Rhythm is so intuitive with Figurenotes – the note is as long as it looks!

So how does it all fit together?

Our newest #FigurenotesChallenge aims to help you/your students understand the relationship between different rhythms through this gentle movement activity. This is the first in a series of videos designed to develop rhythmic skills whilst promoting a healthy activity you can do at home.

You can use our FREE supporting resources on rhythm to create your own rhythm words or movements for each rhythm. Make it your own, or play along as it is. You can use your instruments to play along, or use the movements suggested in the video. Whatever works for you or your students.

Go on and have a wee go! Then share your findings with us. Drop us a line at figurenotes@drakemusicscotland.org or share on your favourite social platform. Tag us @Figurenotes and use the hashtags #FigurenotesChallenge or #FigurenotesAtHome. We will post our favourites on our Twitter and Facebook pages.

Figurenotes HQ would like to extend a huge thank you to everyone who took part in our first #FigurenotesChallenge. It was great to see you all showing your support for our #FrontlineWorkers by sharing your renditions of Somewhere Over The Rainbow alongside a huge number of young people all over Scotland.

Here are just some of the fabulous entries.

Arn’t they fantastic?! Well done to everyone involved.

Wanna give Figurenotes a try? Download our FREE RESOURCES to get you started.

Follow us on Twitter and Facebook to keep an eye out for our next #FigurenotesChallenge announcement coming very soon…

On Thursday 30th April at 8pm, musicians all over Scotland are going to pick up their instruments and show their appreciation for our NHS and other frontline workers by having a great big play-along!

This national event named the Over The Rainbow Project has been organised by MEPG (The Music Education Partnership Group) and will encourage musicians in Scotland to play “Somewhere Over The Rainbow” together. Instrumental Music Teachers all over Scotland will be providing parts and backing tracks for a range of instruments and in a variety of keys. You can find parts and backing tracks – including Figurenotes resources HERE.

Want to get involved? Then we’ve got you covered! We have Figurenotes parts available as part of our FREE RESOURCES BUNDLE and will be posting scores on our Facebook and Twitter channels in the run up to the event.

We would love to hear your renditions so please share them with us. You can post them on your chosen social media platform and tag @Figurenotes and use the hashtag #FigurenotesChallenge or you can email them to us directly at figurenotes@drakemusicscotland.org

Staying home comes with some challenges, but one HUGE positive is we can still make music. You might even have more time on your hands to practise! This is a great time to pick up that new instrument, learn a new piece, or finally nail that beast of a drum fill you have always dreamed of playing.

So dust off your instrument and get your hands on our bundle of FREE resources here. These are ideal for teachers to send to their students too – a great support for those adapting to online teaching.

In addition to these free resources, we will be posting lots of lovely musical challenges on our social media channels for you to join in with, so make sure you follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. We’ll be sharing the best responses to our challenges, so share them with us by tagging us and using the hashtag #FigurenotesAtHome.

Furthermore, we are actively taking requests for tunes and resources to share with you all. For everything we share with you all, we’ll be posting the editable files in the Resource Base for our members, making it easy to adapt them to your pupils’ needs.

Got brilliant ideas you would like to share? Join our Facebook group Figurenotes – Let’s Make Music! and we can help each other stay connected and inspired. Also, keep an eye out for some nifty tutorials on our YouTube channel.

Drop us a line if there is anything you’d like to see, share, or tell us! Email us at figurenotes@drakemusicscotland.org #Staysafe

ThumbJam is undoubtedly one of the greatest apps of all time! This much has always been known amongst music botherers. With over 40 exclusive real instrument samples and hundreds of ready-to-load scales, the flexibility and sensitivity of the app allow for a level of musical expression equal to a traditional instrument. Perfect for beginners and virtuosos alike. S

Here are just a few of the features:

“ThumbJam makes use of tilt and shake to add vibrato, tremolo, note bends, and volume swells for more realistic and expressive results. It supports up to eleven (or five on iPhone) simultaneous touches and up to 24 voice polyphony per instrument. You can even load more instruments simultaneously and split the screen to play them. Delay and lush stereo reverb add depth to the sound. Put on your headphones or plug in to your home stereo and prepare to be blown away.”

