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:
(Friday 23 March 2024)
Dear Diary,
The following is an account of my
personal work with the Girl Guides Anthem. (This journal entry was composed in
the weekend after the YouTube upload.)
THE SCORE.
** Monday 21 August 2023
**
This evening, I was visited by
John to review some work for school. He showed me some of his scores and I soon
came across a handwritten score for the Girl Guides Anthem. I did not know at
the time that Girl Guides had an anthem.
I began to sing the melody by melodic
solfege and it did seem interesting enough to make a good song for a steelpan
arrangement. I was able to get a scan of the score that he had for when I was
ready to start working on the song.
SPECIAL FINDINGS
** Saturday 27 January 2024 **
I knew that the words from the
score John gave me was missing. I went to Google and started doing my research
for this piece. I was lucky to find two scores for the same melody on a webpage.
There was one in English and the other in English and French.
The French lyrics required a
quaver on the third beat in some measures to end the remaining syllable from
words. There were also a few more syllables in the English text. Thankfully
both scores provided chord symbols that were taken immediately into the Musescore
file.
Before the night was over, at my decision,
I had the melody from the English version transcribed into the Musescore and took
the chords.
Work for the steelpan music was
done and completed today. It took a similar format as the majority of my
arranged notations. A lot of research had to be done. I had to find out the
name of the composer, the year that the song was done, the name of the lyricist
and the composer of the melody. Fortunately, the two lead sheets found earlier
provided some of that information. I wanted to see if Girl Guides might have
known. I will have to see if I can find their email address to message them.
However, the song does sound
amazing. I feel very proud of it and hope that it will be useful to the Girls
Guides in the future. There was a big challenge with the introduction and the
ending as usual since many recordings did not have them. I discovered a
beautiful piano-accompanied version on YouTube but refused to take things from
it to avoid plagiarism.
Link(s):
Piano Accompanied Version – Girl Guides
Anthem.
EMAILING GIRL GUIDES.
** Thursday 08 February 2024
**
Tonight, I found an email to the Girl
Guides Commissioner and another from the Website. I got the email address for
Girl Guides in Trinidad and Tobago. But the homeland email address unexpectedly
ended up bouncing. I'm not sure if the address provided on their website was no
longer in service. There was a nice electronic response saying that the email was
received. I hope that in time a response will be given.
GIRL GUIDES LOGO.
** Friday 08 March 2024 **
I was planning to upload the YouTube
video for the music that I did on the song. I would need an image of the Girl Guides
Logo but after my previous sets of research, it seemed like when a certain country
took Girl Guides, they had a certain twist to the logo.
The Girl Guides logo would be
taken and arranged to suit the country’s Coat of Arms or could be embellished
to look different from other countries.
I decided that the Logo from the
United Kingdom’s page would be best suited since it came from there. However,
there were many versions some with better quality of colour than others on the
internet. I took one with a black background and one with a white background.
I thought that the white background
logo should go first and match the white with the rest of my videos and the
black could be used after in the video either just before the score appears or
towards the conclusion. There was a third logo I found with the first making in
turquoise but the image was too blurry. I kept it but did not use it.
GIRL GUIDES ANTHEM – YOUTUBE VIDEO.
** Sunday 10 March 2024 **
Today was a painful and emotional
day. I waited for the night to come to upload the anthem to YouTube. No email
or response was sent and it resulted in me having to go ahead without approval
or any feedback based on what was shared.
Three attempts to record the
video were made. One video upload was done but it was deleted because the
information I was looking for was right in front of me the entire time (see
Webpage link). With the new addition of information to the score, the music had
to be recorded a fourth time and then edited a third time.
That time I knew that the anthem
was finished and ready. I was able to find out that the anthem’s melody came
from an existing composition by Jean Sibelius. The name of the piece was “Partiolaisten
Marssiquot” (March of the Scouts); Opus 91b. There was a piano and a choral
version of the song on YouTube.
