Mark Browne and Jill Reeves have been using Figurenotes to great effect at Craigmarloch School, so we asked them to share their experience.

Figurenotes has revolutionised music here at Craigmarloch School. Its visual style and literal colour-matching logic has engaged pupils at all ages, stages and levels, and it has become integral to learning across the school. At Craigmarloch, a school for young people with a wide range of Additional Support Needs, music is a key part of the curriculum for every young person (aged 4 -18). As a teacher new to the school, and enthused by the possibilities of Figurenotes, I have been keen to embed Figurenotes within a curriculum that enables learners to achieve early to second levels of Curriculum for Excellence. I have seen for myself the difference that it has made to learning here and it has opened the door for young people to experience a much greater variety of music making experiences.

The first challenge of this was setting up the classroom and the instruments to be ready for young people to use Figurenotes from the start of the current school year. Of course, there have been colour coded notation schemes in existence before – the evidence of this was there in the many stickers that embellished the keyboards and glockenspiels throughout the classroom. In order to “launch” Figurenotes effectively, these needed to be painstakingly removed and replaced, a long and laborious process involving nail varnish remover and lighter fluid! Actually it turned out that metal polish worked best, so perhaps this is a useful “hot tip” for anyone yet to begin their journey into the realm of Figurenotes!

Having done this, it was time to create new resources designed around the new notation system. The first of these was a keyboard course that I hoped would (a) encourage young people to start with a secure hand position on notes C to G and (b) enable pupils with a range of abilities to be able to play together even at an early stage in their learning. With its three distinct stages, Figurenotes seems custom built for differentiation and this has meant that more able pupils would be able to see the progression to standard notation. So I began the process of composing simple keyboard pieces – with silly titles like “Semibreve Siesta” – and printing them in all stages of Figurenotes. The course comprises seven pieces – the first four of which can be played together – and move to an arrangement of the Largo from Dvorak’s New World Symphony. All pieces involve fingers 1 to 5 in the right hand and gradually progress from a first piece using four beat notes only to the final piece using a range of different note lengths.

Figurenotes has also been embedded into more diverse schemes of work. A unit on riffs and ostinatos was produced, using Figurenotes exclusively. A study of Mars from the Planets involves clapping the opening rhythm using Figurenotes – a challenge to create, using a 15 beat bar; not the way Holst wrote it of course, but effective and accessible – while later on in the unit, differentiated parts for Billie Jean and Smoke on the Water were produced.   One of the most popular recent songs in the school, Uptown Funk, forms the final group performance of the book. The different riffs are presented separately with a final “solo” keyboard version using Stage 3 of Figurenotes.

Doing this can all be achieved by simply using the Figurenotes software, but if you want to get your musical examples into a booklet format, using the screenshot tool in Microsoft Word and selecting screen clipping means you can do just that. This enables you to add (for example) pictures, words of explanation, cross-referencing numbers linking to Experiences and Outcomes (!), or artistic use of borders and shading. The same method can be used to insert music onto PowerPoint, especially useful if you are guiding learners through a unit and are using Figurenotes to exemplify particular concepts.

None of this seems revolutionary in any way, but I hope this has shown how Figurenotes can be used as an intrinsic part of the music curriculum, rather than as an add-on extra. At Craigmarloch, standard notation still forms part of the music curriculum, particularly for more advanced learners, so it was important to me that any new notation system would form part of a logical progression to reading and understanding standard music notation. With its different stages, Figurenotes does offer this, and it gives all learners – with or without Additional Support Needs – an accessible way to enjoy, and benefit from, a diverse range of musical experiences.

Mark Browne – Music Teacher, Craigmarloch School

We’ll make all of Mark’s resources available through the Resource Base, so you can download them and get cracking. Don’t forget to order your stickers for the classroom and download the software to help you create resources of your own. Thanks for sharing, Mark.