In fact, ThumbJam was so good upon first release, it has survived a long stint without any need for drastic changes and updates.

Until now! And guess what they decided to pop into their latest update? Figurenotes integration!! That’s right, now you can add Figurenotes shapes. colours or both to your ThumbJam session. It only takes a few clicks.

Here is Karen, a member of Drake Music Scotland ensembles and fantastic iPad musician, explaining how it all works:

Why not try ThumbJam and Figurenotes in your music sessions?

For more information give us a call on 0131 659 4766 or drop us an email figurenotes@drakemusicscotland.org

Watch this beautiful video of Clare Johnston’s performance of her own composition for Thumbjam.

As we wrap up our final Music Teachers Toolbox Training Day of 2019, one of our favourite things to do here at Figurenotes HQ is to read the lovely feedback we receive from our participants!

It was wonderful! The facility is amazing in terms of the equipment and all the staff were kind and inspiring! 

For me it’s the notion of using the colours, giving that more room when delivering activities. The simplicity. 

Excellent for finding resources and inspiration. Meeting with other musicians working in a variety of settings. 

It has been an invaluable learning experience learning to use Figurenotes as I have now a better understanding of the system. Keep doing what you do! 

This time around, we were feeling a little festive! Our creative sessions were jam packed with festive fun, using festive films and pictures to create original compositions. Our play together session included a little festive treat in the form of Last Christmas by George Michael and a real ear worm in the form of our Figurenotes song!

But what really makes these days special are the people that come along. We welcomed people travelling from Glasgow, Brighton, Aberdeen and even further afield with people travelling from Denmark and New York City to attend our to attend our training day! It is their enthusiasm for making inclusive music that inspires us to keep coming up with fresh ideas.

The team would like to thank everyone that attended for your energy and commitment to making music accessible for everyone!

Resources used will be available to download on the Resource Base and keep an eye out for the next Music Teachers Toolbox announcement!

“I’ve been using Figurenotes with ASN pupil since earlier this year & love it. Was great to hear a bit more from Drake Music Scotland at #sameconf23. Will now expand my use of this excellent resource with pupils to stop ASN being a barrier to learning & participating in music.”

It’s statements like this one that makes the 6am starts worthwhile. We got off to a sleepy start on Thursday and headed off to Stirling University for the 23rd annual SAME Conference (Scottish Association of Music Educators). What a joy to be surrounded by esteemed colleagues in the exhibitor hall and to meet so many current and new Figurenotes users over the two day conference. We even dusted out the old floor piano for a bit of fun with the delegates.

Whilst Rebecca and Emma were mingling behind the Figurenotes stall in the exhibitors lounge, Pete was leading a session on Figurenotes and other inclusive techniques called Everybody Plays – Inclusion Ideas for the Classroom.

Events like these are such a great way to reconnect with colleagues and share good practice. Teachers can often experience isolation and just having the opportunity to bounce ideas off each other and refresh really can help inform your practice. We collected some great stories from Teachers using Figurenotes and how it has helped them in the classroom.

Would you like to share your Figurenotes story with us? Join the group Figurenotes – Let’s Make Music or email us at figurenotes@drakemusicscotland.org

We would like to thank the organisers, all the delegates and exhibitors for taking the time to chat with us. We look forward to the next SAME Conference in 2020.

The 2019 Ten Pieces are here!

Looking for some inspiration for the new school year? Well, look no further. The new BBC Ten Pieces Trailblazers are designed to help challenge the way young people think about orchestral music and 2019’s list features composers that led the way in introducing new cultures and sonic delights to the orchestral world!

Each piece comes with a video, a whole host of six week lesson plans and multi-ability arrangements.

At Figurenotes HQ we have been busy creating some Figurenotes arrangements for a selection of the BBC Ten Pieces. These are now available to download in PDF format on the BBC Teach Website. Also, for you lucky Resource Base subscribers, you can download editable versions of these pieces and alter them using Figurenotes software.

