Figurenotes

Adam Featherstone, a teacher from Middlesbrough, tells us how he used music from Harry Potter to inspire a creative project with BBC Philharmonic musicians (pictured above with a musician from Priory Woods).

I started to use Figurenotes in March of 2015 starting with whole class electronic keyboards, using single note melodies. I quickly progressed to getting the coloured shape notation sticker packs and placing them onto any instrument I could find. This ranged from chime bars to adapting some of our guitars to play open chords.

I am the music teacher in Priory Woods which is an SEN school in Middlesbrough for students with a mixture of special educational needs aged 4-19. These range from PMLD to SLD, however I feel the Figurenotes approach is suitable to both primary and secondary teachers as a good way to introduce students to practical music making. The only difference would be to change the difficulty of the material used.

We have used Figurenotes in a variety of ways. One such example has been to progress our post 16 music option students s to play rock and pop songs. I have written out songs by Green Day and The Clash, mostly chords. As a result they may take part in our end of year school show and hopefully at a battle of the bands next year. Most recently I have set up an inclusive orchestra using a mixture of hard to reach pupils using technology such as ICT, eye gaze, and traditional music instruments. This has held Figurenotes at its core.

We have recently had the pleasure of welcoming 3 musicians from the BBC Philharmonic into school for a day of workshops before a performance in the afternoon. We started the day exploring a simple melody taken from Harry Potter. I transposed this for some of the musicians quite easily using the software. The musicians took a few minutes to get to grips with the coloured notation, but settled in very quickly.

We had a student conduct our students and BBC Philharmonic musicians to create a rather beautifully layered composition. This gave us some ideas about how to progress the day, as our next steps fed into group composition using the entire ensemble, with iPads taking the lead with solos using the app ThumbJam. We also had a student on an eye gaze machine taking a solo. He was delighted to be able to take part. These students responded fantastically to whole group integrated work. One BBC Philharmonic musician conducted whilst the other 2 took solos on flute and trumpet during the piece and gave encouragement to the pupils.

Every person on that stage was valued as an equal and had an integral part to play, whatever their ability or experience. Each musician used Figurenotes. I hope to develop this ensemble at the start of the new school year, adding more ICT, samples, instrumentation and student musicians.

Adam sent us a lovely email saying “Without Figurenotes it would not have been possible. Thank you.” Thank you to Adam for sharing the ways in which he has used Figurenotes. If you’d like to share your ideas then please get in touch.

Find Adam on Twitter @eponymousdrums

Most teachers and Figurenoters tell us that tutorial videos are the best thing for them to learn from (apart from our excellent training days). We have been busy updating our old Figurenotes software tutorials on YouTube. Some have already gone up, but we would love to take your suggestions for more! If you have any suggestions then please get in touch via our Facebook page, Facebook group, Twitter, or email. No request too small or too simple.

To see all our YouTube videos, visit our Figurenotes channel here. There is a specific playlist just for the software, but feel free to explore our other videos, from training through to Figurenotes Stars. We would love you to send us some videos of your pupils, children, or even yourselves, using Figurenotes. We might even add you to our ‘Figurenotes Stars’ playlist!

Get in touch now.

This Sunday, we will be setting off bright and early to the EPTA conference in Edinburgh. To those not in the know, EPTA is the European Piano Teachers Association.

After chatting with EPTA at the Music Education Expo in February, they got very excited about the potential of Figurenotes for their members, and invited us to this Sunday’s conference.

We are really looking forward to talking to lots of new piano teachers, opening up their teaching practices to new methods of teaching, and promoting inclusivity in music education.

There is also a surprise new product that we’ll be selling, which is particularly useful for piano teachers. If you are a member of our Facebook group ‘Figurenotes – Let’s Make Music’, then you will have had a sneak peak already. We will release more information soon, so keep your eyes and ears open.

We love watching the end of this video. People often start off scared, thinking they are ‘unmusical’ or that they can’t do it. That feeling doesn’t last long with Figurenotes.

That moment when you think you aren’t musical…

…and you discover you can play with Figurenotes!

Our Music Teacher’s Toolbox was a huge success last Saturday! Not only did we explore how to make the most of those minuscule music department budgets, but we rocked out to everything from Prince to the King of Pop. Our participants arrived with limited or no knowledge of the software and left us Figurenotey technical whizz kids, excited to go and create their own scores.

“It’s given me a wealth of ideas to take away. The balance between listening to presentations and information, and practical, creative elements was really good. Really enjoyable. Thanks for a great day. It was a lovely relaxed atmosphere.’

It seems everyone left feeling inspired.

