: (1)
an excerpt from lesson one, (2) an excerpt from lesson two, (3) an excerpt from
the fermatas section, and (4) excerpt from the lecturer’s choice. As I conducted,
I saw the notes I made from the classes and remembered what to do.
There were some where I was asked
to do the conducting over. The best ones were uploaded to YouTube as an
unlisted video by Mr. Sharma for us to do our evaluations. We were asked to
review the conducting of ourselves and put a mark.
Mr. Sharma said that he would also
be doing the evaluation and might be emailing some of us for consultation on
the type of mark we gave ourselves if it was not close to this grade. Luckily,
I was not one of those persons. Not sure if it was a joke or true statement but
then I’m not sure of anyone exhibited that instance. The evaluation was
submitted (on ****) by email.
I did not agree with the form
given to us in the course outline. I decided to recreate the work and had it
submitted. There were two versions of the form done.
Link(s):
- Evaluation of Conducting. ** [Not Available.]
- Conducting Evaluation Form – My Version.
- Pre-Downbeat-Prep – (Conducting Recording).**
- Cononation March – (Conducting Recording).**
- Sie…Bach – (Conducting Recording).**
- Nocturne by Mendelson – (Conducting Recording).**
FINAL ‘PROJECT’/FINAL
BAND CONDUCTING ASSESSMENT.
* Forgotten/Unknown
Date *
This course did not have a final
written exam. It was a 100% practical coursework class. This kind of assignment
just like the choral assignment I was very worried about and did not want to
do. Thankfully again, COVID-19 came and forced the assessment to be forced to
change.
Initially, we would have been
asked to select a full band piece. To the late parts of the semester some of us
in the class went to the office and go scores from a big box of music that Mr.
Sharma allowed us to make copies of. I had registered to do “A Whole New World”
on his list after gaining approval. When the weekend came, I went to Musescore
and rewrote the entire thing because it did not look very professional. These
pieces were works done by previous students.
A Zoom meeting was held for the
class for the modification of this final project. We were given an email first
with YouTube recording of steelband performances to listen to first. We were
asked to select the piece that we were interested in conducting and there would
one separate class for those. I had chosen “Song of Lopinot” by Dr. Jit
Samaroo. We were asked several practice questions on the piece and then
dismissed. We were told to create a recording and have it submitted for marking
along with the same evaluation done as in the mid-term assessment.
The deadline was removed for
submissions at any time to work on thesis later onward. There was also going to
be a viva voce section of this assignment like in the Choral modified
assignment. This was held on (****) zoom for the week it was done. There
were going to be a few students on a particular day having their conducting
recording being reviewed by Mr. Sharma and then we were asked several questions
on the pieces and from the score. I recall being in Curepe and house two’s
living-room doing this part of the exam. Luckily, it was alright. I still
wished I had better ways of answering them.
In my time of “Music Literatures
of the Steelpan” course I was happy to have made a copy of the score when I had
to do the book report assignments. Those were the two time I visited the
Festival Library down by the ‘Big UWI’ where the Republic Bank now stands. I
was able to study it with the recording on YouTube for the conducting exercise.
Link(s):
- “A Whole New World” – Full Score. ** [Permission was not granted.]
- “Song of Lopinot” – Conducting Recording.**
x
I was glad that the course worked
out well in my favour along with the COVID. Since day one I had thoughts on
working on a new version of the curse textbook but I thought of Musescore ad
did not find it necessary. I found the book good enough to stand on its own.
Who knows, maybe one day I will just decide to go and make a version of my own
since I like to make over these kinds of books.
Daryl Zion M. Ali
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