We’re delighted to be partnering with Early Years Music Scotland again this year to deliver a free online workshop.

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.

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.

Book your place via the event listing. We look forward to seeing you there.

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.

For anyone who missed out on this iteration of the training, look out for the next cohort starting in the first half of 2025. Dates will be updated on our training page, as well as via the blog. Keep an eye on the email newsletter for early bird bargains.

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.

Booking is now open for our ever-popular course for music educators and facilitators. Read on for more information, including funding pots and new discount for full-time students.

Figurenotes: Developing Your Practice

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.

Thursday 1st, 8th, & 15th May 2024

09:30-11:30 via Zoom (If you’re outside the UK please check your timezone here)

£124.99

To find out more, see the training section of our website

How does it work?

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 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 one 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.

Funding and Discounts

To improve access to our courses, we are offering £50 off for full-time students. Please email us at Figurenotes@DrakeMusicScotland.org with your institution and course-name. We’ll authorise the discount and send you a code to use at checkout.

For people based in Scotland, you can apply for funding via the YMI CPD Fund. Please read the guidelines carefully to make sure you are eligible.

As part of your training package you will also receive 10% off Figurenotes resources.

To find out more, see the training section of our website

Please email Lauren and Rebecca at Figurenotes@DrakeMusicScotland.org with any questions you have. We look forward to having you with us.

Only 3 places remaining on our Figurenotes: Developing Your Practice course. Delivered online in November. CPD for all music educators and practitioners.

Would you like to join our online Figurenotes course, but don’t have the budget? We can help with that.

The wonderful YMI CPD fund is 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 Practice course.

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.

https://www.scottishmusiccentre.com/ymi-cpd

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.

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.

“Not only was the training great, it was also really fun, which is so important”

As always, we had an absolute blast delivering the Figurenotes: Developing Your Practice course. The interactive elements always have everyone smiling and it really brightens our day to work with such enthusiastic music leaders.

The inspiration was sparking for our fabulous course participants from the very first week! It is so invigorating to set an activity or a homework challenge and see the ideas pouring out of the wonderful teachers before us.

“Online worked a treat! Well planned for the context and plenty of opportunity to share practice. Good space for thoughts to be absorbed too.“

The Group

Last time we had an international crowd, but this crew were all based in Scotland, so we are also building a lovely network of musicians that can support each other in their day-to-day work too. That is why we encourage all our Figurenoters to join the private Facebook group too. It’s a great place to ask questions and share ideas with other Figurenotes teachers and leaders.

Getting to know our small groups and working together over the weeks really helps us to deliver practical advice relevant to each person and their working environment. With such broad portfolio careers in music and music education, we love hearing about the incredible professional experience each attendee brings to their work. Instrumental and classroom teachers, mainstream and specialist schools, composers and community musicians – we had a wealth of knowledge and experience within this group. Music education in Scotland is very lucky to have such an inspirational bunch of musicians teaching the next generation.

“Excellent, fun, interactive, and curious sessions that were active and engaging.“

Week 1 – Rhythm

After introducing the basic principles of Figurenotes, we start the fun and games. Our rhythm activities using canon even got a live outing with a woodwind group in the week following the session, which went down very well with the pupils!

Our rhythm homework challenge inspired such innovative responses. These ranged from movement activities inspired by Pachelbel’s Canon, exploring and listening on an adventure with a cuckoo (Saint-Saens), all the way into outer space for a space-themed rhythm and structure activity. Their pupils are going to be having a lot of fun in the coming weeks working on this lot.

Week 2 – Composition

Chime cam made an appearance this week to showcase some compositions created during the session. We played with different ways of using rhythm and colour (pitch), as well as directing each other’s playing. It is always lovely to hear some live playing in an online setting too (the viola played as a cello was my personal highlight).

Week 3 – Groups

The Gingerbread Man came to play today. Incorporating elements from the past 2 weeks, this activity is great for differentiation, turn-taking and other ensemble skills, as well as having more extension activities than you can shake a rainstick at!

By combining this with practical tips for making group-work accessible and fun, this action packed week should set up our music leaders with the tools they need to get cracking with Figurenotes.

“I’ve already started using it and the kids just get it straight away. It’s definitely here to stay. It’s been life-changing!”

1:1 Follow-ups

Every participant can book a follow-up session with course leaders to ask whatever questions and queries that weren’t covered in the training or to dive deeper into certain aspects of their practice. This could be anything from reviewing and discussing resources created during the course, refining and developing them, or a walk-through of the software. These sessions are a wonderful way to tie up the learning from the previous 3 weeks to set our participants up with the skills and confidence to dive into using Figurenotes in their practice.

What Next?

Our next course will run in March 2022. Book your place here and join us for more Figurenotes fun and games, learning skills for delivering accessible music sessions, whatever your work setting.

“Loved all of the compositional games gifted and the resources of materials – an amazing package of tools to get going in a lot of contexts.“

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.

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!

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)

Not in the UK? Check what time the training is in your timezone here. Everyone is welcome, but please be aware that the course is delivered in English.

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!