The literature of this "portfolio" is a combination of music journal entries and DAPHA Projects journals done by Daryl Ali.
It is a digital account of his life experiences, works of many and accomplishments.
Actual Date of Online Entry: (Saturday 04th March 2023)
[T2, W:9 - D:38*]
Dear Diary,
There was an
early and clear road. The Maxi guy had some nice religious reggae music. I
liked them a lot. The last one was good for steelpan but I did not know the
name. We passed through the left detour instead of the housing side. “Blessing
to See People” was the last song I heard in the maxi before exiting. No other
Georgians were with me.
I did not attend
the assembly. There was good participation with 1M for the Lip-Singing
assignment. I had a lot of slips filled out by the time I went back to the
office. I also had to get my timesheet filled in with the BIR number and Trainee
Number before handing it to one of them. Another Form 1 was in trouble again.
Had a late lunch before going to work on the rest chart. I went to the dive-in with
my brown table again to erase my pencil lines.
In the last few minutes
leading to lunchtime, I saw one of the Form 2 classes with their chairs outside
and they were drawing part of the school. I learned it was called Painting in Air
(‘En Plein Air’).
Actual Date of Online Entry: (Saturday 04th March 2023)
[T2, W:9 – D:37 *].
*Chart
Dear Diary,
This morning the
safety officer joined me in the maxi on the way to Valsayn. Miss Roberts
finally came to school. I did not stay in the office for the morning because it
was too busy. I decided that a chart for notes and values would be useful to
assist the Form 1s with preparation for the final exam. I used my brown folding
table in the office and then I had the erasing done outside. Last time erasing
had t be done it fell on the carpet and it was hard to take out.
This chart was
half of one Bristol board sheet. I saved the other half for the lesson on
rests. However, the lines for the rest chart were drawn and left for another
time. I got a chance to see what 1F had to do for visual arts and tried it
also. The concept was about good and bad energy. One page was done in pencil
and the other was done in paint using complementary colours. I still have to research
the meaning of complementary colours.
Actual Date of Online Entry: (Friday 17th March 2023)
[T2, W:8 – D:36*].
Dear Diary,
I had a quick arrival
on campus today. More parents and students flooded the compound or the same Parents
meeting for Form 2s. The price of pies from opposite Courts increased. They
were good. I had my second version of the Lip-Sing Assignment slip printed and
cut.
I had 1F later
in the evening and we had a very performance. One girl had a nervous reaction.
I allowed other students to join her as support. More reviews of Exercises 1
and 2 were done. A rubric was also created for the recorder assessment to be
done later sometime in the term. I just hope that I have enough time to do
that.
Actual Date of Online Entry: (Friday 17th March 2023)
[T2, W:8 – D:35*].
Dear Diary,
The road was
clear. Saw Mister Bain and Miss Santana. There was a full yard of parents and
teachers I had to lend my pan sticks to a Form 1 student ‘Vanna’. There were a lot
of teachers to enter and sign. The office was cramped with signers. I was glad
that the OGT book did not have that much of a rush but when it was Timesheet
day, it tends to disappear with someone else.
I helped Miss
Gittens with supervision until she could return to class. It was Form 1
in-class ‘Parents Meeting.’ The Form 5 students for music were about to start
and we did practical exams today. I felt a bit hurt during some other parts of
the day.
The girl playing
“Two Part Invention in C” had the last section to work on. We ran through the “Chinese
Dragon Appearance” too along with another unfamiliar song to me. It was very
challenging. I had to hunt down a student to give me the bag she left. I wanted
to leave the music room and continue working on the St. Mary’s College Anthem.
I got a spot at
the table in Block C to work on. It would also be the first time that Mr Shiva
and I spoke. I saw the George anthem on YouTube. A short and private meeting was
held during recess about the rat infestation in Block K. The art room was too
cramped and noisy with unclean conversations that I left.
Actual Date of Online Entry: (Friday 17th March 2023)
[T2, W:8 – D:34*].
