Donation of animation to the Music Literacy Trust and Pan Community

[Pan Times]

From Mark Loquan 

Good day all

I am hereby donating the following animation to the Music Literacy Trust for use in all their programmes/workshops, to the educational institutions, and to the general pan community. 

Please see Video below :

It is being included in my Pan in Education 2 CD to be released later this year.  Feel free to share.

I hope it can serve as a simple tool to demonstrate that music literacy, through application and hard work, can be part of the arsenal of skills for pannists not only in Trinidad and Tobago, but also those in the global pan community aspiring to become musically literate.  Some of the scholars of the Music Literacy Trust have taken the path shown.

Regards

Mark

[Luke Abrahamson]

Mark,

Thanks for putting this out.  As a pan teacher, I can tell you that we need more material to help us convey our messages.  I am teaching pan in a school where most of the kids are plugged into some sort of technology all day (and probably most of the night as well...)  I worry that in this world of high tech everything, pannists and pan teachers will not be adequately equipped and prepared to reach our students.  For my part, I love the fact that playing pan and teaching pan brings us back to a day without many of the distractions technology has brought...especially in schools. But, I also know that technology can have a powerful effect on our ability to learn and understand.  I am excited to see what is yet to come for pan in the realm of technology and media.  Thanks for your work!

[Mark Loquan]

For the Pan in Education product (http://www.sanch.com/pan-in-education.htm or http://www.ecaroh.com/pan/panineducation.htm), not only were the recordings included, but also were the scores for all the arrangements which could be played back using technology (the computer and a music application program such Finale). This allows individual parts or the whole arrangement to be played back solo or in any combination of instruments, and at any tempo while one plays along. The arrangement is also preserved for future use. The same has been done for other projects such as Jit Samaroo's Original Notes and Ray Holman's Changing Time for example), where complete scores have been provided. I think in this case technology could be used in combination with other methods. It is interesting to see the same musical arrangements being performed in various parts of the globe. Scores certainly facilitate that process.

[Mark Loquan]

To be clear I am not proposing an "either/or" approach, with aural skills on one side and being able to read and write on the other. My view is that both can complement each other, and we have great examples like Liam Teague, Seion Gomez, Kareem Brown, Vanessa Headley, Amrit Samaroo, Clarence Morris and many others who have chosen to augment their already superb aural skills. Many of the pannists/arrangers mentioned above are already scoring their arrangements (and we all know many great arrangements have been lost because the music was not scored, or players forgetting their parts, or pannists no longer around with the band, etc). Some pannists aspire to become musically literate. I applaud those who are willing to put in the hard work, and effort to get there.