“Excellent! Gave me lots of good ideas to try and inspired me to explore more in the future too. All very useful. Session on software was particularly helpful and the opportunity to meet other in the sector was very enjoyable. A good atmosphere. Very inspiring!”

“This workshop has opened up a wealth of possibilities for me to be able to use with my group. I found this amazingly useful and am feeling excited about trying all the new ideas and skills. Thank you very much for today. Very much appreciated.”

Thank you to everyone who came. Remember, if you’d like training, we can provide bespoke training to your school or organisation. Alternatively, come along to our Music Teacher’s Toolbox training days. These run twice a year and are for individuals and small groups to come together, learn, and share. Great CPD from the leaders in inclusive music – Drake Music Scotland. For more information, see our training pages.

Keep an eye on our YouTube channel for wee videos

The nicest part of our job here at Figurenotes HQ is when we go out into the big, wide world and share our knowledge of inclusive music education. That magic spark when you see a fire light behind the eyes of a music teacher or practitioner, knowing that what they do with that inspiration will change the lives of their pupils.

We have a pretty full schedule when it comes to training and projects, whether for organisations or schools. We recently did some bespoke training for the Tinderbox Project, Beatroute Arts, the DASH Club, and Aberdeenshire Council. Our upcoming training for teachers in the Scottish Borders will be fun!

Our ever-popular Music Teacher’s Toolbox days are special to us, because they bring together individuals from different organisations, as well as freelance musicians and teachers. Bringing together people from all forms of music education, some of whom often feel quite alone in their area of work, is so beneficial in terms of sharing ideas, good practice, and networking. We are building a wonderful community of Figurenoters, particularly in Scotland, where we see so many people returning each and every course, always excited about what they will get out of it this time round.

If you haven’t got your CPD booked yet, and would love to be inspired by Figurenotes, then enquire through the training pages. Limited places also available on the Music Teacher’s Toolbox on 23rd April, 2016.

Apologies to any customers experiencing problems with Figurenotes software v3.  Some issues have been reported, which can’t be fixed immediately, so we are withdrawing it from sale for the time being.  We will be in touch with those of you affected directly and if you experience any problems, please let us know, as this information is very useful.

In the meantime, you can buy the previous version of the software for the cheaper price of £35.  If you want access to other tunes and resources then you should consider a subscription to our Resource Base.  This is regularly updated and great value for less than £2 a month.

We will of course keep you updated on progress so keep a look out for news, particularly via our mailing list.  We are truly sorry that we have had to take this action, as we know some of you have been waiting patiently for the new software.  Please get in touch with us via laurenclay@drakemusicscotland.org if you have any feedback, comments, or questions.

We cannot wait for April 23rd. Why? Because Music Teacher’s Toolbox is back!

Come and join us for some seriously inspirational CPD from the experts at Drake Music Scotland. This training day is perfect for all music practitioners, educators, therapists, and community musicians. The full programme can be found here.

• Get a tutorial using the new Figurenotes software

• Learn how to use Figurenotes on a shoestring, making your budget go further

• Get creative with Figurenotes, especially useful when your department is lacking in resources

• Loads more interactive, inspirational, and adaptable ideas and sessions.

Book early to avoid disappointment. This is a hugely popular day and space is limited.

Remember that all members of the Resource Base get 10% off these training days.

Book now

To stay up to date on v3, please join our mailing list

Improvements to the new software will include:

• Triplets – This opens up a whole new world of pieces to play. A little bit overexcited about finding all the pieces with triplets in. First stop, Mars!
• Text Boxes – Moveable text boxes allow greater control over instruction and expression markings. They also work brilliantly for second verse lyrics.
• Expression Palette – Fantastic for adding extra expression markings, such as dynamics and articulation. This is particularly good for developing more towards standard notation.
• Improved Stability – Lots of fixed bugs and improvements, including the problem with the moving page in the Windows version.

We will also have value bundles of 10 or 20 copies, each licensed to two computers. These offer great value and are brilliant for organisations and schools.

We recently sent three of our Figurenotes gurus down to London to spread the word at the Music Education Expo 2016. Welcome to all those that we chatted to on our stall. Welcome to our community of Figurenoters and brilliant teachers, musicians, and all-round inspirational people. Join our Facebook group if you want more contact with others.

Figurenotes was a finalist for Best SEND Resource in the Music Teacher Awards for Excellence. Sadly, we didn’t win this year. Well done to all the finalists and winners at the awards. It was lovely to be surrounded by people doing such fantastic work.

Thank you to those that nominated us for this award. It is so lovely to have our hard work recognised. All the staff at Drake Music Scotland, the charity behind these resources, send a big thank you to you all.