The Figurenotes team will host online drop-in sessions throughout 2026. These will take place every few months over the course of the year, and will usually take place in the first week of the month.
Each 30min sessions will provide a space to ask questions and gain guidance on all things Figurenotes. Some will be more general and open sessions, whilst others may have a particular focus, such as using Notate or working with a specific group.
Come along and ask questions, gain insight or just bounce ideas off the Figurenotes team and the wider community.
The first is a general drop-in session and takes place on Wed 4th February at 4pm.
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.
Did you miss it? Don’t worry, we recorded it just for you.
At the start of June, we delivered a webinar with the BBC Ten Pieces team, exploring the accessible resources created over the last decade of partnership. The recording is now up on the Ten Pieces CPD page.
BBC Ten Pieces celebrated its 10th anniversary in 2024 and we’re delighted to also be celebrating 10 years of partnership with Drake Music Scotland, who have been creating exciting Figurenotes resources since the initiative was launched. The Figurenotes resources on the Ten Pieces website have been valuable in helping to make fantastic classical music accessible to as broad an audience as possible, both to play and explore.
Jennifer Redmond, BBC Ten Pieces
If you haven’t taken a peek at this year’s list yet, head over to the Ten Pieces website.
As long-standing partners of this brilliant project, we are so pleased to see new accessible avenues to engagement. This year’s list includes some fantastic pieces, including adaptable arrangements for flexible ensembles. There are parts for digital and traditional instruments, including Clarion, Thumbjam, and CMPSR.
Figurenotes resources include parts for these flexible ensembles in all 3 stages of Figurenotes notation, as well as pick-and-mix lesson plans exploring Laura Shigihara’s Grasswalk.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
The festive cheer has well and truly taken over at Figurenotes HQ. We’ve been planning some Christmas Figurenotes activities for Drake Music Scotland musicians and thought we’d share the joy with you all. If you’re planning Christmas parties and events at your school or music setting then read on for some festive Figurenotes fun.
Bauble Composition
Christmas Cake Composition
3-chord Christmas songs
Christmas Rhythm Game
Christmas Corners
Bauble Composition
String up a garland, tree, or just some festive hooks (candy canes repurposed?)
Download this template for Figurenotes baubles or make your own. Inspired by Sorcha Pringle, we made some tactile ones using different textures for different notes. These work brilliantly for musicians with visual impairment.
Get a traybake cake with icing that you can stick things to.
Source a selection of sweets or icing in Figurenotes colours (and shapes, if you’re feeling clever). Smarties, Skittles, Quality Streets – the list is endless.
Cut the traybake into bars. Stick your sweets to the top to create a tune.
Perform it before you eat it.
4-chord Christmas Songs
Take a look on the Figurenotes Accessible Music Hub for some Christmas bangers. Use Figurenotes guitars for the simplest way to play the chords. You can create a Figurenotes band in no time! Our suggestions are:
Our rhythm canon is back with a festive twist. These rhythms are set over two bars and can be mixed up to create a fun game. A great introduction to syncopation.
Christmas Corners
I’m sure many of you played a version of this at school. There are lots of ways to make this musical and accessible.
Set out 4 corners/areas of the room and assign them to something. For example, a Christmas tune, a rhythm, a colour.
People must listen for the game leader to play a tune, a rhythm, a note, or whatever you’ve chosen. They then must get to the assigned corner/area as quickly as they can. This develops listening skills and focuses the ear so well.
To make this more accessible for people with limited movement or classrooms with limited space, you can use torches shone on a wall, for example. Call and response also works well, be it playing, clapping, or singing. Let your imagination run wild.
Snow is falling, all around me (we are in Scotland, after all). The children have indeed been playing (mostly Jingle Bells) and having fun.
As we get the school Christmas concerts done and before the frostbite from carol singing starts to set in, we thought we’d better let you know the last order dates for Figurenotes Christmas delivery.
Our last order date will be Friday 15th December. Please get your order in by noon, so we have time to process and post your items before Royal Mail’s last recommended posting dates. If you order after this date then your parcel may not be processed until January.
Figurenotes HQ is part of Drake Music Scotland, Scotland’s leading arts organisation working to enable disabled musicians at every level from education to industry. We all take a well-deserved break over the Christmas period and our office closes to allow staff time to recharge. We will be closed from Wed 20th, reopening in the new year.
Only 3 places remaining on our Figurenotes: Developing Your Practice course. Delivered online in November. CPD for all music educators and practitioners.