Dear Diary,
Had an early
arrival at school on this Ash Wednesday. I got to transfer 1L marks into my
mark sheet for the Lip-Sing assignment and have it signed off. My journey to
the staffroom after was a long one trying to work out a dots and rest exam for
the Form 1s. It will be a forty per cent exam.
I began the rest
exam but was too mentally drained to continue. I had some tips on marking from
Miss Roberts earlier this recess. Sadly, she did not have anything for me to
use again. I had to do the entire thing by improvisation and scratch. I decided
to make over the form.
I wanted to show
the students on that slip how they received the mark with a detailed breakdown
of each criterion. I found this method effective for both the student and
myself in terms of the assistance for grading them in the class performances.
That evening 1F
was not ready. We had some review again. As soon as I got into the office, I
decided to fill up my teacher’s log. So tired in the process, I missed all of
the pages and signed 1F information on the wrong log form.
Actual Date of Online
Entry: (Saturday
11th February 2023)
[T2, W:6 – D:28*].
Dear
Diary,
Had
an emergency this morning. I was in my Wacky Friday attire that the school was
doing today. Only students were allowed to come to school in different footwear.
Some of the teachers had different types of clothing on also. I took the time
to transfer the marks I had from the third exam for 1M and 1F into my mark
sheet.
Only
1L was the last to partake in this exam. Those will be inserted on Monday. I had
an interesting time helping the office staff with document checking. Some
things needed to be fixed. Had gotten time to share the music mathematics exam
with Mr Bishop. I found that the copy of this exam on legal paper was nicer to
use. However, I could see that many amendments are required.
Actual Date of Online
Entry: (Saturday
11th February 2023)
[T2, W:6 – D:27*].
Dear
Diary,
We
had a nice empty road to school today. The ride in the maxi was short. Wished
it was nice like that every day. Assembly went on late and I ended up sitting
down on a bench waiting for my class with 1M. I had an interesting chat with
Miss Santana. Miss Roberts’ Form 5s came walking up to me as the chat was about
to begin. They didn’t see Miss Roberts and my exam with 1M was about to begin.
Dr Sookdeo was able to handle the situation for them.
A
satisfactory number of students were there that day. Sadly, one girl only drew
nice pictures on the paper. She wasn’t able to answer the questions. I got a
call from daddy in the middle of the exam. He told me that mama’s funeral would
be today and that they would be going to the cemetery for her burial at two in
the afternoon. I told him to let them go on without me.
As
soon as I finished with 1M and got back the papers we had three more minutes
for the double period to complete. I went to the office and got about seven
papers graded but did not feel so well afterwards. Miss Roberts was not there
again and I did not feel strong enough to climb those stairs.
I
went to the art room to see if more painting like yesterday would help me but
it didn’t work. I spent some time chatting with Miss Gittens and Miss Mary
again. I would have had 2L later that afternoon to supervise but one teacher
was assigned supervision for that class and I went back down the stairs.
I
felt better some hours after school. Had to walk all the way from Curepe
junction, up the hill and walk up the road to get to Home #2. Everyone was at
the funeral. Had a very awful problem that night. Had to rest on the couch.
Actual Date of Online
Entry: (Saturday
11th February 2023)
[T2, W:6 – D:26*].
**painting
Dear
Diary,
I
had the same nice maxi driver this morning with the same nice music. I decided
to have breakfast in Miss Roberts did not show up again. Would have had to wait
until lunchtime if I did not make that call. I had the dots lesson with 1L and
1F as the first class to do that same third exam for the term.
This
exam was a mathematics exam and many of them used the full two periods. Many of
them were not prepared and I knew the ones that don’t study showed the greatest
amount of noise in that exam period. I took home all of the papers to grade and
it was nice except that many of them struggled.
I
had a good time helping Miss Gittens paint one of her pillows that she had a
student draw. It was exactly what I needed at the time. I started from period
three to the end of lunchtime before the test with 1F. Was surprised that I was
able to get a lot of it done since painting on fabric could be more
challenging.
Actual Date of Online
Entry: (Saturday
11th February 2023)
[T2, W:6 – D:25*].