I learned that the song in its
arranged version was approved by Girl Guides in 1950 to be their anthem. This
was the year I took to be the year of composition for the anthem on the score.
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 18th
December 2022)
Dear
Diary,
The
following sectioned entries below will detail the occurrences and activities
relating to the creation of the Tunapuna Secondary School’s Song.
FIRST TIME MEETING MR J. RAMASAR.
** Monday 17th October 2022. **
[St. George’s College (Week 5) –
Day #17]
This morning I was supposed to go to join the
teachers in the staffroom for a meeting about the concerns of the school’s
danger to everyone. It was a long day with the morning meeting for heads to go
to the University of the Trinidad and Tobago (UTT) site and the continuation
site in the evening.
Sitting at my desk in the staffroom at 10:12am, I got a Messenger text from a new Facebook friend name John. He was
someone I did not know at the time. After the long and tiring day, we did not speak for
much until later that night.
During our conversation via text from 6:43 to
7:06 pm, he had asked for assistance in music notation. It was to score the
Tunapuna Secondary School song. I learned that there was no existing music notation for the song. It reminded me of my first time hearing the anthems for Hillview,
Vessigny and St. George’s.
I was told that there was something done that he
met there when starting to work at the school. It was a recording of the song
with a lady singing and someone playing a keyboard. While listening to it, I
knew that a lead sheet would have been necessary before beginning to transcribe
that entire song. I was surprised by the length and wondered how the students
would learn it. I suppose it is the same as Vessigny. I just at the time hoped
it would not have taken forever like the Vessigny steelpan arrangement.
As soon as John was approving the lead sheet, I
asked him for the name of the persons responsible for the text/lyrics (Amanda
Jagassar), melody (Juliet Robin) and the name of the school song. I
was told that the name of the song was “Our School Song”. I recalled seeing
that in their school’s anniversary magazine in the newspapers some months ago.
I did not agree with it as a name for the song but didn’t comment.
I was given a snapshot of the school song’s
lyrics. That would have been helpful to me in creating the lead sheet. Before
our conversation concluded, I learned that Dr Mohammed had referred him to me
about notating the music.
This evening was kind of my first face-to-face
meeting with John on Zoom. We did not chat much at first but got straight into
the music topic of the evening. I was the one that created the link so I shared
my screen and showed him the lead sheet first.
I mentioned that the text was difficult to interpret during
the chorus section. I did not know if all of the chorus sections were “thy
light HAS come” or “thy light IS come” since they were not exact. The melody
and piano accompaniment version was five pages in length. The playing was done
and we spoke some more about it. As I did for St. George's and Hillview, I also
had to ask for a copy of the school’s logo that will decorate the score.
As part of the conversation, I also added a share
of what I had done for St. George’s anthem and Vessigny’s anthem. Then I moved
the attention from the three to Hillview’s College song on YouTube. I did offer
John to make a YouTube video of their school song but had mentioned that if the
principal had given his or her approval, I would continue to work on that.
A little before my presentations for that one
meeting were over, I shared with John a short view of the results from a new
software I downloaded called Anthem Score on Thursday 20th October
2022. As I had expected, there would have been a huge mess created. I was
consulting with John during the week about the chords used in the piano part
and he too found them to be very confusing.
While I was busy trying to strictly notate what
was being done in the music, I had forgotten about listening to the music and
allowing it to tell me what it wanted. I found it to be much easier as I used
it this way. I’m glad that the music spoke to me. I was also forced to make
some negotiations as expected and sooner than expected too I was done with the
piece.
When my meeting ended with John (7:30 pm), I took the same lead sheet and began working on the
steelpan version of the same school song. I felt like it was too much work to
do but I did not entertain that feeling. I continued working on the arrangement because I know of the
special importance it will serve later on. My work for the night ended at 9:00
pm.
Link(s):
Vocal
Score with Piano Acc. [Available by Email.]