At Drake Music Scotland, the charity behind Figurenotes, we love using Thumbjam. Obviously, we love using Figurenotes too, so we wanted to find a way to combine the two. Our Associate Musician, Clare Johnston, came up with a brilliant way to use Figurenotes with Thumbjam on the iPad.

Clare is a bit of a Thumbjam virtuoso. Watch her perform her beautiful composition for three voices on Thumbjam.

For Clare’s full instructions on how to combine Thumbjam with Figurenotes, take a look in the Resource Base.

Clare created an underlay, which can be used with Thumbjam to show Figurenotes, just like in the image above. In order to do this, you will need a graphics editor capable of layers and transparency. Clare’s tutorial uses Adobe Draw on the iPad (free), cutting out the need for extra costs and an additional Mac or PC.

Set Thumbjam to the correct scale, octave, and span that you’ll be using for your piece; take a screenshot of this. Open the image in Adobe Draw so that it fills the whole screen. By creating new layers and adding a blue tint, Figurenotes shapes and colours, and setting them in the correct place on the screen, Clare has come up with a way to incorporate Figurenotes notation into Thumbjam performance. Once this process is complete, the original screenshot image is deleted, leaving you with an underlay for your Thumbjam screen.

Before moving across to the Thumbjam app, check whether the underlay image fills the whole screen by opening it using your Photos app. Then you are ready to move your underlay into Thumbjam.

• Open Thumbjam
• Go to the Preferences menu
• Click on Options
• Scroll down to Background Image
• Click on Custom
• Find your underlay image and click to use

The Figurenotes shape will disappear when you play that note, so some players may take some time to get used to this. They reappear as soon as you release the note.

Now marvel in the brilliance and simplicity of Figurenotes with Thumbjam. You could create several of these images for setups you use often, which means you can choose from a library of images without having to complete this process every time you want to combine Figurenotes with Thumbjam. Store the images on your iPad and you can call them up whenever they are needed. Remember you can get full, detailed instructions on the Resource Base.

Thank you, Clare!

You can now book your place on our award-winning training:

Music Teacher’s Toolbox – Saturday 18th November, 2017, 10:00 – 16:00.

Whether you are an experienced Figurenoter or you are just starting out, you will leave with a head full of ideas and inspiration.

There is so much to be gained from our expert trainers from Drake Music Scotland, and from each other. Come to network, find support, and gain new ideas to incorporate into your own work. This day is perfect for those teaching ASN/SEND, as well as those in mainstream education.

“Immensely useful. Gained loads of confidence, motivation, and success! Loads of ideas as to how to implement this work within our charity. Everyone was extremely helpful and enthusiastic. Thank you so much. A very interesting and informative day.”

We can’t wait to see you there! 

Places are limited, as we feel these days work best with small groups, so book now to avoid disappointment.

Join us in Edinburgh for a full day of Figurenotes training for £64.99. Resource Base members get a special price of £58.49 by using the code RB2017. Join the Resource Base to get this special price, as well as access to our online library of resources with unlimited downloads. You can get access for a whole year for just £23.99.

Our award-winning training is back!

Due to a flurry of recent training enquiries, we thought we should open booking for November’s Music Teacher’s Toolbox. This time around, Resource Base members get exclusive access to pre-sale booking. Only a limited amount of places will be released, so make sure you grab yours early.

All members of the Resource Base will be sent an email on 25th May containing a link to the online booking form. Complete this form to reserve your training place. Payments can be made when places go on general release on 1st June. Contact Lauren if you don’t receive an email and feel you should have; please remember to check your junk folders first.

You can also use your Resource Base members’ discount code, RB2017, to get 10% off.

The programme is still being finalised, so if there is anything you’d like to see then please let us know in the booking form. We love to tailor these days to the people coming along, so get in early to get the most out of this award-winning CPD.

Not a Resource Base member? You can sign up here, getting access to our library of downloadable resources, discounts, and access to pre-sale booking.

We can’t wait to see you for some more Figurenotes fun!