We kicked things off this year with an arrangement of the Doctor Who Theme by Ron Grainer and Delia Derbyshire. One of the finest television theme tunes of all TIME (see what we did there?) and great fun to play! This song provides a great opportunity to experiment with digital sound effects. Why not check out the bank of sound effects available on the BBC website.

Next we have Steve Reich’s Music for 18 Musicians. This is a great piece, perfect for group lessons as it consists of two bar phrases layered over each other. You can break it into manageable chunks and experiment with call and response.

Hungarian Dance No. 5 in G minor by Johannes Brahms is one of the more tricky Figurenotes arrangements but it is a very recognisable melody line with a more simplified bass part taken from the Tuba line.

This year’s commission does not disappoint. It is a truly majestic Hans Zimmer all over piece! The title Earth is very topical and you can connect loads of exciting Earth related resources in the classroom and beyond! We have been experimenting with using images of Earth to create graphic scores.

Get creative with these resources and more by visiting the Ten Pieces site and the Figurenotes Resource Base.

Figurenotes Collect @ Craigmarloch School

The final leg of Figurenotes Collect is over! This collecting exercise culminated in visiting Craigmarloch School in Inverclyde. Craigmarloch is an exceptional facility born of the amalgamation of the former Lilybank and Glenbank Schools. The school is one of three in the New Port Glasgow Community Campus, working closely with Port Glasgow and St Stephen High Schools to provide valuable shared experiences for all young people on campus.

Craigmarloch itself is unique in being the only special school in Scotland to have two music teachers. Rebecca was lucky enough to meet one, Jill Henderson, a seasoned specialist music teacher with an enormous energy for life! Jill very kindly showed Rebecca around and encouraged her to take part in her sessions. The first session, led by Matilda, an Associate Musician of Drake Music Scotland, was a multi sensory adventure featuring technology, singing, movement and colourful exciting props. It was a beautiful experience and each young person was visibly delighted throughout. Next, Jill and Associate Musician Annona Thorton led a transition session for the upcoming S1 classes where they played exciting music together using Figurenotes.

Figurenotes is perfect for such occasions, allowing young people of varying experience in music play together.

There are over 100 Figurenotes users in Craigmarloch School and an additional 100 in Port Glasgow High School. Wow! Big thanks to Jill, Matilda, Annona and all the lovely staff and pupils at Craigmarloch and Port Glasgow for taking the time to chat and allowing us to be a part of the magic.

If you are using Figurenotes in your school/council/community project we want to hear from you!

Contact Rebecca at rebeccadirollo@drakemusicscotland.org for more information or to arrange a visit.

Another leg of #figurenotescollect done! And what a day it was! This time around Rebecca visited the lovely Parklands School in Helensburgh. Parklands opened in 1993, a purpose-built school for pupils with Complex Special Educational Needs. Since then the range of provision has been extended and the school now meets the needs of pupils from 5 to 18 years with moderate, severe and profound learning difficulties, autistic spectrum disorders, complex and multiple disabilities and associated emotional and behavioural difficulties.

Rebecca visited Annona Thornton, retired music teacher and one of our Associate Musicians at Drake Music Scotland.  Annona works with a small group of pupils at Parklands using various technologies combined with Figurenotes, enabling these fantastic young musicians at differing levels and abilities to play together. Annona uses Figurenotes colours on a powerpoint presentation, which allows these young musicians to jam along to their favourite songs too! It was such a relaxed atmosphere throughout the whole school. It was wonderful to see these young musicians actively participating in making wonderful music and generally having a great time!

We even busted out the old drum kit and set up for a performance in the Assembly Hall.

https://twitter.com/SchoolParklands/status/1129389628056846336

Big thanks to all the lovely staff at Parklands School for having me and to Annona Thornton for letting me in on the fun.

If you are using Figurenotes in your school/council/community project we want to hear from you!

Contact Rebecca at rebeccadirollo@drakemusicscotland.org for more information or to arrange a visit.