To make way for more accessible resources, we are winding down the Figurenotes Accessible Music Hub (FAM Hub). If you are an account holder, please check your email (and junk folder) for more information. The Hub will be removed entirely on October 28th, 2025.
Our mission is to make music more accessible for all. With this in mind, we will be launching more free-to-access resources in the near future. Sign up to our newsletter to be the first to know when they launch. You receive a free bundle of resources just for signing up, and you can unsubscribe at any time.
We have updated our free bundle of resources for 2025. Anyone who receives our email newsletter can get the new ‘Starter Pack’, so if you haven’t signed up already, you can do so here.
The songs and activities can be used in group and 1:1 settings, with options to adapt and extend for more creativity.
We’re thrilled to be launching this set of resources, available free to anyone with an email address. It is especially lovely to feature musicians from Drake Music Scotland’s Singing Group in the recordings. To learn more about the charity behind Figurenotes, take a peek at Drake Music Scotland’s website.
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.
It was a long wait, but our first in-person training since the pandemic started took place last week. It was an absolute joy.
We delivered training to new Associate Musicians of Drake Music Scotland who are working with the Sound Explorers projects. They spent two days in the company of Drake Music Scotland staff, with in-depth sessions learning about technology and Figurenotes.
Lauren and Rebecca took our new musicians through a fun play-together on instruments they do not usually play, forming a makeshift band. As always, the shorty bass proved very popular, especially with Figurenotes making it easy to play!
Our wee band was grooving away to tunes by Ray Charles, Dolly Parton, Nancy Sinatra, and Ben E. King – all while learning about ensemble skills, leading a group, reading Figurenotes notation, catering for mixed-abilities, and choosing accessible repertoire.
For the second day, we took on a scheme of work based around a story, The Gingerbread Man, with a whole host of extension activities. This activity includes composition, turn-taking, performance, and much more! We’ll be featuring this in our online training course in September too, so make sure to bag your place before they all get snapped up. You can find out more through our training pages.
There were giggles galore when performing our story, complete with musical motifs composed by the group. The dramatic narration and turn-taking kept everyone on their toes, and Saint-Saëns would have been impressed with our animal inspired tunes and sounds.
So much fun was had, all through learning-by-doing, which we love!
We may have been socially distanced and masked, but that allowed us to feel safe, explore music together, and have some great discussions. Thank you to everyone involved in this training.
“I just wanted to say thank you so much for a brilliant two days of training. It was so good to meet everyone and the training was just excellent. I feel like I am going into this term so full of inspiration and motivation because of last week and all the tools you gave us on the training course. You are an incredibly inspirational organisation.”
Trainee
Want to join in?
If you’d like to join us for some more Figurenotes fun and games, book your place on our ‘Figurenotes – Developing Your Practice’ course. Running online over 4 sessions, we dive into the fundamentals of music-making with Figurenotes for all music leaders and teachers. Come and join in the fun!
The Gingerbread ManA clip of our makeshift band working on Dolly Parton’s 9 to 5.
Transcript of video lyrics:
9 to 5. For service and devotion, you would think that I would deserve a big promotion. Want to move ahead, but the boss won’t seem to let me. I swear sometimes that man is out to get me.
Did you miss out on our online course back in April? Well, we have great news!
Figurenotes training is BACK 🎉 for all teachers, tutors, music practitioners, and music therapists.
Join us for Figurenotes: Developing Your Practice, running online in September. Live delivery takes place in small groups on Thursdays, September 16th, 23rd, and 30th. We’ve adapted the time for this course, so that those who couldn’t make last time will get the chance to come; 1pm – 3pm (UK time)
We specifically wanted to highlight funding opportunities for this course, so keep an eye on our Facebook group where we will share these opportunities with you. For people working in Scotland this fund is brilliant: https://www.scottishmusiccentre.com/ymi-cpd. There is a fairly quick turnaround, so get your application in as soon as you can.
We can’t wait to meet you, whether you’ve attended previous training or are brand new to Figurenotes. With more interactive activities, opportunities for 1:1 sessions, peer feedback, and a whole load of practical advice and guidance, this is not one to be missed!
“I thought you’d like to hear this story” is always an intriguing start to an email.
We LOVE hearing your anecdotes and this is such a lovely one. Jill Henderson, at Craigmarloch School in Inverclyde, Scotland, sent us this wonderful story from her lessons and kindly let us share it with you all. Both Jill and Criagmarloch have been using Figurenotes for a long time now and their work is fantastic.
“During Lockdown I am working at the Craigmarloch Hub with a group of P5 children. One wee boy is very musical and has really taken to Figurenotes. He has got perfect pitch and can sing familiar songs (his favourite is Mary Had a Little Lamb) by colour and letter name. We always begin the day playing tunes on the glockenspiel.
Yesterday, I brought a selection of ‘name that tune’ for him to try, in second stage Figurenotes. Within 5 mins he had played and identified them all then asked me why Mary had a little lamb was not there. I said I’d write it for him for next week then got on with the morning routine.
Next thing I knew, he had written out the song himself (first stage Fgn)! As you can see, the note names, colours and even note lengths are accurate. I had not explicitly taught this, he had clearly absorbed the knowledge by himself.
This is why Figurenotes is so great – it is clear and makes sense to beginners and those like this pupil, who are bright but like to learn in ways that are accessible and appealing. Figurenotes helps him do what he wants to do, which is play and sing music! Much of the time he refuses to engage in learning and shuts himself away in a quiet room to pursue his own interests, often to draw.
I just had to share that with someone who would understand and appreciate how wonderful this is.”
Thank you for brightening our day, Jill. We’ve shared it in the hope that it brightens all of yours too.
“Drake Music Scotland’s challenge is to create a new online platform that will transform their Figurenotes resource base into the world’s first and most comprehensive inclusive music hub. They would like to work with a Challenge Respondent to develop a platform that allows users to download resources, constructively rate and critique learning materials, and upload their own creations, creating a unique crowdsourced database of accessible music resources.
A successful solution to this challenge will provide Figurenotes customers with a space to share best practice in accessible music-making and support each other through their vast and varied personal experience.
Developing a new platform specifically for inclusive music-making resources will provide music educators around the world with a unique set of tools to make the benefits of learning and playing music accessible to all.
For the Challenge Respondent this is an opportunity to work on the development of an innovative, inclusive, and accessible new platform that could have wider applications across creative and wellbeing settings.
Applications for Challenge Respondents are open now and close at 5pm on Friday 16th April 2021. If you are interested in applying to answer this Challenge Project, join us on Thursday 18th March for our online Challenge Holder Q&A session. If you have any questions, please contact creativeinformatics@ed.ac.uk.“
Visit the Creative Informatics website for more details. Text quoted from https://creativeinformatics.org/challenge/drake-music-scotland/