It’s not every day you get to workshop with a Grammy award winning musician. Michael League from Snarky Puppy kindly gave up his morning in Glasgow to work with members of Drake Music Scotland’s Digital Orchestra. This group uses all kinds of technologies to compose, play, and perform music: Notion and switches, iPads, synths, and more. Some of the members use Figurenotes, which helps them to compose patterns and ideas, creating a score to aid performance. The members of Digital Orchestra had a brilliant time. The importance of interesting bass lines and how they can change the feel of the music was a big learning point. They also learned a lot about improvisation and cues, as well as how to lead and follow. Leading a band that uses improvisation on a daily basis, this is something Michael is very experienced in. He had some really interesting nuggets of information to pass on. Thanks for a brilliant time, Michael. It was lovely to see such a mix of instruments working so well together. Everyone was really starting to see where their sound could be used within the piece, learning to lead and follow one another. If you haven’t seen Snarky Puppy live yet, pop it on the bucket list. They are phenomenal.

Creativity needs nurturing. Parents and teachers often put the focus on technique and ‘getting it right’. I admit that I often get bogged down with this when teaching my violin pupils. Lots of older pupils get nervous when asked to compose or improvise, which can be a hangover from the ‘getting it right’ approach, prevalent in schools and at home. They are self-conscious and worried about getting something wrong. If we do not let pupils’ creativity flourish, then how can they be expected to put their own emotion and musicality into their playing? How can we expect them to be brave and create?

Figurenotes is made for creativity, with its many colours and shapes. We can use these colours to help pupils tell their own story through music. Below is one way in which this can be done in the classroom, but easily adapted for small groups or 1:1.

Set up your workspace into pods containing Figurenoted instruments, such as chime bars, keyboards, guitars, and hand percussion. You can adapt the complexity of these instruments, depending on how advanced the pupils are.

Divide your class into small groups. Each group is given a printed image, selected at random or picked by a member of the group, which they take to their pod of instruments. Give each group a time limit to come up with a piece of music based on the image they have. Half an hour is often a good length of time.

There are so many paintings, photographs, and other artworks online that you could use as inspiration. Abstract art is often best for this activity. Look out for images containing Figurenotes shapes and/or colours. Print them as large as you can, laminated, as the group may be using it as a graphic score.

We find that some groups want to use a magnetic whiteboard with Figurenotes magnets and whiteboard pens. This is an easier way to record exactly what they mean to play. A conductor could be chosen, who would guide the group through the performance by pointing at the appropriate section of the image/whiteboard/score.

Then it is performance time! Let each group show the image they have used, perform their piece, and then discuss the reasoning for their composition. Were they matching the colours? Did they pick up a mood from the image that they tried to conjure in the music? Nurture their reasoning and ask questions about how and why they chose to do certain things. Was it a happy piece? Did they change dynamic at any point? Why?

Depending on the ability of the class, you can develop this activity using more complex images, instrumentation, or moving on to poems and film.

We have often used this activity to train teachers and support workers and have found that they are initially terrified. Once they have a little guidance on how to unpick the image – find the colours, find the mood, play with sounds – they have flourished. The pride at the end of the session is always my favourite thing about this exercise.

To make this a multi-disciplinary exercise, try painting images first, or taking photographs of colourful patterns found in nature or in your school. You could integrate maths by discussing tessellation and using Figurenotes shapes to do that. You could write poems or stories and develop music for them. Creating your own sources of inspiration can help from a copyright point of view too, as you need to make sure the images chosen are in the public domain. A quick Google search of colours, shapes, and abstract art should give you a few results, but you can take a look at the National Galleries’ website for inspiration. Search for contrasting images and the emotions often associated with the colours – bleak grey, bright red, calming blue, harsh black, optimistic yellow, etc. Mondrian is a perfect start for nervous pupils, as much of his work is a Figurenotes score in itself!

