Pan In Education
SteelPan International in partnership with Sanch Eletronix offers the "Pan In Education" product to global educational institutions that require a structured way to incorporate Steelpan music into their education programmes.
Playing the instrument does not require intricate motor skills with the Steelpan instruments proving to be the ideal medium for producing excellent group music with a minimal learning curve.
In June 2003, Mark Loquan initiated a project out of a strong belief that the music of Trinidad and Tobago should be recorded, scored, and integrated fully into educational curricula, for universal distribution. The exercise, undertaken jointly with Sanch, involved working with several reputable arrangers and steel orchestras to perform arrangements of 13 of his compositions with the intention of using such music for educational purposes.
The project compliments the initiative of the Government of Trinidad and Tobago to use pan as a vehicle for implementing its music education programme in schools. It may be considered a resource for music literacy, arranging techniques and the performing arts. Furthermore, it is envisaged that Pan in Education will contribute significantly towards the provision of ICT education and skills training in schools throughout the 53 countries of the Commonwealth and beyond.
The Product
The product consists of a double CD:
- The first is on-location recorded arrangements of each song ranging from 4 to 6 minutes, performed by various steel orchestras; and
- The second includes the musical scores, computerized using the Finale Music Program 2002 format, and showing individual parts to be played by various Steelpan instruments, namely, tenor, double tenor, and double second etc.
With Finale, the score may be played on the computer, in parts or in its entirety, at any tempo. Students not having the Finale Music Program, may access scores in MIDI format.
PDF files are available for those who simply wish to have a printout of each score. These may be easily read using Acrobat Reader (downloadable free from the Internet). Short MP3 clips containing the original verses and choruses with vocals/lead lines are provided as an insight into how arrangers have embellished the melodies.
Digital files containing notes on Caribbean Rhythms have been included as an aid to those who are unfamiliar with them. Finally, a relationship between instruments of the conventional symphony orchestra and those of a steel orchestra has been suggested. This will assist music teachers and arrangers in transcribing music for the Steelpan. Conversely, music written for pan may be adapted for playing with traditional instruments.
Pete the Panstick®
Pete the Panstick® is a sophisticated, bilingual (Spanish and English) animated character, created by Camille Selvon Abrahams. He helps children comprehend and remember basic musical concepts, in an interactive way. Pete dances, talks, claps his hands and plays the Steelpan. Pete the Panstick encourages an atmosphere that is simultaneously filled with fun and learning.
Travel with Pete as he navigates through his structured DVD, chapter by chapter. First, your child is introduced to the Steelpan, via an illustrated layout of its Notes as Pete narrates the range of its compass. He then plays favourite Nursery Rhymes and Folk Songs before undertaking an assessment with a specially designed Quiz and Puzzle, followed by Games. These chapters help children to appreciate more about this revolutionary instrument and its history.
Next, Pete introduces your child to the world of virtuoso pan Arrangers and plays clips from famous Panorama arrangements. Three short films illustrate how the instrument is made and trace its history. Finally, it is time for recess, and what better way for relaxation than by listening to seven different genres of pan music with Pete, before he returns to his mysterious world of animation.
Pete the Panstick® is a must-have interactive DVD for all children, as they become an inevitable part of the on-going global technological revolution. It is a logical introduction to the Pan in Education Series of products, geared towards building knowledge-based societies of the future.
Pan In Education at Primary School Level
The first phase of the Pan in Education project consists of a two-compact disc set. The programme is geared principally towards secondary and tertiary education levels, where it is assumed that one would have acquired some ability to play or learn from the arrangements. However, disc two contains biographies of steel orchestras and arrangers, which are also relevant to primary schools. Notes on The Steelpan, Copyright Issues, Caribbean Rhythms and The Symphonic Soundstage contained on this disc are an essential requirement for study by all music students.
With respect to the use of interactive digital technology, whereby scores may be played on the computer, user-friendly interfaces (point and click) will expose children to hearing local compositions from a tender age. They will see the link between music that is aural, and the fact that such music can be scored and played if one is musically literate. While the project is not geared towards "making people music literate", exposure even at primary level will create a desire for the attainment of music literacy. It will also assist with catalysing a change from learning by rote to sight-reading from an early age.
The project also encompasses songs with lyrics related to the national musical instrument of Trinidad and Tobago, the Steelpan. This may be utilized as part of cultural development and understanding even at primary schools level. The lyrics may be linked to social studies, drama, dance or poetry that can be used in schools to engender a passion for the instrument and Trinidad and Tobago Culture.
Pan in Education is easily marketable in its current form for use throughout the World, at primary, secondary and tertiary levels, with Trinidad and Tobago, birthplace of the Steelpan, playing a leading role.
The Benefits
For music students, the scores will be a valuable resource for learning the many different aspects of music theory and arranging techniques. The project encompasses a range of playing skills, mainly from intermediate to advanced levels, as the primary focus has been towards the secondary level of education. It is therefore hoped that some of the arrangements will be selected for Examinations, and also as test pieces for School Festivals.
Of the thirteen songs, twelve contain lyrics, which tell stories pertaining to some aspect of pan culture in Trinidad and Tobago. It is therefore possible to use the music as a resource in concert with the performing arts, thus adding yet another dimension to the programme.
Performers include a school band (SAGHS), BP Renegades Youth Orchestra, and a steel orchestra from Finland (Steel Pan Lovers). It is envisaged that future projects will involve more regional and international participation.
Because short verse and chorus clips are included, one can distinguish and learn arranging techniques used for each song.
The programme offers an excellent opportunity for developing a sustainable music industry, starting in the classroom. Students who may not be academically inclined will be given an opportunity to develop and hone entrepreneurial skills.
The project seeks to outline a relationship between instruments of the conventional symphony orchestra and those of the steel orchestra. Using these guidelines, music teachers and arrangers will therefore be able to transpose scores written for one family of instruments to the other. This will in turn create numerous opportunities for cross-fertilisation of cultures through the availability of a larger, diversified universal repertoire to students.
