We’ll be discussing how to develop creativity and musical confidence in an accessible way within Early Years music-making. You’ll learn how to harness the power of imagination and enable it to grow using Figurenotes as a tool. Discover how to help young musicians take their first steps in choosing sounds, creating music, and feeling ownership.
Early Years Music Scotland is delivering a year-long programme of free, high-quality, creative and inspiring continuous professional learning and development for musicians working with children in the early years across Scotland, supported by Creative Scotland’s Youth Music Initiative. We are thrilled to be a part of their programme once again.
We have been delighted to have Figurenotes on board as a partner for the past 2 years. Feedback from attendees of the Figurenotes workshop said that they found the session informative, inspiring and inclusive, and that the content was educational and progressive. We are looking forward to offering our next Figurenotes workshop as part of the Early Years Music Scotland programme on 31st March.
Yvonne Wyroslawska, EYMS
This engaging workshop is free-of-charge to musicians living in Scotland and working with children in the early years (0-5yrs). Non-Scottish residents and non-musicians may purchase a ticket. The workshop will be recorded and available to view for one month following the event. If you are unable to attend live, you can select a ‘session recording’ ticket.
Sound the trumpets! Booking is now open for ‘Figurenotes: Developing Your Practice’. Our flagship course, delivered online in small groups, will enable you to create accessible music sessions using Figurenotes as a tool. Secure your place before the end of February to access the early bird rate.
Figurenotes: Developing Your Practice takes place over 3 interactive group sessions via Zoom, building your skills in Figurenotes and accessible music practices. Consolidate your work with homework activities between sessions. Follow up with a 1:1 with course leaders to answer any further questions you have, get advice on specific aspects of your work, or for more general queries.
You’ll be guided through Figurenotes, from how it works, to its many applications. We will focus each session on one of the fundamentals of music-making:
Rhythm
All musicians need to develop a solid sense of pulse. Explore how to make learning rhythm fun and engaging. Figurenotes notation shows rhythm very logically, which then transitions easily to standard notation.
Creative Composition
We’ll discuss a range of composition tools you can use in different settings. You’ll learn how to build and adapt an idea in an accessible way, enabling success across a range of abilities and additional support needs.
Groups and Differentiation
Through interactive activities, we explore differentiation, support, and group work.
1:1 Follow-up Session
This is an opportunity for you to work 1:1 with course leaders after the main sessions have been completed. The content of these sessions is entirely up to you. We can work with you on resources, help develop ideas, troubleshoot, or help with specific questions you may have.
Here’s what some of our recent trainees had to say.
Funding and Financial Assistance
To improve access to our courses, we are offering an early bird rate until the end of February. Student discount is also available (not applicable to early bird rate)
A very apt Gingerbready tale rounded off our Developing Your Practice course at the end of November, leaving us within touching distance of the Christmas holidays.
Our popular 3-week course came to a close with an engaging sound story, bringing together all the elements the group had studied over the duration of the training. This wonderful wee group worked on rhythm, creating activities and games for the people they work with. We then moved on to pitch and composition to bring even more creative ideas to life. Our final session focused on mixed-ability groups and ensembles.
“It’s an amazing amount of inspiration in such a short time”
Trainee, Nov 24
“One of the most valuable aspects for me was the sharing of ideas within the group. Seeing things someone else has shared and it sparking an idea, or sharing something and seeing someone go ‘I hadn’t thought of it that way’. It was really inspiring.”
Trainee, Nov 2024
We are always so impressed with the creativity and imagination of our trainees. The range of roles and settings in each group brings out so many different ideas and discussion points, leaving everyone brimming with inspiration and enthusiasm. From Beatles’ bass lines to percussion workshops, piano coordination skills to PMLD music sessions, there was a full range of fun covered within their creations.
We know that the Christmas build-up requires careful planning, especially for musicians. With this in mind, we want to let you know the last posting dates, office closures, and other festive news from Figurenotes HQ.
Last Order Date
Please order by noon on Tuesday 17th of December to receive UK orders before Christmas. This only applies to physical products, such as Figurenotes stickers and magnets. All digital products, such as subscriptions to Notate and the Hub, go through automatically for instant access.
Office Closures
Our offices are closing over the Christmas period. Our last office day will be Friday 20th December, returning Tuesday 7th January.
We hope all your festive concerts go well and you manage to follow it up with a lovely Christmas break.
We are thrilled to continue our relationship with BBC Ten Pieces this year. Figurenotes resources have featured in every list since Ten Pieces’ inception. This year is a corker! Not only are there 10 interesting and varied pieces by 10 incredible composers, but accessibility has become more of a focus.
