Fiona Sharp of F Sharp Music Practice has had great success with her online music sessions during 2020 and into the new year. As many musicians worried about their future work opportunities, Fiona has continued to provide high quality sessions for many organisations including PAMIS and Drake Music Scotland. She has also delivered training sessions on how to get the most from online delivery, including advising on a new online project for schools with the RSNO. Here she gives us a brief insight into her practice.

I was concerned like many music teachers, practitioners and specialists at the start of lockdown how music tuition could be achieved solely on an online basis, especially when working with pupils who have Additional Support Needs. Over the past few months I have been astounded at the level of development made with many of my clients and pupils and in particular their progress with Figurenotes.

I have tried various ways of using Figurenotes online and I have detailed below the activities and methods I have found to work particularly well.

Something I have found to work well when using Figurenotes online for teaching is emailing sheets of Figurenotes notes for the pupils to print and cut out so they are able to make up their own songs, unless the pupils already have their own Figurenotes magnets. I usually start my online sessions asking the pupil to choose 10-15 cut out notes, either showing me the note or telling me what colour and shape it is. They can either lay the notes out in front of them, or as I tend to do, I put the Figurenotes magnets on a board, which I then hold up to the screen for them to see.

To vary the exercises I sometimes change the shapes they have chosen and get them to play the squares with their left hand, and the circles and triangles with their right hand. I also do chord work using the magnets/cut outs as well as exercises focusing on hands separately and hands together.

Themes can be fun to make the sessions a bit more interesting, for example themes about the sea, weather and emotions are popular ones, then finding songs or making up musical activities to go along with that theme.

The sea is always a good theme. You can get pupils to put lentils or rice in a plastic tub with a lid and slowly rock it from side to side so it sounds like the waves. Try the ocean drum tutorial in the video below. You can make up a short sea shanty using the Figurenotes magnets or cuts outs, and there are plenty of sea-themed songs which you can play using Figurenotes:

• My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean
• Bobby Shaftoe
• Row Your Boat
• Skye Boat Song

Overall, my experience so far working online has been positive. I have noticed I am having to describe and communicate a lot more than I would normally in a music session, but I have been very surprised by the level of development my pupils have had since teaching online. I have come to the conclusion that it could be due to fewer distractions. For pupils on the Autistic Spectrum this has been particularly evident, and I have been quite amazed at the level of concentration and engagement they have during their session. I feel many of my pupils have achieved a lot more in a half hour session than they would normally with me sitting next to them. I have also noticed they have to work things out for themselves more than normal as I am not there to physically support them or show them what to do. I have been very impressed and pleasantly surprised by the level of development made with each pupil through online music sessions.

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In our latest guest blog, Emmeline McCracken shows us how she uses Figurenotes in her work as a music therapist.

Hello everyone,

My name is Emmeline and I am a music therapist. I work for my own company, ELM Music Therapy, primarily with children who have profound and multiple learning difficulties and those with terminal illnesses.

Although music therapy is very different from teaching someone to play an instrument, this can sometimes play a part in my therapeutic sessions. Often children will be keen to learn to play the piano with me as this is the instrument I use most frequently. Sometimes through learning some tunes together this can give a client confidence and also relax them into more therapeutic work. Often learning something can seem less daunting than the therapeutic process itself and can open many doors for the therapeutic work to take place. A few examples of this may be;

• Composing our own words to a learnt song.
• Moving into free improvisation.
• Relaxing a child enough for them to open up or share emotions.

As I work primarily with children with profound and multiple learning disabilities the use of Figurenotes has been invaluable in this teaching process. It has really allowed the children to quickly learn to play simple/familiar songs at the piano and allowed us to progress into other therapeutic processes. The matching of colours and symbols seems to be particularly appealing to many of the pupils on the autistic spectrum with whom I work and is quick and easy for them to grasp.

In my other work at the Royal Aberdeen Children’s hospital the quick and easy to grasp concept to allow children to learn and play tunes has been lifechanging. My work here is often not progressive as there can be children I only meet once on the ward and others who are long-term patients. It is wonderful to see not only the children’s but also their family’s faces light up around them as they perform songs they have learnt that day through the use of figure notes at a time when often the rest of their lives are unpredictable and out of control.

Here are some examples of children’s favourite songs that we have quickly written out in figurenotes.

Although I do not use Figurenotes in the same way as many others I find it very beneficial to my work and I hope that other music therapists will too!

“Figurenotes, Figurenotes, play what you see!”

Thanks to Emmeline for sharing her experiences. If you are interested in writing a guest blog, please get in touch with the Figurenotes team to share your ideas.

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