Calling all MuseScore users. Are you up-to-date with MuseScore 4? Have you also updated your Figurenotes plugins?
There are 2 plugins for Figurenotes. The first creates coloured noteheads in Figurenotes colours with just one click.
An example of the Figurenotes Colours plugin
The second creates shaped noteheads with Figurenotes colours for a slightly easier transition into reading stage 3.
An example of the Figurenotes Colours and Shapes plugin
Both plugins have been updated to use with MuseScore 4. You can access them via the FAM Hub or the MuseScore plugin library, where they are helpfully bundled into one package.
We’ve made a little video to help you install your plugin, in case this is new to you. Once installed, it will appear within MuseScore, ready for you to apply to your scores.
You can create stage 1 and 2 scores in our Notate programme. The plugins help you to create stage 3 scores. If you need a refresher on the different stages of Figurenotes, take a look at our Progression pages. We have lots of games in the Hub to help you transition from one stage to the next, moving towards reading standard notation, if that is your goal.
Our staff band got a new member last week when MP Tommy Sheppard joined us to workshop some new arrangements for a youth music session we have planned. As the MP representing our local area, we are always keen to connect and share the powerful work that Drake Music Scotland does, as well as the challenges we face.
He was enthusiastic, but a little apprehensive that he couldn’t remember his guitar chords stored at the very back of his childhood mind. Fear not! We designed this band session for people who have never picked up an instrument before.
A quick guitar lesson from Bas
We set him up on a Figurenotes guitar, which is much more accessible. 4 strings are tuned A E A E, resulting in an open tuning. You then bar the 4 strings following Figurenotes stickers for guidance. This meant Tommy could dive straight in and play Shotgun by George Ezra with us. We had it together in no time at all and were sounding great.
To keep everyone on their toes, we all swapped instruments. We were playing everything from iPads using Garageband and Thumbjam, to the classics of keyboards, bass, guitars, percussion, and vocals – even chimes. I introduced our visitor to our little shorty bass and we got a bit more funky in our rhythms. We managed to rattle off Taylor Swift’s Shake it off and it was sounding great. I’m less sure about our rapping skills in the middle 8, but the band did brilliantly.
Tommy Sheppard MP plays bass using Figurenotes
“It was great to revisit the Drake Music Scotland team at their base in Craigmillar and hear about their work with disabled artists and musicians, which stretches from there to all parts of the country. Not to mention my guitar success using Figurenotes, the colour-coded notation system.”
Tommy Sheppard MP – Member of Parliament for Edinburgh East
The band arrangements got all the testing we needed and are ready for a band workshop for young people in our community. We will put these tunes and others up on the FAMHub shortly, so keep an eye out.
Thank you, Tommy Sheppard, for getting stuck in with music-making. We appreciate you visiting and discussing the many highs, and the various challenges, Drake Music Scotland has faced in recent years. It is also nice to have yet more proof of the 5-minute Figurenotes band in action!
We are partnering with Early Years Music Scotland to deliver free Figurenotes training. This is part of their year-long programme of free, high-quality, creative and inspiring continuous professional development for musicians working with children in the early years across Scotland, supported by Creative Scotland’s Youth Music Initiative.
Come and join us for a fun, interactive online session on Mon 11th September 2023, 10am-11:30am. Book your place on Eventbrite. If you’re outside Scotland you can still join, but a fee will apply. You can choose a ticket to attend live or to receive a recording of the session.
We’ll be offering unmissable discounts on our First Figurenotes pack to attendees, so you can hit the ground running.
Explore how Figurenotes notation can help support your learners to unleash their creativity, build independence, and increase confidence. Places are limited to book early to avoid disappointment. See you there!
Would you like to join our online Figurenotes course, but don’t have the budget? We can help with that.
The wonderful YMI CPDfundis open for 2023! This is one of our favourite funding pots, as it applies to so many of our Figurenoters.
Funding is available for training and continued professional development. Aimed at both individuals and organisations, you can apply for money to attend training such as our Figurenotes: Developing Your Practicecourse.