Try this out with your pupils and share your results with us in the Facebook group. Keep it simple at the start in order to keep fear and nerves at bay. You can build up later, once you’ve gauged what level your group is at when it comes to unleashing their inner composer!

“It has been so awesome! Having fun just reminded me to be using Figurenotes more. Loved it all!”

“Renewed enthusiasm with new ideas and different ways of working. Excellent day. Great fun. Well done!”

“Thank you so much for a brilliant and inspiring day! Loads of questions answered. The presenters were great!”

We had an absolute ball at the Music Teacher’s Toolbox on Saturday 25th March. Thank you to all those that travelled from across the world to be with us. The record for most miles travelled firmly lies with our Australian participant.

During these CPD days, we like to solidify what we’ve learned throughout the course in a big play-together at the end. This group played a cracking rendition of Nancy Sinatra’s These Boots Are Made For Walking, with everyone trying all the instruments available, from bass guitar to keyboards, ipads to percussion. This will be made available through the Resource Base, for those that couldn’t make the course. We whizzed through some Ray Charles, a bit of Stand By Me, and even managed to slip in The Police during a mash-up.

Fiona Sharp showed us how to move from Figurenotes to standard notation, bring creativity and fun into the process. Emma Lines helped bring numeracy into our music lessons by exploring pulse and rhythm, with repertoire from BBC Ten Pieces. Lauren Clay led a hands-on session, walking everyone through the Figurenotes software to enable them to make their own resources. All of this was topped off by rhythm games, which got very silly indeed (sheep noises galore), forming Figurenotes bands, and more.

Feedback has been wonderful, as always. Remember to save the date for the next edition of Music Teacher’s Toolbox. The next one will be Saturday, 18th November 2017. Sign up to our newsletter to be the first to find out when booking opens. We always get fully booked, so make sure you get your place before they all get snapped up. Everyone on the waiting list for March 25th will have the opportunity to book first for the November date.

Thanks to everyone that came and made it such an enjoyable day. Remember that lots of the resources will be available to download from the Resource Base.

In part 3 of her series of guest blogs, Matilda Brown lets us peek behind the scenes at her work with pupils from Hampden Primary School. You can see tips and ideas of how to get to this step by reading parts 1 and 2 of this series.

Part 3 – Composing at Hampden

Fun with colours, fun with shapes…an unstoppable urge to play that tune again

As mentioned throughout this series, I am working with two groups at Hampden Primary School. I showed both groups an example of how to make a simple Figurenotes tune. I chose 3 notes in front of the pupils, from middle C (red circle) to the C above (red triangle). I moved the order of them around and played these different orders on the keyboard until, as a group, we were all happy with the order of the notes/colours/shapes of the tune.

This introduction was useful, as the pupils recognised the colours and shapes from their warm-ups and were very comfortable with the task. They seemed to identify how to make up a tune using colours they were already familiar with. The pupils voluntarily wanted to choose their own 3 colours. I played some of their tunes on the keyboard and put my own accompaniment to them. It was a lot of fun and very easy.

Over the weeks we have selected two songs we would like to develop. Group 1 loves their animal song and group 2 created exciting words for our Pirate Song. Group 2’s piece is more developed. We have recorded our own samples, using our voices saying some Pirate words, sounds and rhymes. We have put these recordings on switches and created an exciting sea soundscape using switches and percussion.

Composing our first tune with Figurenotes

Most pupils chose colours, then played them on the piano or xylophone. I was really impressed with how quickly they follower their colours. They moved the colours around until they decided on the pitch order they liked best. We introduced rhythm, note length, and timing after this initial process.

One pupil improvised to the Pirate Song’s chord structure, which meant he chose his notes by playing them, then looked to see which colours matched the notes.

Below are three examples of how different approaches work with different pupils. If you come across disinterested and distracted pupils, connect with what they like to do or are doing at that moment. There is always a way to connect.