Anthem
Score Results: Voice & Piano Acc. **
STEELPAN ARRANGEMENT (V1).
** Sunday 23rd October 2022.
**
At 9:00 pm the last night, I was able to complete
the introduction of the song which was four measures in four-four times. The
verse was not difficult at all to create a strumming pattern. I ended up
ignoring all that was given in the recording of the singing lady and the
confusing piano part. Instead, I did what I wanted and chose to bring it to
life like Vessigny’s anthem and St. George’s anthem.
Additionally, I was very pleased that the same
strumming patterns for the verse could have been reused for the chorus. It
reduced more work to be done and they were copied and pasted in immediately.
Verse three on the other hand presented more
challenges because it was different from the other verses. A new strumming
pattern had to be made for the double tenors and double seconds, and the
Guitars and Cellos.
LOGO/CREST.
** Monday 24th October 2022.
**
In my previous work with St. George’s, I felt
that it was necessary and satisfactory to have the Tunapuna Secondary School logo
inserted into the scores that I had created. Unfortunately, as time went by
from the date above all the way to the end of the team, no logo was given to
me. I had to source the same image from Google. This image was not a proper or
official one.
On Tuesday 6th December 2022, I saved the image and
edited and cleaned it myself. The file format was changed for the insertion of
the image into the Musescore file.
SCHOOL’S SONG BOOKLETS.
** Tuesday 13th December 2022.
**
Last
night I had all the materials to make Tunapuna’s Song sent to print by ISA. I
decided to make a book for them as I did for St. George’s with all the parts
for the steelpan arrangement and the vocal piece with piano accompaniment
previously completed.
In
addition, I decided that it would be good to insert copies of all the parts of
the national anthem I had done for “PanChile” some weeks ago. I heard that they
were starting a steelband trial for the first time and knew that as a steelband
in Hillview, the college song and national anthem were the two most crucial pieces
above all other repertoires.
FIRST MEETINGS & ACQUAINTANCES.
** Wednesday 14th December
2022. **
This morning was an early one. I had a nice
surprise visit from Mr Ramasar (at 11:28) for a while until our conversation
was then continued in the Tunapuna Secondary School’s compound. It was my first
step into the compound. I was very excited. My view of the school was only the
back entrance by my home.
The environment was quite different but standing
in the car park, gave me that same calm and welcoming feeling that St. George’s
presented me all these years. I was asked to sign the guard’s book shortly
after.
It felt like I was definitely going to school. I
carried my bookbag with the booklets and my laptop with the bag in my hand. I
met the Principal and Vice Principal for the first time some minutes after
setting up my laptop in the waiting area. I had the vocal piece with piano
accompaniment opened first to play for them and explained that this was the
work requested of me to do.
Immediately after the vocal and piano version, I
had the steelpan version waiting. None of the three had heard this one before.
I explained my reason and importance and then played it for them. I
found a bigger, better feeling from the steelpan one after playing the vocal and
piano one. Even though I have heard the steelpan version many times before the
meeting, I think we were all surprised by the way the rhythmic introduction
came in. The chorus was way nicer. We enjoyed it.
Once the steelpan version was completed, I got out my plastic bag with the booklets. It was another surprise I had for them. They
were already sorted so that I would distribute them. I mentioned that the
books were gifts to the school via a particular area or office within the
compound and not to a specific person. They understood.
The last and eleventh book remaining in my bookbag
was left with Principal for Miss Robin who composed the melody. One book was
given to the Principal’s Office. One book was given to the Vice Principal’s office.
Three books were sent to the Music Room. Three books were sent to the library
for archival and safeguarding. The final two books were given to the
Administration Office.
In my view, as the Form One version as a Hillview
student, I can now feel satisfied that notation in every necessary way for the
school song is created and is available to anyone. It would be easily accessible
throughout the school and no longer scarce.
YOUTUBE VIDEO.