Dear
Diary,
This
morning I had a late start. The driver did not go through the housing
development to escape the traffic so we went right through it. I was also the
only OJT in the office at the time and the assembly also concluded late. I had
1M that morning. They had a review of dots, rests and note values for the exam
next class.
I
had no supervision for periods 3 and 4 because miss Roberts was present. The
monthly staff meeting was to take place today and I was very excited. I got to
the library during recess time. I did some work on the St. Mary’s College Song.
During
the meeting, the topics were the gate protocol, the duty of care, lab concerns
and the absenteeism of teachers. The duty of care came as a handout from the
presentation done by the TTUTA representative in Friday’s meeting. Did not see
Miss Roberts after to speak.
I went to the kitchen and read a Language
Proficiency book. It was the same book they used for the English course in the
Certificate program at DCFA. It was easier to understand I suppose since the
book was a real copy and not a photocopy.
Actual Date of Online
Entry: (Saturday
11th February 2023)
[T2, W:6 – D:24*].
Dear
Diary,
One
maxi was waiting to pull off. As soon as I got in six Georgian students came
walking down. A lot of latecomers were entering the hall that other morning and
the time for this gathering took a very long time to finish. I did not see Miss
Roberts’ name in the register when I got back to the office from my first
class. She had 2F that morning and the 5s right after recess.
I
got the music room opened and had the bag Mr Baachu gave me. I had a while to
wait in the front of the classroom because the students take more than too much
time to get to class. I realised that it was a restless call but worse than 1F
and 1L. I reviewed the topics that they were introduced to me and asked if they
were once students of Miss Paul’s.
When
they said yes it confirmed my thought. I noticed that the dots lesson was
missing so immediately I took out my form one handbook and began whipping up
the lesson from the top of my head. I did not have the teaching notes I had
made for the dots lesson so I made questions on the spot too. I knew they would
not have the red Eric Taylor (Grade 1) book. We had spent double periods on
that lesson and I corrected their exercises for the students.
When
recess concluded, the Form 5 students came. Not all were present. I think a
girl and one boy were missing. I spent the whole double period training one of
the steelpan girls. She had a grade three-piece that I helped her with first.
We were able to complete one section in four measures that day. She was also
working on the piece “Chinese Dragon Appearance” that I did for my Grade 2
exam.
There
was a boy playing the violin and he was all right with the piece. It was the
first time I knew that the violin could do double pitches. I was excited and
amazed. To Form 1 gentleman came to do the make-up exam for Test #2. I graded
both papers in the music room and transferred the marks to my mark sheet upon
my return to the office. Praise God there was not too much noise in the music
room this lunchtime. Miss St Louis and Miss Daniels got their invitations for
the Lip-Sing Assignment.
Actual Date of Online Entry:
(Saturday 4th February 2023)
Dear Diary,
The following section below is an
account of my attempts to create a steelpan version of the St. Mary’s College
Song.
ACQUAINTANCE
TO MELODY.
**
Saturday 4th February 2023 **
This morning I woke up and as I
began to scroll through Facebook, I saw an image of a brown and ancient sheet
of paper with music notation on it. It immediately caught my attention and I
slowly realised that it was the music for a school’s song (St. Mary’s College).
It was nice to see that a school
had musical notation to their school song. I began to sign sing the melody
using ‘fixed Doh’. I thought that maybe God had sent it to me to find a sixth
school to work on a steelpan arrangement for their song. (The previous School
songs worked on were Hillview College, Vessigny Sec., St. George’s College, and
Tunapuna Sec.)
Luckily, in the comments section
of the Facebook post, someone left a link to the same song and students were singing it. That night, I began laying out the document and formatting
it on the Musescore Programme for working the next day after steelband practice
in the church.
After returning from church
practice this morning, I began working on re-transcribing the melody found on
Facebook. I had an image of the score saved to work on while staying at Home #1
for a while. A majority of the song was completed at home in Tunapuna. I had to
do my personal research via the internet because I did not know the song
personally as a student should.
The search for information consisted
of sourcing the name of the composer of the lyrics, melody composer, and name
of the song and finding a good image of the school’s logo.