To qualify, all or part of your work must be outwith schools and benefit the youth music sector in Scotland. So if you work in Scotland with youth groups, as an instrumental teacher, or a music facilitator, get applying before it runs out.
In the past there has been about an 8 week turnaround on decisions, but please bear in mind that it is a continuous fund and the money may run out before the final deadline date. We recommend applying as soon as possible.
You can book your place on the course using the booking form below. Just let us know that you’ve applied for funding and we will hold your spot while a decision is made. The Scottish Music Centre is very supportive of our training and has informed us that this course is just what they’re looking to fund.
Let us know if there is anything we can do to support your application and we wish you the best of luck. Find out more about Figurenotes: Developing Your Practice by visiting the training section of our website. You can find the booking form using the button below.
Did you know you can use your computer keyboard to input notes into your Figurenotes notation programme?
We’ve got a lot of different ways to input notes into your Figurenotes score, so you are spoilt for choice. This one may not be as obvious as others, so we thought it needed a blog post. We hope this helps you find your ideal way to create music.
Once you’ve logged in to Notate.Figurenotes.org and have your score open, untick the ‘Lock Piano Keys’ box at the top of the page. This will allow you to use your computer keyboard to enter notes.
Each note entered will be one crotchet beat, unless you change the note duration settings on the right hand side of the page.
This should make it easier and quicker to enter notes into your score. If you want to use your keyboard shortcuts again, just make sure you tick the ‘lock keys’ box again.
We’ve made this handy diagram to help you understand your computer keyboard as a MIDI keyboard. You can find this in our Notate FAQs (scroll down to ‘Inputting Notes’) or download it in png or PDF form below.
What better way to spend the last few weeks of term than get a whole class band going!
In the run up to the winter holidays, Caitlin and Rebecca from the Figurenotes team spent three weeks at Prestonfield Primary School with the Primary 4 class. Focusing on rhythm and composition, we played and created music as a whole class band using Figurenotes. We were lucky enough to have great connections with the school beforehand, so we could ask for song suggestions from the class prior to the project starting. This created a sense of ownership for the pupils from the off.
Prestonfield Primary is a local school to Figurenotes HQ, in the heart of Craigmillar, Edinburgh. The building is as beautiful as the ethos there.
“Vision: Prestonfield Primary School is an inclusive community of committed learners where we all belong.
Values: We are Kind, We are Responsible, We are Ambitious
Aims: By building friendship, communication and resilience we offer a nurturing environment where our community plays, learns and grows together.“
Here’s a run down of what we got up to:
Rhythm Week
Our first session was an introduction to Figurenotes rhythm. We used a tried and tested rhythm canon with body percussion to kick us off. Anyone who has done some training with us will know the rhythm canon well. It makes a great wam up! You can find it on our Figurenotes Music Hub.
We tweaked the rhythm canon to work with one of the chosen songs – Shotgun by George Ezra. This meant we could carry the rhythm work straight through the lesson.
By the end of the canon, the whole class had the colours and the rhythms down. We could then introduce a mixture of chime bars, keyboards, hand percussion, and digital instruments on tablets to play our song.
Sustain Week
Next session, we started by revisiting the rhythm canon. We tweaked the canon yet again to marry the song for this week, focusing on sustaining notes for two beats or more. Figurenotes notation is great for this, because the note is as long as it looks. The literal nature of the rhythmic notation makes it much easier to understand – the longer notes are longer on the page.
Once we had the canon down, we jumped into playing As it Was by Harry Styles. There was so much fun to be had by swapping instruments around, so everyone could have a go at each one. The class were amazing! They had a solid sense of rhythm, pulse, and bags of energy.
Composition Week
For our last session we wanted to create a huge piece together that was all ours. We showed some pieces of art that contained Figurenotes colours. You can easily find images to use in various online galleries available for free.
Once we had our images up, we first asked for volunteers to be the ‘Director’. Each volunteer used the image as a score, pointing at a colour and expressing how they would like it to be played. For example, going fast or slow. This was a wonderful way to allow ownership over the piece.