** Monday 21 August 2023 **
This afternoon I decided to put
together the arrangement and photographs that I was given on my visit to the
school into a YouTube video. There were six recordings done. Unfortunately, after
six attempts, the quality of the visuals was still not pleasing. I am glad that
this project is finally completed after an entire academic year of waiting. In
addition, I hope that it provides a useful tool in assisting the students to
learn their school song.
Actual Date of Online
Entry: (Wednesday 5 October 2022)
Dear
Diary,
Today
the staff room was empty because of the TUTTA day. I went through the stuff
that I had worked on with Miss Roberts too and she had approved it. I got some
feedback on the lesson plans. I also emailed her the music for the St. George’s
college song. She had to make prints of them for the ensemble’s rehearsal next
week Monday.
I
did not have a class in the morning but I sat with Miss Roberts asking her
about the National Anthem that I would have heard some of the younger children coming
to practice all week during recess and lunchtime. She said that she was using a
score that she found online.
When
I got to see a copy of the first page for the full score, I was very surprised
and shocked. I recognised it immediately. I was right when I looked down at the
title because I saw it was an adaptation done by me. I did not even remember I
had done this since my certificate time at UWI in September 2015. So, it seems
as if the band would not be learning two of my arrangements.
That
evening I had the first form one class to try the first lesson. It started well
but then there was a murmur group of seven girls pooling their heads in a
circle to talk about a lot. I wasn’t able to settle them and then after was a
‘happy group’ towards the end.
I
did not get to do pitches on the treble staff but we spoke on what is music,
the uses and purposes of music, music theory, a strategy for remembering music
theory, the staff and drawing the treble clef.
I
was told by Miss Roberts that as a teacher I had to get a class register and take
attendance for the class done. I felt that as an OJT they might not want to
give me one so I decided to take a blank sheet of paper and create a list for
it. I have decided that I would work on making one for myself and also a roll
sheet that I saw Miss Roberts using.
Actual Date of Online Entry: (Saturday 5 November 2022)
Dear Diary,
The journal
entry below is a compilation of recorded events related to the creation of
the steelpan version of St. George's College Song.
CREATION OF STEELBAND ARRANGEMENT.
** Monday 19 September 2022. **
[St. George's (Week #1); Day #1]
Today was my first day being an OJT trainee at St. George’s College.
Daddy and I left the house at 6:45 in the morning and took a bus on the bus
route to Barataria. I entered the compound at exactly 7:25 by security. Coming
down the road to the school, I was worried because I forgot my identification
card at home.
The lobby area was the corridor entering the administrative area, and I
met two other new people who came in that day. We got to see the morning
assembly gather around the school. It was a completely different experience
from Hillview’s morning assembly. This assembly was short and interesting. Many
students sang and played different instruments.
When the assembly was over, I waited and waited. The boy and girl with me
had already met their supervisors and went on with them. Sometime around 9:32,
I met Miss Roberts. She had come to sign in the office and then took me to rest
my bags in the music room. Upon entering the music room, it was like
heaven. Something I wished Hillview could have had. They made it up like a
classroom, with instruments and a really beautiful piano. I was not sure if
they had a steelband.
We had to leave the music room because there was a function to start
in the hall soon, and Miss Roberts had to wait with the students who had to
perform. The national anthem was done, and a vocal piece was done by two girls
at the end. The college song was also performed at the end of that function. I
stood from the chairs they gave us and waited extremely patiently to hear what
it would sound like.
When it was over, I was amazed. I liked the melody a lot. I knew it was a
different school altogether, but the song comforted me. I began to wonder if
there was a score for it. Unfortunately, just like Hillview and Vessigny, Miss
Roberts told me that the school did not have the melody notated.
On the other hand, Miss Roberts did manage to show me from her computer
what she had “tried to write it out” over the summer vacation for the COVID-19
period. I went quickly to see what she did, and I was happy because it was a
good start to having something on paper. We had some technical difficulties
when the computer spoiled the work she had done.
