King David Music Camp (2022) - David's Scribes Group

 Date for Entry: (Saturday 2nd July 2022)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Saturday 2nd July 2022)

Dear Diary,

    I was invited by Mr. Sharma to go and assist in teaching music in a summer camp to be held at the Tacarigua Presbyterian church.

FIRST STAFF MEETING.

** Saturday 2nd July 2022 **

    There was a short staff meeting for an hour starting from 7PM. I Saw Mr. Sharma and Aria in the Zoom meeting. I had a nice surprise when I saw Kelise and Sparkle from the Music Degree at DCFA. A lot of conversation and pointers were dealt in for the Youth Group and Sunday School classes. I did not know what the Music notation class was expected to do but I suppose it wouldn't be so difficult. 

Link(s):

1. Proposal.** [Permission was not granted.]
2. Meeting PowerPoint.** [Permission was not granted.]

 

CLASS #1.

** Monday 18th July 2022 **

    On Monday I had a preparation meeting with Mr. Sharma at eleven before the first class. The first class was about sixteen students. We had use of breakout rooms on the Zoom platform. This was my first time experiencing that. The children were working on their Musescore notations while following Mr. Sharma. When there was a problem he would send me to a breakout room with the student to resolve the issue.

    The first song we started with the children was "Are You Sleeping" for the piano. We all listened to a video where we were taught the melody by singing each pitch with 'bum' as the syllable. The second part of the video focuses on the accompaniment by tonic and dominant (for D Major). The bass would have been two protects and a minim within a four-four measure.

    We used the piano keyboard from Musescore to write in the pitches and the names of the note symbols were done using American terms (quarter note, etc). Mr. Sharma and I also had to teach the children how to select a measure and copy and paste them. We also showed them shortcuts and prescribed other methods to write out the score.

    In the meeting after the first class, I learned that the children were all new to music and music theory. I was very surprised but glad that they were making good progress for beginners. The students were given the first four measures we did in the hour class to transcribe as homework.

CLASS #2.

** Tuesday 19th July 2022 **

     The second class came and some of the students were able to get to where we left off. Some others were able to complete the full eight-bar melody. The entire melody was done over. We did not have much need for breakout rooms that day. The quaver (or eighth-note symbol) was introduced in the second portion. 

    The time went by quickly. And the lesson was over. There were still some students to complete the melody. The homework was to figure out the accompaniment for the bass staff.

CLASS #3.

** Thursday 21st July 2022 **

     The class was cancelled yesterday. There was no electricity by sir. I had a lot of work done with aunty Mala in the kitchen that day. 

    For this class, we did a review of everything with the students. Some questions were asked about the bass accompaniment before scoring it out. They were taught to use the letter 'r' for repeating.

CLASS #4.

** Friday 22nd July 2022 **

     We completed the "Are You Sleeping" transcription for piano. The class was shown a new song called "Father, I Adore You". It was taken from the Book of Praise (#292, page 375). This melody was only six measures in length using four-four as the meter. 

    I heard that some of the children learned the melody in the previous class during the morning. The class was spent writing out the six measures and they left for the children to do the same for homework.

CLASS #5.

** Saturday 23rd July 2022 **

     This class was a makeup and review class. Only two students attended the session. It was held at the same time. In the second half of the class, Mr. Sharma went through the work to be done for Monday's class with the two boys who couldn't make it. 

    They had to take the piano score of "Father, I Adore You" and add voices for Soprano, Alto, and Tenor. I saw that the project was going to be round. It sounded interesting in the playback at the end of the class session but seemed very complex. 

    This exercise would have been homework to submit for Tuesday 26th July after the last class. In the evening, I took out my Book of Praise and found the hymn. I was surprised that the six measures were all there was to the song. It took me about forty-five minutes for the most to complete the three-paged steelpan arrangement. I sent this over to Mr. Sharma as my 'homework' for the class by email.

CHURCH PRESENTATION.

** Sunday 31st July 2022 **

     I was invited by Mr. Sharma to Tacarigua Presbyterian Church for the church presentations and performances by all the children in the classes. That morning I got ready within less than half an hour and got up the road. Daddy drove me in the car to get here. It was also my first time attending a service at the same church. 

