Additional programming slated for Fall 2020
(Brooklyn, NY July 27, 2020) It seems everything is virtual these days thanks to COVID-19,
and education courses are no exception. The Carlos Lezama Archives and Caribbean
Cultural Center (CLACC-C) has met the learning needs of its steelpan students by offering
steel pan classes as part of their education series. Each workshop session is about 40 mins, and 4
sessions have been offered thus far.
According to Yolanda Lezama Clark, president of CLACC-C, “additional sessions are slated to
be offered in the fall, pending additional funding.”
You might be wondering - how does one learn to play pan online? Well, as it turns out, there’s
an app for that. However, since no app can replace a great instructor, CLACC-C offers one in
the form of Khuent Rose. Khuent Rose is lead instructor for the CLACC-C Virtual Steel Pan
Workshop and brings expertise as a pan arranger and pianist, but also as an educator at
Achievement First charter school in Brooklyn.
Rose’s class blends live instruction via Zoom with coursework and materials via Google
Classroom and a steelpan app. Students spent time learning basic music instruction -- how to
read notes, important vocabulary, how to count beats per measure, as well as how those skills
apply to the musicality of steel pan.
The second instructor, Damanay James is also a teacher at a middle school in Brooklyn, and the
music director of the CrossFire steelpan orchestra. A third instructor, Justin Fields is a high
school student and Jr. Arranger with CrossFire steel orchestra. He says he is an “aspiring
arranger.” Many of the young students in attendance, ages 8-14, also expressed interest in
playing steelpan under Fields’ leadership as well as becoming arrangers. CLACC-C hopes to
offer more courses in the fall. Parents interested in pre-registering for the steel pan classes can
sign up at https://bit.ly/2BFAxZK
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Replies
Steelpan courses seen online at www.udemy.com, search for "steel drum" instead. One free course accessible.
Another technique using animation can be useful for online pan teaching: https://tinyurl.com/qqf9yna