I decided to mentally plan over the entire college song as if it were to
be a steelpan arrangement because it would be easy to write it out when I got
back home. All day, I thought of the rhythmic structure for the middle and back
of the frontline pans.
I told Miss Roberts that I would not disturb the notation that she worked
so hard to do. I wanted to do my version before I ended up spoiling what she
did. Some minutes after half-eight that night, I was able to complete the
entire arrangement. A lot of gladness came to me. Miss Roberts messaged me
back, and she said that it was good enough for the steelband to use.
Link(s):
College Song Recording. ** [For
Request by Email.]
ASSISTANCE, PLEASE.
** Tuesday 20 September 2022. **
[St. George's (Week #1); Day #2]
On my way out of
the school’s compound, I saw Miss Ramsaran and asked her for help in finding
the name of the St. George’s College Song, the name of the person(s) who
composed the lyrics, and the name of the person(s) who composed the melody.
I
hope that in time, Mr Sammy or someone might be able to tell us what the 3
answers are. I’m glad and grateful that Mrs Sookdeo was approving of what I had
done as the steelpan version of their college song.
THE STUDENTS' HANDBOOK.
** Wednesday 21 September 2022. **
[St. George's (Week #1); Day #3]
While I was
working at my desk in the staffroom, I met Miss Ramsaran as she spoke to me
from the side of my desk, and she said that she was waiting for something for me
in the college song. Some time had gone by, and she returned by the desk to hand
me a book. It was fascinating looking through the book. I admired how detailed
and well-made. I had some cherished chats with my neighbouring desk
persons.
Heading up home in the car onto Green Street, the rain finally broke out.
I got to finish inserting the names of the persons responsible for the St.
George’s College song. It appeared to be surnames in my view, as Bailey &
Campbell. The book did not mention a name for the song itself, so I decided
I would call it “Onto Victory” as it’s a temporary title or until
someone alive can state otherwise. I also took their logo and crest from the
school’s website to make it a part of the score for decoration.
I went to the
office and asked about the procedure for requesting photocopies when I
might need some in the classes further on. The details sounded like a lot of
run-around, so I didn’t want to try it again. Dr Sookdeo walked out of her
office and met me before leaving the compound, and we had a really nice
conversation. I had gotten her permission to create a video of St. George’s song, just like Hillview College’s song, once I had let Miss Roberts
verify the music that I had.
Link(s):
Hillview College’s School Song.
STRUMMING AMENDMENTS.
** Monday 17 October 2022. **
[St. George's (Week #7); Day #26]
I went back to
the office and sat in the classroom next door for the majority of the day, working on the steelpan version of St. George’s College. I changed the
strumming in the introduction. All the pans for verses one and two carried the
same rhythmic pattern.
At first, I thought that it was not a good gamble. I told myself that
even though it worked in Tunapuna Secondary School’s Song, this one might have
had a different outcome. There was a lot of playing around with the
introduction until I finally got something that worked. My only insecurity was
the effectiveness of the bassline. Towards the end of this exercise, the score
became version four.
VERSE TWO'S CORRECTION.
** Monday 31st October 2022. **
[St. George's (Week #7); Day #25]
Today was the
first working day for St. George’s College at the University of Trinidad and
Tobago (UTT) campus in Valsayn. In the last thirty minutes before school
finished, I got my way back to Block K to work on the melody for the college
song. The ‘children’ in the staffroom were noisy as usual. Miss Roberts and I
tried really hard to listen to the video with the children in the video singing
the St. George’s College song. The second verse had a change in only one
measure. I was glad that the review went by in that short space of time.
INTRODUCTION STRUMMING PATTERNS.
** Tuesday 1st November 2022. **
[St. George's (Week #7); Day #26]
Today, the school
had home periods for periods one and two. I was supposed to have 1 Mitchell for
those two periods. I went back to the office and worked at George’s
College. I changed the strumming in the introduction. All the pans for verses one
and two carried the same rhythmic pattern.