After giving my name to the attendance book, I entered the church. Everyone was already seated and music was playing from the speakers before the service. They had a three-column seating arrangement in the sanctuary so there was not an exact middle aisle to walk down as in Aramalaya. 

    As I walked down the aisle and admired the inside of the church, the song they had playing was so amazing. It felt as if it had spoken exactly to me in each sentence the guy in the YouTube video sung. It was only towards the end of the service I was able to figure out the name ("God Only Knows") of it. This would be a good song for us to do in church someday.

    The service sermon was done by Reverand Anthony Rampersad and he spoke on the ten commandments. This was the best explanation I had heard on it. The performance was done by both Sunday School children and the Youth Group. They sang "When the Spirit of the Lord," and there was a dance they did with the Armor of God. 

    I realized that today was Youth Sunday and if I had been to my church, I would see Joshua and them doing the service there. I was given a lovely bookmark with the ten commandments on it while waiting inside the church for the rain. Apparently, the rain came in after the painful experience I had during the service.

Link(s):

1. "God Only Knows" - Recording.

Daryl Zion M. Ali

Father's Day Service (2022)

Date for Entry: (Sunday 19th June 2022)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Friday 8th July 2022)

Dear Diary,

    The Sunday School had to play steelpan after the sermon. The song for this service was "He's Got The Whole World" and it was arranged by Mr. Sharma. Unfortunately, he could not make it to the service. I had to count them in. Aria was on the bass and Elder Mr. Bharat on the drums. 

    One very funny thing about the rehearsal before the service, er did the song twice and then everyone they started the service immediately. I was not sure if that time had gone by really fast or if they thought that we were to play and then the service would start. 

    The sermon was done by Pastor Dr. Clive Dottin. Too much hurt came to me that day in church. The performance was not video recorded by anyone so there aren't any attachments to this entry. 

Daryl Zion M. Ali

Service of Unity

 Date for Entry: (Sunday 29th May 2022)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Saturday 24th December 2022)

**Bookmark pic

Dear Diary,

    Today a wonderful service took place in the afternoon. I learned that Tobago started a Presbyterian group and their region had joined it with us in the North. Many nice pieces of music were sung during the service and two of them were taken to be arranged for steelpan by myself.

    The steelband had to perform for the processional. Our piece of practice for the event was “Blessed By Your Name” arranged by myself and this was our first time playing as a band for the year in church after the COVID-19 lockdown.

Link(s):

• Service Programme.
• July 2022 Magazine Report (Picture).
• YouTube Recording of Service. (7:53)

Daryl Zion M. Ali

TIPICA First Monthly Playout

 Date for Entry: (Sunday 24th April 2022)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Saturday 21st January 2023)

Dear Diary,

    I had to perform in TIPICA panyard right up the road from home in Tunapuna. I was invited by Denzil to play. I decided to take try the stage side band they hand. We took about six to seven weeks in practice before tonight’s performance which was done last. We were joined by Arima Angel Harps Steel Orchestra and Fascinators Steel Symphony.

    Many persons I met from DCFA were present there. A lot of people filled the yard and the pavement area. We also saw Mr Forde present for the evening and he play some pan too. My private recording of TIPICA’s songs did not come out so well, unfortunately.

    Some of the songs were “Jolene” by Kes, steelband composition “Liberation” by Andrea White, “Mash Up” by Blaxx, and two others. I could not stay much longer after the show but it was a wonderful evening spent with everyone.

 

Link(s):

• Images from the Event.
• Private Recording – (Audio).

Daryl Zion M. Ali

Writing in the Visual, Performing and Carnival Arts (Trial 2) - (FOUN 1107)

  Date for Entry: (Tuesday 19th January 2021)

Actual Date of Online Entry: Friday 8th July 2022)

Dear Diary,

    This was the final of all my degree courses to complete. I was very excited to do it the first time. I felt like I had the confidence and the preparedness to go forth and conquer it. I was given two wonderful teachers for the plenary and tutorial. 

    The My-E-Learning setup was not so difficult to navigate this time around. My registration was not that early so I had to miss the first plenary. The slides for that class were easy to follow throughout. I liked the way the textbook was designed this time. Much better than in the first trial.