Open Ensembles
The BBC Ten Pieces initiative has commissioned ‘open scores’ for two of this year’s pieces. We immediately loved Laura Shigihara’s ‘Grasswalk’ from Plants vs Zombies and the enchanting world of Judith Weir’s ‘Magic’ from Storm. Both are now available as open scores for accessible ensembles.
The open scores are more accessible to a wider range of instruments and players. We particularly love the inclusion of parts for digital instruments, including Thumbjam, Clarion, CMPSR, and Soundbeam. All these instruments have a strong relationship with Figurenotes and Drake Music Scotland, so we’re thrilled to be working together on this. There are Figurenotes parts transcribed for all instruments in the score, in different stages, so you can find the part that suits the musicians best. All parts are available on the BBC Ten Pieces website for free.
But we didn’t stop there!
Creative Resources
Laura Shigihara’s ‘Grasswalk’ is chock full of interesting elements to explore musically. We have created lesson plans and additional supporting resources to dive into these areas in a fun, engaging way. The lessons are divided into packs: Articulation, Chromatics, Rhythm, and Register. You can explore the lessons with a pick-n-mix approach, or work your way through more methodically. All packs are available on the BBC Ten Pieces website for free.
As ever, if you have any questions regarding Figurenotes and BBC Ten Pieces resources feel free to get in touch. Email Figurenotes@DrakeMusicScotland.org or call 0131 659 4766. Please do share your thoughts and feedback with us, as it is invaluable for future resources.
Wednesday mornings have never felt so good. We were sad to come to the end of the latest Developing Your Practice course. Luckily, all participants get an individual follow-up session, so we will see their lovely, enthusiastic faces again.
“Really loved this training and will be recommending it to others. Lovely tutors who really engaged with us well and modelled all the tasks.”
The ideas that came from this cohort were absolutely brilliant. We had minibeasts helping us learn rhythm, fruity Figurenotes for percussion, and atmospheric stormy songs. There were rainy walks, art extravaganzas, and nature exploration. These topics helped us create resources and lessons that develop rhythmic skills, creative play, and composition.
As ever, we brought all the elements together in the final week with a group activity that is always full of fun.
“You’ve just ignited that passion within me to get working with this resource. It is so valuable. I understood its value in special schools, but this also needs to be in mainstream”
“The workshops have been inspirational”
Do you want to improve your practice? We’ll be training the next cohort in November. Get the Early Bird price of £99 by booking before 24th July.
There are funding options available at Scottish Music Centre through the YMI CPD Fund, as well as other funds across the UK and further afield. Full time students can claim a discount by emailing us at Figurenotes@DrakeMusicScotland.org.
Tech Army, Assemble! We’ve never responded to an offer of help so quickly. Scottish Tech Army got in touch to say Drake Music Scotland had been chosen by one of their corporate partners for a day of volunteering. This isn’t your usual volunteering. A team of highly skilled tech folk swoop in and give you a full day of their time (and then some) to help solve a tech issue.
Scottish Tech Army are a catalyst for a step change in the application of technology for public good in the UK. Their highly-engaged volunteer community works in partnership with the technology ecosystem of the UK to deliver scalable, impactful solutions.
As a non-profit, we rely on funding and offers of support. Such is the nature of working in the third sector (and the arts!) This way of working means progress is never linear, so anything that gets us closer to our goals is welcomed with open arms.
PWC linked up with Scottish Tech Army for ‘One Firm, One Day’. The UK contingent worked on 3 projects across Edinburgh, Manchester, and London. We were lucky enough to be chosen by the Edinburgh team.
With offices in 151 countries and more than 364,000 people, PWC are among the leading professional services networks in the world. They help organisations and individuals create the value they are looking for, by delivering quality in Assurance, Tax and Advisory services.
One Firm One Day is described as an “annual firm-wide fundraising and volunteering event, where staff across the UK and Channel Islands are encouraged to join together and take part in giving something back to our local communities.”
The Edinburgh team worked tirelessly and we are incredibly grateful. Thank you to Scottish Tech Army for setting this up, PWC for choosing our project, and the volunteers for being so welcoming and working so hard.
We had an outrageous amount of fun last week delivering training. It was week 2 of our brilliant online course, Figurenotes: Developing Your Practice, which is always a delight. Alongside this, we whizzed down to the Scottish Borders to deliver in-person training to a lovely group, organised by their YMI coordinator.
There was a mix of roles in the room, which always leads to interesting discussion. We also had some very experienced Figurenoters alongside people brand new to this way of working. Some tutors deliver 6-week projects, while others are classroom-based and much more focused on supporting the classroom learning objectives.