Abigail

When working one to one with Abigail, I didn’t think she would stay in the room without her peers, and I certainly didn’t expect her to choose colours. She was very happy and enjoyed seeing all the coloured stickers laid out in front of her.

We sang the song we had been working on in our group work. This helped to engage her in the harmony of the composition. The task gained momentum quickly. The more colours she selected, the more excited she became. We made two tunes and she chose her favourite. Expression was brought in when Abigail decided her tune was going to be loud and represented an elephant. She wanted the tune to be played slowly, with the last note sustained.

Cameron

Cameron usually likes to observe and listen, rather than take part. In our one to one session, I told him all he had to do today was pick a colour. Without further prompting, he said ‘grey’ and pointed to it.

“How many colours do I have to pick?”, he asked. I said he could choose as many as he liked, but I could see that this confused him. I suggest we pick 3 to start with. He chose 3 colours, put them on the piano, then played it perfectly. It was amazing. Cameron has never played piano before and doesn’t usually join in the group straight away, so this was excellent.

Paul

Paul created his Figurenotes tune through improvising on the piano. We played and sang the Pirate Song, that he had helped to write in the group. This helped centre him in the right harmony and sound. I suggested that his improvisation would work best for this song if he used the white keys on the piano. He played for a while, taking this on board.

We then selected the notes/colours he seemed to use the most in his improvisation. We used the coloured icons, so Paul could move them around to create his tune. He added more and finally came up with his tune and a structure with the song.

There are many ways to connect with pupils’ creativity and get composing. The pupils I was working with have ASN/SEND, but everything I have discussed can be used for mainstream pupils too. Get composing with your pupils, regardless of the setting. You’ll be amazed at what can be achieved using Figurenotes as a tool.

Did you miss parts 1 and 2? Read all our guest blogs, full of advice and teaching inspiration. 

Last week, composer and community musician, Matilda Brown, laid out how she introduced Figurenotes and the idea of matching to her music groups. If you missed it, you can read about it in last week’s blog post. In part 2 of the series, Matilda tells us about Figurenotes from a composer’s perspective. 

Part 2 – A Composer’s Perspective

Fun with colour, fun with shapes, mosaic patterns…a tune to make

I find it very simple to compose with Figurenotes. I not only write tunes with pupils, but I also use Figurenotes for my own compositions. It’s good to use different methods of writing, it keeps you fresh and makes you hear things differently – and colours make it fun!! I remember the comedy writer and director (Father Ted, IT Crowd, Black Books) Graham Lineham saying to make the writing process fun by using colour and big pieces of paper – to kid yourself you are having fun, because the idea of writing something from scratch can be very daunting and tedious.

Sometimes this is what I feel when writing in standard black and white notation. Figurenotes makes it easier for me to make sketches and short tunes that can be developed later. It can get “serious” sometimes working with standard notation and it can make you write things you think you should be writing rather than what you really want to write. It can over-complicate an initial fun and exploratory process.

Pupils, with a number of ways to learn, can work with Figurenotes immediately. It makes composing fun, simple, and rewarding straight away. For example: Choosing 3 colours, any 3 colours, playing them back, moving them around until you like what you hear is fun and creative. As facilitator, it’s then up to you to create the next platform in which the pupils can develop their tunes. Introducing rhythm and how the spacing of Figurenotes works, how to make notes longer and shorter, how arrows can give you even more options for notes, and how chords can fit with tunes.

You not only need to be able to help the pupils find their tune, but you need to be able to “hear” what the pupil is composing. That is what makes a good facilitator – waiting long enough until you know what they are trying to achieve and then helping them move forwards, whether that is deciding which key or mode fits their tune, or finding chords that might work well as an accompaniment.

If you find too much freedom with the pupils a little daunting for yourself as facilitator, you can give the pupils a specific palette to work from (e.g. the notes that fit the mode or scale of a song or piece of music you have already created in a group, or the tonic note to start and end the tune if necessary) Then it is simply a matter of building and developing the tune or chords from there.