Finally, we all took the lead from Caitlin. She began with a picture of a bird projected in the classroom. She used her physicality to show the bird waking up, taking flight, finding berries, landing, and going to sleep.
The class was so responsive. The sound was enormous and vibrant, followed the storyline, and everyone worked so well together.
We had such a great time. The class were lovely and even drew us some pictures to say thank you.
We have been working closely with our software developer, Tayfusion, and Drake Music Scotland Associate Musician Sorcha Pringle on accessibility within our software. This work has focused on using the Figurenotes notation software with screen readers.
Access to music software is extremely limited for people that use screen readers. This isn’t right, so we set out to change it. After some final testing, more musicians than ever will be able to compose, arrange, transcribe, import, export, edit, and hear playback within our Figurenotes software.
Sorcha has been working hard with Doug Mackay from Tayfusion to guide the process, thoroughly test any changes, and lend her invaluable knowledge to the development. We are very grateful for all her hard work. Sorcha is the founder of Springboard Creative Arts and we’re very proud to have her as a member of the team.
“It’s been a thoroughly fascinating process consulting on screen reader accessibility for the software. It has been great to see the software getting closer to being screen reader accessible, as well as challenging me to learn lots about software development.”
Sorcha Pringle
We are currently fundraising to help make our FAMHub just as accessible as our software. As a non-profit, this takes time, so please bear with us while we work to make this happen.
How else is it accessible?
We aim for limited text, with symbols to help understanding. There is a standard way of using the software, with further advanced features in a separate menu for teachers or more advanced musicians. This means our software can be used by a huge range of people with different skill sets, support needs, and ways of working.
Image of Figurenotes Notation Software in use
The Figurenotes notation software is available via subscription. You can access it on your web-browser (we recommend Chrome) and your work is stored in your personal library, so you can access your work anywhere there is an internet connection. Gone are the days when you’d be tied to one machine; and no more updates required, as your subscription automatically gives you access to the latest version. Need tunes offline? Just download them to your device.
You can create parts in stage 1 and 2, use a whole range of instruments including percussion, write chord or melody parts, include lyrics and text boxes – you can even upload images to help with understanding. You can now work in even more time signatures, change them mid-piece, and display more musical symbols and elements of conventional notation than ever before.
Our Figurenotes team is here to support you with anything you need. There are video tutorials available online, FAQs, and a shortcut cheat sheet. If there is anything missing that you think would help support you to access the software then please get in touch with Lauren and Rebecca at Figurenotes@DrakeMusicScotland.org or on 0131 659 4766.
After feedback that our current training clashes with the school run (we see you, jugglers) we need your help to refine our options.
We want to hear from you. What time of year is best? Which days work with your workload? Which times make life easiest for you? Let us know your thoughts and we will build our training around you. The survey below has 4 simple questions, is totally anonymous, and will only take a minute to complete.
Our current Figurenotes: Developing Your Practice course runs over 3 weeks. We deliver a 2-hour session once a week on Zoom, with homework activities between sessions. An individual follow-up session with course leaders can be booked at a time to suit you.
The interactive nature of this course means that being present, working in the small groups we deliver to, and sharing ideas are a huge part of the learning process. We feel that access to recordings won’t give the same benefit with this style of course, so we are keen to make sure people can attend live.
If you have any thoughts on other types of training you’d like then please send us an email at Figurenotes@DrakeMusicScotland.org. We’d love to hear your thoughts and ideas. Pre-recorded videos, modular workbooks, in-person training – whatever you would like to see, let us know.
As a thank you, we’re offering 10% off resources in our online shop, including training! https://figurenotes.org/shop/ Just complete the form below. Thank you.
The Scottish musicians and teachers among you will likely know the Youth Music Initiative well. This music education initiative, funded by the Scottish Government through Creative Scotland, has made so many projects possible over the last 20 years. It is a vital source of funding for the work that so many of us deliver. Drake Music Scotland, the charity behind Figurenotes.org, delivers an extensive schools programme supported in part by YMI funding.