We spent a portion of the day creating Figurenotes compositions and it was fascinating to see the different ways that the tasks were approached depending on the setting people were working in. We always feel very privileged to have these conversations and understand the ways in which people are working. It helps us to create resources and training that will be useful.
The Ever-Popular Sound Stories
By far the most popular aspect of the day was our sound story, working to build skills in composition, turn-taking, listening, and performance. We explored leitmotif using the Gingerbread Man as our inspiration. We ended up with a lovely twinkly gingerbread man motif, full of energy and speed. The old couple at the start of the story couldn’t have been more different – they do say opposites attract. The reaction to these activities is always so good! I’m sure the students in the Scottish Borders will be having a great time in their upcoming lessons with these newly-inspired staff members.
We’ll be sure to create some more sound story resources and pop them up on the Hub. If you have your own successful resources, then do remember that you can share these with your fellow Figurenoters on the Hub’s community library. People working in the music education sector can often feel a little isolated, so a big part of the Hub is community, sharing, and supporting each other.
Thank you to everyone at the training day. We had an absolute blast!
We have been in contact with some of you recently regarding the Figurenotes plugins for MuseScore 4. There were a few problems arising from changes within the MuseScore programme. We are delighted to announce that these issues have been fixed and an updated version of the plugin is now available.
We have created a wee video with some troubleshooting tips, as there are a few quirks due to the latest MuseScore design. You can use the menu below or scroll down for written instructions too.
You can change a complete score by simply going to the plugin menu along the top of your screen and selecting the plugin you want. Doing this will apply the plugin to the entire score. If already applied, you can remove the colours or shapes by doing the same action. It toggles on and off. We recommend keeping your score all black until you have completely finished your piece.
How to change a bar or phrase
If you have a score that you’ve applied the colours or shapes to, but you want to add or edit something, you’ll notice that the colours don’t apply to your edits. We recommend doing all editing with a completely plain score and applying the plugin at the end. However, it is possible to select just the bar or notes that you want to change.
Click on the blank space in a bar to select the whole bar.
To select a passage, click on the first note/bar of the passage, then hold shift while clicking the last note/bar of the passage. A blue box will appear around your selection.
Once selected, you can toggle the plugin on or off to match the rest of the score.
How to change a single note
A quirk of MuseScore means you can click on a note without properly selecting that note for editing using the plugin. Your note must have a blue box surrounding it before the plugin will apply to just that note. To do this is a little faffy, which is why we suggest keeping the plugin off until you’ve finished editing.
Click on the note you want to change
Hold down shift while you select a note or rest next to it. You can also use the shortcut shift + a sideways arrow (whichever side the note/rest is)
Then use shift and a sideways arrow to shrink the selection box down to just one note.
It doesn’t matter which side the other note you select is. We are just trying to make MuseScore select a passage before shrinking the selection down to just the note we want. Look for the blue box surrounding the note to be sure.
Tips for Editing or Correcting
So you’ve made an entire piece, applied the plugin, and turned it Figurenotey. Then you see a C that should have been a D. When you edit that note, the colour will stay as a red C regardless of what you change it to. This then needs correcting. You could make sure you toggle off the plugins before changing anything, but we often forget about that until we’ve changed the note.
You will need to follow the advice above on how to change a single note. The only difference is, if the note is already coloured, you will need to turn off the plugin for that note and then click again to reapply. This way you’ll end up with the correct colour on your selected note.
The same applies if you add a note to a previously coloured score. All added notes will be in black and white. You will need to select the new note and apply the plugin to change it to the correct colour.
Keep an eye out for the postie if you’ve made an order with us recently. Figurenoters receiving stickers, magnets, and tune packs may notice a wee extra in their parcel.
We’ve been gradually improving the environmental impact of our packaging, from compostable ‘plastic’ envelopes, to limiting the amount of paper included in each parcel. Our latest endeavour is blooming beautiful!
Feast your eyes on these little seeded beauties.
Scan the QR code to get support and information on anything Figurenotes related. You can bookmark the Linktree page for the future.
Break your card up into small pieces
Place them in soil and water them lightly
Treat those little seeds well and you’ll be rewarded with some wonderful wildflowers! They’d be perfect for a classroom project.
For more instructions on planting your card, see this blog from the company that creates them.
We’ll be following up with some music resources inspired by nature, so keep an eye on the Hub and our newsletter. Remember that you can upload your own resources to the Hub to share with other teachers too. Let’s build a global network of accessible music educators and facilitators sharing what works; sowing the seeds of inspiration and watching them bloom.