    I decided to take a gamble and register for the tutorial on the same day as the plenary. This is a big NO for me based on the advice given to me by own myself. I ended up changing the tutorial class when Mr. Ali left and followed my own advice. I was beginning to feel the consequences of not following myself.

Link(s):

1. Course Outline.
2. Course Textbook.
3. Semester's Fee Sheet.**

ASSIGNMENT #1: ORAL PRESENTATION.

* Thursday 4th March 2021 *

    This was the first day of my new tutorial class. I was asked by the teacher if I was ready for the assessment and I was. For this assessment, we were asked to (1) reflect on a part event as a student and to discuss the strengths, weaknesses, threats, and opportunities that COVID-19 might present. 

    The topic of the semester was COVID-19 and its relationship to my art form. All of the individual presentations by students had to be done on the spot. Some persons in the call I saw still used a script. I cannot recall the mark that I got but it was a good one.

ASSIGNMENT #2: CRITIQUE.

*  Friday 5th March 2021 *

    The musicians in the course had to listen to a piece of music called "COVID-19: A Roblex Video" from YouTube and write a critique on it. The word limit they gave us was not much. I saw that I did not have to add any citations for the assignment maybe because they did not teach us that as yet. I was able to save notes from Mr. Ali's PowerPoints into six neat pages to help review the work before attempting the assignment.

Link(s):

1. Graded Assignment. ** [Not Available.]
2. Critique Writing Notes. 
3. COVID-19: A Roblex Video.

ASSIGNMENT #3: GROUP PORTFOLIO.

* Friday 26 March 2021 *

    The date above was the submission date for this assignment via the My-E-Learning platform’s Turnitin. The tutorial class was set into groups. Each one had to have a member from a different artistic discipline. There was a girl from music and another from dance in the group I was assigned.

    The next two weeks would be difficult. I was finishing the final sets of paintings for “Magical Creatures” and then mommy died on Tuesday 16 March 2021. I was also emotionally attacked for a while at home.

    The work involved in this portfolio seemed impossible to get everything done. The funeral service was on Saturday morning and then by Sunday evening when I got home, I restricted my strategy and quotas and got everything completed by half three on Tuesday.

    I wanted all my work done to submit because I felt as if my group was about to break out in an argument. So before being yelled at I had it finished and sent it to our WhatsApp group for proof. I just thank God that the argument did not happen.

    One issue I had with the submission was that we had to provide drafts and I didn’t have any because I would have worked on the three pieces of literature one after the other. I had to copy and paste something from my completed work and ‘doctor’ it to make it look like a draft.

    Dr. Campbell was not wanting to say yes about this in class so I continued to do it for the sake of the assignment. The document was processed over a Goggle Docs file and then edited for submission by one of the group members. I find that in terms of Guidelines, they should specify how they would like our work to be laid out. When the students have this choice, the work can become disorganized easily as in our submission.

Link(s):

1. Guidelines & Instructions.
2. Portfolio Submission.
3. Personal Response. ** [For Request by Email.]
4. Mommy Funeral Service.**

ASSIGNMENT #4: QUIZ.

* Friday 2^nd April 2021 *

    We had an online quiz on tenses, commas, punctuation, etc. It was multiple choice and as always, there was a timer involved. I had to try and abandon the panic in me because of the timer and complete the test. I was glad to pass it in the end.

 

ASSIGNMENT #5: FINAL EXAMINATION.

* Tuesday 13 April 2021 *

    The final examination was to write and submit a compare and contrast essay. This was the moment of truth to see if I was good enough to do this essay. It came with more challenges and I have been taking the opportunities in the “Writing for Academic Purposes” course for this exam.

    When I got the instruction paper, I got a scrapbook opened and started making notes. It felt like I had to decode the question being asked. I also decided to plan the essay from the same “Writing for Academic Purposes” course using the classification essay planner I did for Dr. Dixon’s tutorial and assignment.

**picture of the plan.

    The essay was completed within two days and then reviewed. The strange thing about the topic was that it was like two teams containing two members and they each had to be compared. I saw that from the plan and realized why it was so hard to see it my first time in the course.