It’s just like how many composers work; adding or taking away until you have the tune you desire. You must work intuitively with the pupils and observe all their choices when composing with them.

If the composer/pupil likes to work in a more theoretical and considered way right from the outset, through processed composition perhaps, Figurenotes allows you to do this too. You can choose colours first and create patterns from the colours before you even hear them.

But most of all, keep it fun!

Next week, Matilda will be showing us how she develops creativity and composition skills in her pupils at Hampden Primary School. You can see the rest of our guest blogs on our Figurenews page.

In a new series of guest blogs, Matilda Brown, composer and community musician, gives us an insight into how she uses Figurenotes with pupils. Matilda uses her work in special schools to demonstrate particular ways into using Figurenotes, which work wonders with beginners of all ages. Look out for part 2 and 3 over the next couple of weeks. 

Part 1 – Introducing Figurenotes to Group Music

Fun with colour, fun with shapes

I love getting to know my new music groups through fun warm-ups, singing songs, conducting games, and improvisation. No matter what level of musical experience the pupils have had in the past, this kind of group work creates an inclusive environment where everyone’s musical say is important. This practice also helps the pupils become aware of each other in the space, get to know each other’s likes and dislikes, and how it feels to put sounds together in practice for playing in a band.

Where does Figurenotes come in?

Figurenotes can become part of this initial process. Here are a few example of how I introduce Figurenotes to groups:

• Colour Song Warm-up – Introducing colour through a song. Pupils love singing about their favourite colours.

Benefits: Introducing Figurenotes colours through a song can really help pupils to become comfortable working with colour in the future.

• Play What You See – Pupils choose a colour. They then choose an instrument and match the instrument to their colour. When their colour is held up by the conductor, they play their instrument.

Benefits: It’s fun! This starts to introduce the pupils to following colours and can help with following a Figurenotes score. You can also introduce call and response technique.

• Two Colour Conductor – Each pupil selects an instrument. The pupils are split into two groups; each group selecting a colour. For example, Group 1 is red (C) and group 2 is blue (F). When the conductor holds up the Figurenotes red circle, group 1 will play their instruments. You can introduce a chime bar that matches these pitches, so that your pupils start to recognise the pitch of the colour.

Benefits: Pupils begin to hear red as C and blue as F, as well as practising following both colour and the conductor. They also have to be aware of what the others in their group are playing, try to play together musically, whether playing to a beat or playing without a beat.

I develop this game by using different Figurenotes shapes to introduce octaves. I also use guitar chords C and F, for example, as an accompaniment. This helps the pupils hear the pitch of the note with the chords.

There are many other ways to use Figurenotes in warm-up exercises. You could focus on rhythm, learning about rests and sustaining notes. This is easily done using a short rhythm in a Figurenotes bar/box.

Examples from my work in Hampden Primary:

I work with two groups at Hampden and we use some of these warm-ups in our groups.

Group 1 love using their bodies to move to music. They like copying a leader/conductor. After working like this to a simple backing track, I assigned each pupil a colour. They would move their bodies when the conductor held up their colour. This was fun and gave them freedom to move to the accompaniment any way they liked. The pupils were learning about following colour and playing in turn. Their bodies became the instruments to simple Figurenotes notation.

In my second group, Paul was the conductor and he wanted to know how long to hold up the colour for. This was a great question! We decided that Red would be played for 1-5 seconds and Blue would be played for 2-8 seconds. The pupils love counting, so I started to introduce different length notes and rests.

After getting to know my groups, we start to write our own songs and structured pieces of music. It’s also productive to schedule in one to one composing and performing sessions, creating new tunes or finishing songs we started as a group. This is when I use Figurenotes a lot. I’ll explain more on this subject in part 3.

You can read the next stage of Matilda‘s blog, A Composer’s Perspective, next week. The final blog will explore composition with her groups at Hampden Primary School.