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click to
see video interview |
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part 1 - challenges of steelpan music judging and understanding the
criteria one is being judged under
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part 2 -
adjudicating and the need for training and
assessment for adjudicator
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part 3 -
adjudicating
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part 4 - pan in the classroom
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part 5 -
Moods of Pan 2008
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Global
- Bright, articulate, immensely talented, intellectual, down-to-earth and forthright are all words that can be aptly applied in the
description of this young man. He is a music educator and a much
sought-after music lecturer and
adjudicator of steelpan and other music-related competitions. He
has been
involved with the steel pan instrument for over twenty-six years and
hails originally from southern Trinidad.
Meet Victor Prescod, project coordinator of the “Pan in the
Classroom Project Unit” in the Ministry of Education of Trinidad
and Tobago. This unit is part of the curriculum development
division. Its main focus is having the steelpan used as the
primary instrument to teach music in schools. In an
informative and personable exclusive interview, When Steel Talks captures
Victor Prescod’s insight on music education, adjudication and adjudicators.
As Victor travels
throughout the Caribbean, he is heartened by the youth involvement with the
steelpan instrument in all the islands. The future looks bright,
according to Prescod, because the people are not only passionate
about pan but also about music in general, and are musically literate
in a number of areas.
“With
the advent of the Caribbean Examinations Council exams in music - at
the end of
high school. We have a number of persons who use the steelpan
as their principal instrument for examinations. And
the examination is not only about performing, but it’s also about
arranging, composing, listening and appraising - so it develops the
ear - it develops their composing and arranging skills...so we have
in Trinidad and Tobago - probably about fifty to sixty percent of
the students who enter the examination - use the steelpan as their
principal instrument...” says Prescod.
On judging, Victor
believes that one of the things that needs to be looked at is the
criteria for judging.
“Many times persons fault
the adjudicators for results, but the adjudicators can only work
within the established criteria. And - competition is a strange thing
when it comes to music. Because, there are some who say competition
stifles creativity - and in a sense, it may. Once you enter a
competition there are criteria. And if you are hopeful of being
successful in the competition, then you need to address the
criteria. What I have found is very often - the arrangers of music for
pan, may not fully understand the criteria under which they
are being judged. So that - arrangers are creative, so they
get into a lot of the creativity which does not necessarily address
the criteria...”
In speaking directly to the competing
arrangers, Victor goes on further to say that
“the tendency - for most of the competitions I’ve has judged - you
have 40 points for arrangement, 40 points for general performance,
10 - tone, 10 - rhythm etc. But under arrangement you look for
things like melodic development, motific development, and
re-harmonization. A number of times, arrangers will move
the melody around, within the pans. So you play the melody with
the front line pans, you move it into the midrange, move it into the
background, you bring it back, you might change the key - but you
still have the same melody. You’ve never developed the
melody. While you’re doing this, there’s lots of lovely
things happening around the melody with the other pans - but the
melody itself has not been developed. So that the music sounds
good to the average listener. But melodic development never
happened. So you’ve lost points there, and your band does not
win, and you say ‘But de judges tief!!’....”
Victor
explains the similar misconceptions arrangers and fans have with
harmonization and the jam session. “Sometimes
- arrangers simply change the key. So you have the same basic
chord structure - in a new key. You have not re-harmonized...
or you go into the jam session - (this is my favorite one), lots of
- lots of creative music happening in the jam session, that has
nothing to do with the piece that’s being arranged. So that if
you take a jam session from Phase II, and you drop it into an
arrangement by Renegades that happens to be in the same key, it will
work - because it’s just music that has no reference to [the] tune.
And that may be - a minute and a half of music that really, does
nothing towards the criteria, and no marks are really given for it - but
it sounds good!....”
Victor is most proud of the explosion of
pan music worldwide and moreover, the way in which the world has
embraced the steelpan instrument. “It (pan) is on an upward
trajectory” says Prescod. He believes there will be
much happening in the next few years, along with greater
recognition of the instrument as an instrument. Among the
things he finds disappointing are the ‘egos involved.’
Prescod additionally states, “too often, within
the pan community, we let very petty issues get in the way of the
development.....” He also laments the
“insufficient emphasis placed on [music] literacy. Because I
think (as a musician), you are
handicapped if you cannot read and write music. But I also
think you are handicapped if you cannot play music by ear, and
improvise music. So I’m not knocking that part of it
- because that’s critical...There are some folks who are content to exist on their skill
and their technique alone. But if we are to move forward with the
instrument on a global level, we need to have performers - who
can - really - just pick up a piece of music and play - regardless of where you
are....”
On the question of: are all judges
created equally? “No
two human beings are created equal. And everyone will differ in
terms of their range of experience, and their levels of competence.