The lyrics were composed by
Father Tom Kennedy in 1933. An existing melody entitled “Le Reve Passe” by
Charles H. Helmer and G. Krierwas recycled for the melody of
this school’s song. I was able to find the school’s logo online. Some minor
adjustments were done to it before inserting it into the Musescore file.
Sadly, when I looked at the
notation I found, “The College Song” was written to the top; meaning that it
could have been left as a name for the college song. When I saw 1933 as the
year for the lyrics composition, I thought it might be impossible for the same
person to find us a name for the song. I thought that maybe the person might have
died by now.
On
this day at 7:10 the night, I had an email sent out to different parts of the
school. Was not sure from whom I could source more information on the college
song. Having difficulty with determining the chords for the melody, I wondered
if there was an existing piano version of the song like with Tunapuna that I
could take and determine myself.
I
was also wondering if the score contained the full song since there are indications
of a ‘verse’ and a ‘chorus’. I was also wondering if there was a name for the
song apart from “The College Song” or if in the student’s Handbook, they had “St.
Mary’s College Song”. A name was needed from me and would be needed at the end
of the arrangement’s work. I hope that someone would be able to answer the email
at some time.
CHORDS
FINALISED.
**
Sunday 12th February 2023 **
For the entire week of having the
melody written out, it was a very hard one to work with. There were not many
chords to work within the key of G major.
I did not continue work on chords
until the key was transposed to B Flat Major. I wanted to make sure that the
tenor pan was able to ‘sing’ the melody comfortably and carried easily sticking
for the steelpannist.
Somehow today as I shifted it to
B Flat Major it became easier to listen to the melody and work with it better. For
my re-transcription of this melody, I did not write it in the six-eight meter shown
in the brown image (in the first section above).
I decided that it would be better
for the notation to be done in a two-four meter. It was then changed to the four-four
meter where I got more understanding of the chord placements done previously.
Listening and inserting the final chords was even easier, thank God.
At this current time, I am not
sure if I will continue with the four-four meter or re-set back to two-four
meter. Even though I may be satisfied with what I had done, I feel the need for the opinions of more musicians before proceeding just in case.
On
the mentioned date above was the completion of the St. Mary’s College Song
steelpan arrangement. The dates for other progress were not recorded. Usually, on a steelpan
arrangement, I would begin working from the introduction but listening to the
song that the melody was taken, I realised that more time and hard creative work
was needed to do that.
Surprisingly, I worked on the
entire arrangement in a retrograde motion. I began working with the part label “Chorus”
(Bar 22) from the melody’s score provided on the St. Mary’s College Facebook
page. That portion was the easiest for me to complete. There was also a bridge
completing the “Verse” mentioned in the same melody score.
This was another great challenge
being able to fuse the “Verse” into the “Chorus” (Bars 17 to 22). I was glad
that both ‘sections’ had comfortably fused over the multiple trials I did during
working hours at St. George’s and evenings at home.
The next challenge was finding
something for the section labelled ‘Verse” from the melody score (Bars 7 to 33).
I tried to have the strumming pattern very similar so that students learning it
would have less work to do. Bar 9 in the Tenor section was an attempt at
decoration from the brass recording of “Le Reve Passe” found on YouTube.
Seeing that the feeling from the
song was like men marching like scouts I tried to create the strumming pattern
in that same manner. Thankfully, that helped me out a lot. However, getting
closer to where the end of the “Verse” and “chorus” had fused well, I also had to
fuse the beginning part going to the fashion already done so that they don’t clash.
This created a compromise for me
and the only way I could have solved the issue was to use rhythmic patterns
from the ‘fushion point’ at beats three and four in each measure/bar before so
that the audience would have been accustomed to that particular feeling. And,
when the ‘fusion point’ into the “Chorus” should take place, it would be smooth
thereafter.
For the introduction, a very
close study of the original composition was done. I decided that it would be best
for extracts of a “Le Reve Passe” arrangement by George Pollen to be used. My concern was
the repeat used but maybe if the school decides to use my arrangement, I
thought that maybe the gentlemen might appreciate it in some way.
