Videos

Comments

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  marie diane dupre April 15, 2011 at 8:05pm

  Mark, congratulations. It seems that being away from the annual confusion of panorama has allowed you to

  create something beautiful and educational that could/should be used as an advertisement or filler on all the local tv stations to encourage the youth to take pan seriously as a profession instead of using it as a tool to attract the opposite sex at carnival time. Keep it up.
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  Glenroy R Joseph April 15, 2011 at 6:58pm

  I am simply saying that there are hundreds of young people who annually play pans in Panrama and for Carnival, and it would be illogical to expect them all to take the study of music seriously, since I doubt that the majority of them intend to become serious musicians.
  
  The traditional rote method of playing pans allow these young people to participate.
  
  Unless someone could find jobs in this particular music genre for these thousands of people playing pans annually, the rote method will continue.
  
  Or, on the other hand one cam reduce the size of the Panorama bands, and have small bands of literate musicians competing against each other.
  
  Then the Panorama would be a totally different event!.

  And, by the way I may be a senior citizen on this forum, but the steelband must have changed far more than I could ever have imagined from the days when I used to "lime" and "beat" pan, if it is now possible to get a majority of the

  panist interested in learning music.

  .
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  Audley Sue Wing April 15, 2011 at 2:44pm

  Glenroy Joseph's comments touch the right notes but in a minor key; they're so nostalgic.
  The "cultural context" has been and is constantly changing, so is the "panorama and Carnival experience". Yet, folks do want to be part of an organization that is an established part of local culture but relationships between them the organization and that culture are never static.
  Today, bands are grabbing players who are more musically literate just to cut down the endless time it takes to teach less literate players the music by rote. As for the role of the Steelband in the community, ask the players, the bands, and the communities. Ask Pantrinbago about the status of these entities. Also note how many music students are making pan their instrument of choice. These are the new breed of pannists. They drive SUVs, both parents have well paid jobs, their own home or is in the process of acquiring it. The old symbiosis between panman, steelband and community are long gone but there is need to build new relationships for the future. This is the conversation we must force ourselves to have if we are going to do something for pan and not let that great saying remain just a slogan.
  Time keeps moving forward. Change like gravity is consistent, so as Voltaire warned "cultivate your own garden". If you stand still in a world that's moving forward; you will relatively appear to move backwards. The steelband movement here in T&T has been standing still. This becomes painfully obvious when you regularly look at WST. - ASW
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  Rum-Pan April 14, 2011 at 4:54pm

  High Quality of the graphic arts!
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  Mark Loquan April 14, 2011 at 1:42pm

  Sorry about the background music not being pan.  I had tried but it somehow was not working at the time with the different moods of the story.  Hopefully in a revision down the road, as I sought to focus on the message for the time being.

   

  Fully agree on the point of the importance steelbands play in the community, apart from the music. 
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  Glenroy R Joseph April 14, 2011 at 12:26pm

  The idea of being musically literate is of course a necessary goal for panists desirous of becoming serious musicians .
  
  We must not forget, however the uniqueness of steelband when seen in its cultural context.
  
  Many people join steelbands to enjoy the panorama and Carnival experience, and to be part of an organization that is an established part of local culture.
  
  The rote method of playing pans allow fans and those of limited musical skills to participate fully in the steelband experience without committing to learn music.
  
  One must not forget the role of the steelband in the community. It is more than that of just a superb music organization. It is also a center of community activities in which everyone is encouraged to participate up to their ability, regardless of education or musical literacy.
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  Anson April 14, 2011 at 9:18am

  can't wait to here the compositions on Pan and also those awesome studio instruments which look like pans. The E-pan M-pan and G-pan. The future looks bright for this instrument and it's creative people. I hope to hear more of the G-pan the E-pan and the M-pans in the future. they seem like light and production delightful instruments. It is my hope that all the music we listen to later on will be composed by pannist from the pans or panlike instruments. The circular concept of music has been around for ages and only the Pan fully captures this concept. It is quite and instrument and the ones who created it as well. Much love to all who use it and keep pushing it forward. Much peace to you all.
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  Anson April 14, 2011 at 9:13am

  Nice nice keep building them up! Good stuff.
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  Cecil hinkson April 14, 2011 at 9:05am

  Got the message but the back-ground music could have been pan. 
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  Mark Loquan April 14, 2011 at 6:39am

  Thanks WST for posting.

   

  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.

  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.

  Discussion thread also at : https://whensteeltalks.ning.com/forum/topics/donation-of-animation-t...

  Regards

  Mark