And
it is for this reason, that, over the
years I have been strongly advocating, training in assessment [for the judges]....It is
critically important once we speak about criteria, that, for the sake of
objectivity, everyone comes to a competition with the same
understanding of the criteria. So that if we are looking for
color, or texture, which are some aspects of the criteria, that’s now
appearing in some of the adjudication score sheets - then all of the
adjudicators need to understand - ‘what are we looking for when we
speak to color; - what are we looking for when we speak to texture’....”
explains Prescod. He
strongly feels there must be a common understanding of this
principle - no less. And adjudicators need to subsequently interact with arrangers
and communicate that clarification of the various criteria.
For the sake of the competition, the training in assessment could
help reduce the innate subjectivity in those adjudicating. In the final analysis
there could be created, a
situation that eliminates opportunities for biases to show
themselves in the overall adjudication process, which is the
ultimate goal.
As to what the judges are hearing, and advice
to arrangers? Victor maintains that
“...a
number of times, arrangers try to do so much with their music, that
it may be difficult to discern, exactly which range of instruments is
playing what, at what point in time. I have spoken with arrangers over the years, and one of
the things I would say is, as an
arranger - you need to step back from inside the band....step
back a bit and listen to what is happening....- because an adjudicator
is listening to that piece once....you have one opportunity to hear
it from beginning to end - and make an assessment. No human
being can listen to everything that is happening simultaneously, and identify everything that is going on. Arrangers,
drill masters - whoever they need to be - need to be able to
- point the listener’s ear
to what you want them to hear - [and ‘say’] ‘this is what I really want
you to listen to at this point in time....’”
On “Pan in the Classroom” Mr. Prescod is
concerned that, particularly in Trinidad and Tobago, pan is
thought of ‘a number of folks’ as an ‘extracurricular activity.’
“....we [Pan in the Classroom] are about
teaching music - during the regular school day as a music class
- and especially at the elementary level....”
In some
schools, having ‘music’ on the timetable sometimes merely means that
such classes consist of singing ‘a few songs’ - but not necessarily
including even the most basic form of music theory - with the end
result that students are not musically literate. He adamantly stresses the
exact nature of the “Pan in
the Classroom” concept.
 “....As a music educator, I
am passionate about music education. But all of the research that
is done, tells you that the earlier a child begins to learn to read
and write music, the better they perform across the board
(academically). The three main areas that children really need
exposure to within the first six years of life - music - well the
arts, but music in particular, physical education and sports, and
languages. Those three have been shown to be, the best areas
in terms of developing the brain - making the connections around the
neurons and synapses and so on; growing connections in the
brain....”
“They found out, within
recent times...there’s something that’s called Functional
Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI). And with fMRI, you can
examine different areas of the brain, whilst someone is actually
doing something - so you can see what area of the brain ‘lights
up’ [where the activity is stimulating]. And one of the ‘buzz
words’ in education for years has been ‘whole brain learning.’
Not ‘right brain’ not ‘left brain.’ And music and the
arts have always been considered ‘right brain’ activities.”
“What they have been able
to show, is that persons who are musically literate utilize both
areas of the brain when they are processing music, so that someone
who is not musically literate will listen to a piece of
music, and it will show up as a right brain activity.
Someone who has been trained in music - when they are listening to
the same piece of music - both halves of the brain [light
up]. The area of the brain that connects both halves is called
the Corpus Callosum. Scientists have shown that the
Corpus Callosum in musicians is thicker than in
non-musicians, and they theorize that this is because of all of the
inter-hemispheric traffic that is going on....More connections are
grown. The greater the connections - the better processing of
information....you put something to music, it’s easier retained.
You think of the little infants learning their ‘ABCs’....But the
research continues to demonstrate that. Reading, science,
mathematics, languages - a child exposed to music
education in the first few years of life, performs better than
someone who isn’t.....So this is why we stress “Pan in the
Classroom” - because the objective is to teach music -
and ensure that music is taught. But we use pan as the
principal instrument - not as the only instrument, but as the
principal instrument....”
Over the last school year “Pan in the Classroom”
has placed instruments in over sixty elementary schools in Trinidad
and Tobago. Prescod expects to cover all of the schools in
Trinidad and Tobago with the next three to five years. He
reminds us that there still remains many challenges as there are
still groups in Trinidad and Tobago who do not see music as an
educational function or tool, and do not want music taught in their schools.
Of
Moods of Pan 2008
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in part, Victor had this to say:
“...this was
my first Moods of Pan - so I was very impressed....it is an
event that can be marketed internationally....beautiful
event.”
Contact
Victor Prescod:
http://whensteeltalks.ning.com/profile/VictorNPrescod
Join Victor Prescod on
Pan In The Classroom |