At first, I thought that it was not a good gamble. I told myself that
even though it worked in Tunapuna Secondary School’s Song, this one might have
had a different outcome. There was a lot of playing around with the
introduction until I finally got something that worked. My only insecurity was
the effectiveness of the bassline. Towards the end of this exercise, the score
became version four.
By the middle of lunch, I was able to complete typing out the end-of-term
exam for the form ones. I did not mind that the room was hot. However, a lot of
sleep was being fought. Did not know why that was happening. Last night I stood
up after getting the zeal and two more questions to make up the comprehension
section. I had lunch afterwards. The exam paper was reviewed by Miss Roberts, and it was ready for class. I just have to figure out how to do copies at
school.
MASTER SCORE – SHORT VERSION.
** Saturday 12 November 2022.
**
Today I tried to
create more space on the full score (double tenors and double seconds now share
the same staff). At first, I had nicknamed it ‘short version’, but the Musescore
programme was able to play the full steelpan arrangement.
I took that particular file as the one to represent St. George’s College
anthem. I also took the St. George’s Logo I could finally get from Thursday
evening, and added it to the Musescore file. All these changes made the song
become the fourth version.
COLLEGE SONG BOOKLETS.
** Friday 18th November 2022. **
[St. George's (Week 9); Day #39]
This evening, the
booklets with copies of all the steelpan parts were created and compiled into a
book. They were spiral-bound. I still have to wait for Dr Sookdeo to
approve the ‘experimental’ video before it is sent off to YouTube. On Monday
21st of the following week, this book was only shown to one teacher before a
warning was sent to me. I had the books packed up and returned them to the
plastic bag. This remained on the desk for another three weeks.
This morning,
a message was sent to Dr. Sookdeo for approval on a score video of the St.
George’s College Song. It is one minute and twenty-one seconds in duration. I
still await feedback. I hope that it works.
There were not many good images on
the internet of the front of the school. I found a beautifully captured image
of the school’s hall from the quadrangle. The video felt like more was missing.
I just wish that more of the history were available.
SCORE VIDEO 2ND ATTEMPT.
** Monday 5 December 2022
**
[St. George's (Week 12); Day #49]
The second video
attempt was created on this day, and it replaced the first attempt. The
duration remained the same. To this date, there has been no approval or
responses given on the first attempt. I feel as if I may just have to go ahead
without Dr Sookdeo’s approval and send the video online. Somehow, things are
moving strangely around the area. More curious than in the first week. I hope
nothing bad happens.
THE LAST THREAD.
** Wednesday 7 December 2022
**
[St. George's (Week 12); Day #51]
Today was the
deadline for online marks for the term. I had a bitter conversation with Miss
Roberts over the phone from the office at my desk on Monday. I understood and
listened. I did not continue because my heart was ‘stabbed’ on that day.
Today, Miss ‘Rough-Tops’ was out again, and she attacked me at the gates
for a second time. In the quick moments going into the eighth period, I shouted
out my dissatisfaction in the echoing corridor at the message from someone about the song. I don’t think this piece will continue. As of now, it will be
put to rest. The entire next day presented an episode against me that was not
pleasing.
YOUTUBE
VIDEO.
** Tuesday 3rd January 2023
**
[ St.
George’s College (WEEK 14)– Day #55 [1/1] ]
Today was the
start of the new school term. As soon as I got home, I went right ahead and
uploaded the St. George’s College song video. Before I could even do that, I
had to do over a recording of the Musescore file playing out the song. The
experimental version had difficulty. Thankfully, this did not take me more than
ten minutes to do and the uploading.
Looking back at the video, I felt satisfied that the song came out well,
but I did not like having to wait and be stalled for a week. I still hope that
this recording will be useful to teach the students the song. This was also a
DAPHA Project.
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