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Music literacy is obviously a necessity for professional panists ,but I can assure you that making the ability to read music a condition for membership in a panorama steelband will change the nature of panorama as we know it , because most players who do not wish to make a career in music will be left behind.
I played on stage sides , on the road and in panorama , and I would have probably seized the opportunity to take some basic lessons in music , but not everyone , especially part time carnival players , would have wanted to spend the extra time and effort to learn music just to learn their parts in a few tunes , even including a panorama tune and a bomb tune , especially knowing full well that they are capable of learning their parts by rote , as is the custom.
You do not need to be able to read written music to play any musical instrument.
Reading or writing music is only a way of communicating music. Even music theory can be taught and learned without being able to read or write.
Boogsie still cannot read or write music and he gets along on the pan quite swimmingly (he also plays the keyboards).
however the ability to communicate musical ideas by writing is much easier and faster than learning by rote i.e. watching another player or simply picking out the notes, but that does not prevent one from developing musical ideas and putting them together in a song.
The fact that there are so few great compositions at panorama has nothing to do with being musically literate (reading or writing music) it's more about a lack of musical imagination.
I play now in a Band called Groove Warehouse and everyone can read music. They then memorize the tune and because of this, the band is getting to have a large repertoire in less than a year and a half.I had learn to read but practicing to sight read make me a better musician since I left Trinidad . Trinidad should start the next stage in pan playing. Especially you a call upon to play for a stage performance in a choir etc at the last moment.
Courtney Leiba you try playing with phase 2 during panorama competition, when Boogsie comes last last minute to change a piece of the music, nobody ever heard before, tell me Leiba, if your band Warehouse Groove ever experience this or can accomplish this feat.
There's a balance to be had here, Patrick. Just as you might not think that a player from Groove Warehouse can come and take music from Boogsie (which may be an incorrect assumption), can most steelpan players go to a dress rehearsal, learn 5 complex pieces of music and perform them flawlessly on the same night? It's certainly possible if you can read music.
The point is that learning music by rote (as is done in most panyards) is a skill that can be augmented by having a background in music theory. It makes things easier. It helps the player to understand WHAT they're playing and WHY they're playing it.
Can Boogsie read or write music? Maybe not, but how many Boogsie's are there in the world? The man is a virtuoso talent like we've never seen and like we'll never see again. We can't use him as an example because he's the exception, not the rule. Just as you have Boogsie on one side, Bradley is on the other. He had an innate understanding of music theory, as well as mathematics, and used these understandings to manipulate all sorts of complex patterns found in music.
"The point is that learning music by rote (as is done in most panyards) is a skill that can be augmented by having a background in music theory. It makes things easier. It helps the player to understand WHAT they're playing and WHY they're playing it."
Kern: You said it all in those three sentences. In addition to that, the background in music theory encourages COMPOSITION. At the same time there is a snobbish tendency to want to dismiss the body of rote PAN MUSIC because the players could not read and write music. Yet I don't see the musically educated putting out any music that deserves a second listen.
Time for music literacy.....
Question: We can speak English and we will be able to survive...but in order to succeed it would benefit us to be able to not only speak English but also be able to read and write English.
Similarly we can play music and survive but to truly succeed today in music it would be wise to become literate...be able to read, write, improvise and comprehend music theory.
There are(self-taught) music text books that can assist ...please see attachment
Text books ad US.2016 -Salahpan.docx
I am not disputing the value of music literacy ... from the very little bit of theory I have studied I could see the benefits. So I could well imagine the insights and knowledge that learned people like you see through your lens. I am asking the question specific to calypso and its demonstrated excellence on the PAN mostly without music literacy over the last 70 years.
Now, I fully agree that if (in theory) the PAN MEN had gained literacy 60 years ago (just like they learned to speak read and write English) that we would have had many marvelous COMPOSITIONS as a result. And that is all I ever complain about on this forum -- the lack of good compositions ... despite all the people coming out with degrees in music.
I think that Patrick got the essence of my question.
I disagree, music is art, unless you have proof, for example, the most Trinidad and Tobago panorama winners, their arrangers, wrote their winning piece of music, then you may have an argument.
Salah didn't say anything about panorama. His comment was concerning success in music, period. And he's right on that end.