To celebrate 20 years of this programme Creative Scotland hosted a special industry event on 2nd March, bringing the youth music sector together. The theme for the event was #YMusicMatters– can you see what they did there?
Come and Try
Figurenotes was invited to exhibit at the event as part of ‘Come and Try’, alongside other wonderful organisations doing brilliant work across Scotland. Soundplay Projects had their projections and fun installations bringing the room to life. The Sound Lab were recording in the corner, treating us all to some wonderful sounds. North Edinburgh Arts were showcasing some fantastic tracks made within their workshops. We were there to showcase Figurenotes with a range of instruments, from keyboards to adapted guitars, notation software to Thumbjam on the iPad. It was a buzzing room and great fun to be a part of.
“I’m gobsmacked to be honest.
I would have been SUCH a pro if I had this when I was trying to learn”
Excited event attendee on trying Figurenotes notation to play chimes
It was lovely to see some familiar faces and make new connections. We convinced many a non-musician to have a go on the instruments using Figurenotes notation, with very minimal explanation. Someone who had never touched an instrument before played Jingle Bells on the first try. A heavy-metal drummer who always struggled with notation played a cracking bit of Beethoven.
The common refrain we hear at events is ‘oh no, I’m not musical’. The shock and joy they experience when they realise they can do it without much help at all is so lovely to see. It just shows the immediacy possible in learning music when you break down some of the barriers. Everyone should be able to experience the thrill of making music, the confidence that stems from that, and the desire to try again and again. This form of expression should be available to all. That is #YMusicMatters to us.
Thank you to artist Katie Forbes who was live-drawing the event. She gifted us a wonderful piece of art as a thank you for giving her the opportunity to play music with us.
Thank you to Creative Scotland, all the YMI staff, and everyone at the event for an interesting, inspiring day.
Find us on social media to let us know #YMusicMatters to you.
Come and join us for award-winning CPD for music practitioners and educators. Do you want your pupils to learn to play and read music quickly and to their full potential? Develop your teaching practice with Figurenotes, a form of notation that uses colour and shape to aid the first steps of learning music, progressing to standard notation in 3 simple steps.
Enjoy 3 interactive group sessions, building your skills in Figurenotes and accessible music practices. Consolidate on your work with homework activities between sessions. Follow-up with a 1:1 session 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 some of the fundamentals of music-making:
Rhythm
All musicians need to develop a solid sense of pulse. Through rhythm games and challenges, learn how to make learning rhythm fun and engaging. Figurenotes notation shows rhythm in a very logical way, which then transitions easily to standard notation.
Creative Composition
We’ll explore 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.
Ensembles and Differentiation
Learn how to use Figurenotes on almost any instrument in a variety of settings. From one to one learning, full class activities, and varying ensembles, you’ll be able to get your pupils playing together quickly and easily.
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.
We can tailor the day to those coming, so the earlier you book, the more we can accommodate your questions. Use your booking form to give us a heads up of what you’d like to learn.
Here’s what some of our recent trainees had to say.
Here’s what our previous training participants had to say.
Our online training programme consists of three interactive Zoom sessions, plus a 1:1 session with course leaders to focus entirely on you and your work. You can attend from anywhere with an internet connection. You’ll also receive a discount code for Figurenotes resources, which you can use on anything from stickers to a software subscription.
Each interactive session lasts 2 hours. There will be opportunities to meet and collaborate with fellow music educators, to discuss your student’s specific needs, and workshop relevant solutions that you can take away with you. Alongside these interactive sessions, you’ll be guided through activities to help you apply Figurenotes to your own working practice.
The groups will be kept small to allow full participation from everyone, ensuring you get valuable feedback from your peers and the course leaders. You should finish this training with resources you can use straight away and a good idea of how to progress your work further.
Complete the booking form, then pay for your place via our online shop. Here you can either pay by PayPal, credit/debit card, or request an invoice.
Can’t make the date in March?
Book now for November 2023
Thursdays 2nd, 9th, 16th November 2023. 1-3pm on Zoom