Link(s):

1. Guidelines & Instructions.
2. Final Essay Submission.

Daryl Zion M. Ali

Science, Medicine & Technology in Society - (MUSC 1210)

 Date for Entry: (Monday 14th September 2020)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Thursday 7th July 2022)

Dear Diary,

    I had to take a fourth year to complete two remaining courses. The semester in which I was required to do this course was not permissible because the space of eight hundred students was already taken. I did attend the first plenary of that semester to find out the information from the course lecturer. 

    I was very scared to do this class at first. It reminded me of the sciences classes in school. There was a lot of coursework to be done including some in groups. There was going to be a tutorial so it felt hard to have to take a second class. I decided that the tutorial should not be on the day of the plenary or the day before. I decided Thursday evenings at 4PM was best suitable.

    The COVID-19 lockdown made us continue the online classes for both plenary and tutorial. As in the thesis class, we used Blackboard Collaborate on the UWI's My-E-Learning platform. It was difficult to find the classes so I missed the first plenary. Even finding some of the tutorial classes was trouble. 

Link(s):

1. Course Outline.

JOURNAL REFLECTIONS ASSIGNMENT.

* Unknown/Forgotten Date *

    This was a last-minute completed assignment. I spent a few late nights into the morning trying to review class sessions to do journal entries. They dropped this assignment on us on the very first plenary after the review of the course outline. There were very strict rules on missing a deadline and even for plagiarism.

Links(s):

1. Journal Reflections.

 

ASSESSMENT.

* Saturday 31st October 2020 *

    There was a multiple-choice assessment to do. I was asked to do it over with some others because we had done the practice test and the actual one had passed its deadline. Those were some really hard questions.

 

GROUP PRESENTATION & SUBMISSION.

* Unknown/Forgotten Date *

    Late down into the semester, the groups had to present to their tutorial class. My group had to discuss water security. I was working with a girl named Aaliyah. We had issues with another girl who was not communicating with us while we tried to get the presentation ready.

    Aaliyah and I had to make the girl do her part and we both had to endure the ‘interesting’ tutorial instructor yelling at us in the middle class. Thank God the tutorial was only an hour long. The class had to take in a tutor to go through this with us. This was not like English tutorials. The interacting persons presented were much different.

    The Turn-It-In submission had to be done the week before class presentations. The other girl was not communicating again and we had to keep on calling her for her accountability statements and entries to the PowerPoint.

    In the remaining six minutes before the deadline, I had to abandon Aaliyah and the other girl and submit the PowerPoint without getting their final things. That submission was very scary because the second it was confirmed submitted on the My-E-Learning platform; the time was twelve on the dot. The closing was midnight and no other submission would work.

    The presentation was done in class the following Thursday after some other groups. It took me six emails until I got the PowerPoint to the instructor’s email. That UWI email could not take a certain amount of size in a document. TOO faulty! Each time I did the emails I had to take out some things from the PowerPoint just to reduce the size. Two other groups were in the same trouble.

    I went first in the presentation. I had my speech prepared on Microsoft open and waited for the discussion to start. Aaliyah spoke after me and then the other girl spoke but not much. We had a ‘disappointment conversation’ afterward but the best part was that both of us were able to achieve eight points out of ten. I felt satisfied with that after the trouble with the group member and the tutor.

Links(s):

1. PowerPoint Submission.
2. Presentation Speech.

 

FINAL EXAMINATION.

* Tuesday 8th – Friday 11th December 2020 *

    I’ve never seen what a final exam question paper looked like for this course. We were told that the exam was modified because of the COVID-19 setting. On Tuesday 8 December 2020, the examination paper was released on My-E-Learning on a separate page from the course’s page. All I did for that day was printed the entire instructions document and began studying the information. I did not work on it right away until the next day. We were given until Friday for submissions on the My-E-Learning’s Turn-it-in.

    Two essay-type questions were given with serval things to discuss. One was a COVID-19 piece and the other was based on energy. I was excited to work on the energy essay first because a majority of my completed studies from the ‘course manual’ included that particular topic.

    I did not get plenty of reading done from the second half of the book’s topics and I did not bother to continue it because I had already done the reading on the pandemic and Epidemic sections for the COVID-19 essay. So, the work in the book was done and it was time to go online for further research.