In addition, to the song, a title had to be given apart from "The College Song". As with the situation with Tunapuna Secondary and St. George's, I had to make the move on giving the song itself a name. After reviewing the lyrics of the song as I did with St. George's, I had chosen the words "Fearless & Strong" to be the title of their College Song.
Link(s):
“Le Reve Passe” – Brass.
“Le Reve Passe” – Arrangement by George Pollen.
CREATION OF SONG BOOKLETS.
** Wednesday 29 March 2023
**
After a nice ride up to Curepe
from Miss Santana, I met Dad and we went to visit Isa. It was a very long two-hour
stay to get everything printed. He said that a printer wasn’t working today and
only the slow one was in use. I had some time to enter marks in my mark sheets
for the end of the term. I took the time to individually place all the sheets
together.
There were 6 books made for St. Mary’s
College as I have done with the other schools. One copy will be one for me. Since
the school is connected to a church I decided that the church should be gifted
with one. The other copies would go to the Library, Music Room (if any), Office
of the Principal, and the Office of the Vice Principal.
On Friday 31 March 2023, I found
the number for St. Mary’s College and was able to speak with the Acting
Principal. I hope that there would be a suitable time for a scheduled appointment
to visit them.
Actual Date of Online
Entry: (Sunday
05th February 2023)
[T2, W:5 – D:23*].
Dear
Diary,
Had
an early arrival this morning. I did not eat my pie from a new place until the
exhausting assembly ended. I got it out of the way and graded the remained of
the second music exam with the form ones. I had about eight cheaters to deal
with.
We
had a staff meeting after recess but I went to the library long before recess
began to get my seat. The librarian told me, “I know de meeting had tuh be
today the way ah see yuh turn de corner so.” I was about to give them the older
book but I realised I was the older version. They need to be one over. The
meeting started in ‘Trini’ timing and a presentation was done by a
representative from TTUTA.
Ten
minutes extra was given to teachers for lunch (1:30) because of the long
presentation. The Lip-singing assignment instructions handout was given to 1M
only. A student was given the responsibility to distribute them to others. 1L
did not get their handouts because they were having a celebration for Mr Bains.
Then
I got my review of dots and note values with 1F in the last two periods. The
time was not enough to review rests. A short exercise was given to them from
the top of my mind. We had a large ground of students involved in a wallet-stealing
incident and many of them did not return. They were all called back to the
office at some point. I did not return their second exam papers because only
three more were needed to do the exam. Spent some time with Din-Din afterwards
trying to explain the dots.
Actual Date of Online
Entry: (Sunday
05th February 2023)
[T2, W:5 – D:22*].
Dear
Diary,
I
tried to rush for an early attendance today. I was the only person for George’s
in the maxi this morning. There was no sign of Miss Roberts again. Plans to
make a new final music exam from last term’s version had materialised before
the day was completed.
I
went to the Block C staffroom to do another exam but could not finish there.
They brought a table and I had ‘christened’ the tale but decided to leave
because the location of the table stirred up some bacchanal. I ended up
finishing the last three questions for this exam in the art room. A serious
matter occurred there.
I
did not have any make-up exams during lunch so I sat in the Block C lounge of
the staffroom with Mr Christian and some others. The rest of the teachers were
liming in the back ‘kitchen’ area. I sat there until it was time to go to the
second exam with 1L. The lighting in their classroom was sparking and blinking too
much. Everyone was moved out of the tent until Miss Gittens called us to the
art room to do the exam there.
Actual Date of Online
Entry: (Sunday
05th February 2023)
[T2, W:5 – D:21*].
Dear
Diary,
I
came down in the maxi this morning with one Georgian and two adults. I had 1M
right after assembly and they had the second exam. It was nice that all the
students were there for the exam this morning. Two young ladies from the class
were leaving with an athletic team for a competition that same morning. They
finished the exam as quick as they could and left the classroom.
No
students came to do the make-up exam so the boxes with purple highlighter
markings were filled with Zero for this particular exam. All the marks for the
first exam was in. I look forward to the third exam and makeup for the second
exam next week.
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