“Really great to see everyone’s ideas and the range of different minds from all over the world – great for inspiration!”

We had a fantastic time delivering our new online course designed to help people explore Figurenotes within their own teaching settings. Running 2 small groups across 3 weeks of training, we’ve really enjoyed getting to know more about the people involved and how they work.

Thank you to all our participants for engaging so well with this course. The activities and ideas created by your homework tasks were phenomenal and have such potential. We can’t wait to hear what you achieve in your lessons.

I have learnt how to use the Figurenotes system itself, but also some great ideas about planning, differentiation and different ways into composing.

Trainee 2021

Each week had a different focus, which was consolidated in the homework activity. Week 1 was an introduction to Figurenotes with particular emphasis on rhythm. Week 2 explored the world of creative play and composition. Week 3 focused on groups, ensembles, and differentiation.

As always, the creative composition task had the most wide-ranging results. The opportunities are endless when working with colour and shape. We have had everything from Kandinsky to puppets, train journeys to braille Bananagrams, Moomins to holiday snaps – and everything inbetween! What a creative bunch.

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Our in-person training nearly always has a visitor to Scotland from another country, but with online delivery we can reach so many more people who could benefit from this training. With participants from Hong Kong, Greece, USA, and the UK this time around, we hope to reach even more countries with our next course date.

If you are interested in attending this course in the future, please get in touch, as we are currently working out dates and timings for the next run. With so many timezones to consider, it is helpful to know what works best for you.

The information was presented really well and you are both super knowledgable about teaching to diverse groups. It was great to get your insight.

Trainee 2021

We are looking for companies with experience in developing music software to help us take Figurenotes to the next level.

An exciting opportunity has arisen to help us modernise our Figurenotes software as part of our programme: Figurenotes – Everyone Can Play!

Drake Music Scotland welcomes bids from qualified organisations and individuals to transform our existing downloadable Figurenotes application into a web-based application that fully delivers the existing functions and provides required and suggested improvements.

Figurenotes© Software promotes inclusion across the spectrum of music-making opportunities and differentiation within them.  By moving to a web-based system we are opening up accessibility to more devices and more learners, increasing accessible music education worldwide.

The required web-based application will allow a worldwide user-group to create, compose, playback, print, and share scores. The ability to access Figurenotes© Software and files anywhere via an internet connection will allow a diverse range of people to access music and encourage collaboration.

Closing date is 9am on 31/05/2021 

You can view the full software brief here.

The successful contractor will preferably have:  

• Experience of developing user-friendly, online applications  
• Knowledge and experience of music software  
• Understanding of the context faced by charity and social agencies  
• C++ Experience (original code is written in C++)
• Experience of programming languages/frameworks compatible with browser-based software
• Minimum of 2 years’ experience in software development  

Submission Requirements  

• A demonstration of your understanding of the brief.  
• Explanation of programming language/framework choices
• A detailed methodology indicating the number of days proposed for each task by  each member of the team.  
• An outline project plan, including review points  
• Details of approach to quality assurance (including adherence to timescales and the  quality of key outputs) and any relevant procedures/accreditation and how these will be applied to this project.  
• Details of personnel who will undertake the work, giving particulars of experience and  skills, including any sub-contractors you intend to use.  
• At least two examples of previous work that you feel display the skills you would  bring to this project. These should not include examples of work previously done for Drake Music Scotland.  
• How you will deal with data protection, accessibility, information governance, and security systems  
• Risk assessment and mitigation that includes those risks associated with most  application development projects, as well as those particularly relevant to this piece of work  
• An accurate breakdown of all costs including daily rates and expenses and any  VAT applicable, including VAT relating to subcontractors  
• Ongoing costs to run application, including any technical support costs.  

If you think this could be the role for you, please get in touch with the team at figurenotes@drakemusicscotland.org. Help us make the best software we can by sharing this post with your networks.

Please contact us for various accessible formats of the brief, stating your preferred format – larger font or word document. The PDF below is an accessible PDF containing alt text. If you have any other access needs or questions, please email us at figurenotes@drakemusicscotland.org.

Thanks to ScottishPower Foundation for supporting Figurenotes – Everyone Can Play.

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