    Just like the “Writing for Academic Purposes” course, I planned the number of words per paragraph like a financial budget and began working on the introduction for the energy. When the night came, I planned out the COVID-19 essay while taking a recess for the next day. One essay would be worked on a day. I did not expect to take so much time on the energy essay but it was fine. The COVID-19 essay was done in one shot. I had a lot of things that needed to make up for it.

    I did not wait for Friday evening to submit. I submitted the work on the My-E-Learning platform and then went out into the gallery. I felt like a prisoner being granted freedom into the world after sixty years of incarceration. We did not have a candidate’s receipts again so the cover page was filled out like the receipt and I had the headers designed as the folder page booklet they give us as writing paper.

Links(s):

1. Question Paper.
2. Responses.
3. Study Notes. ** [For Request by Email.]
4. Scrap Work. ** [Document Misplaced.]

 

Daryl Zion M. Ali

“Deadly Pandemic: Coronavirus”

Date for Entry: (Friday 14th August 2020)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Monday 29th August 2022)

Dear Diary,

    This was a composition made from the inspiration of the COVID-19 Coronavirus pandemic. Unfortunately, the computer lost a copy of the score. I believe it was over twelve pages. There was not much planning as to what this piece was supposed to do apart from describing the fear and seriousness of the infection.

    The painting was done within a day on Thursday 13 August 2020. Six hours in total were required to do the full colouring. In this illustration, I used the flowers in the ground as the coronavirus, and when the pollen and petal blow through the air it spreads the virus.

    The girl holding the flower in her hand would represent a person carrying the virus and being unaware that they were infected. It seemed to me that the same girl ended up looking like Carla from my “Magical Creatures” novel. However, the design for the dress came from thinking of our country’s president Ms. Paula-Mae Weekes.

    Listening to the recording, my mind was suggesting that what was presented should have been a beginning or introduction for the composition but too late now since the score was lost.

 

Link(s):

• “Deadly Pandemic: Coronavirus” –Full Score.
• Hand Drawing & Completed Painting.
• “Deadly Pandemic: Coronavirus” – YouTube Recording.

Daryl Zion M. Ali

Agar Tum Na Hote

Date for Entry: (Thursday 6th August 2020)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Wednesday 23rd March 2022)

Dear Diary,

    My friend Brandon Poonwassie from DCFA degree program was getting married around this time. He made a YouTube video playing the song “Agar Tum Na Hote” on the keyboard and was accompanied by two other gentlemen. One of the two men played drums in the studio.

    I decided that I would listen to the recording and notate it for steelpan like I usually would for the Indian Classical Ensemble on Monday nights. It came up to three pages and a portion of one day to complete this exercise. It was emailed and I hope it is useful.

    Unfortunately, when looking for the video on YouTube I was not sure I it was set as a private or unlisted one. I can only provide a recording of the score from Musescore.

 

Link(s):

1. “Agar Tum Na Hote” - (Score).
2. “Agar Tum Na Hote” (Recording).**

 

Daryl Zion M. Ali

“Fountain in the Desert” – (Raag Bhairav)

Date for Entry: (Thursday 23rd July 2020)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Monday 29th August 2022)

Dear Diary,

    Here is another piece of Classical Indian music. I decided to use Raag Bhairavi which is another scale: the second and sixth degrees of the scale are lowered by a semitone. This is also illustrated at the beginning of the video. Again, the tonic (or ‘Sa’) was C.

    I used flute and harmonium as the major source of melody. The tambourine and tabla were given independent rhythmic patterns and were assigned as ostinati. However, the loud gong and bowl gong was replaced by a harp that was used to mimic the sound/feel of a swarmandal.

    As much as I wished, the software could not do the andolan or swing. Hence, use of more acciaccaturas was used as a substitution apart from instances where the true acciaccaturas were required.

    The drawing and painting were both done on Thursday 23 July 2020 in the afternoon at home number two. The full colouring took approximately two and a half hours long.

 

Link(s):

• Hand Drawing & Completed Painting.
• “Fountain in the Desert” – YouTube Recording.

Daryl Zion M. Ali