Credit: Mark Mainz
Figurenotes
Figurenotes was developed in Finland by music educators Markku Kaikkonen and Kaarlo Uusitalo at the Resonaari School in Helsinki (www.resonaari.fi). There they have been teaching adults with learning support needs to play, read and perform music with great success for over 10 years.
.
PLAY WHAT YOU SEE
The Figurenotes notation system uses colour and shape to define the musical elements of pitch and duration and is based on the ability to match identical symbols.
Each musical note has a corresponding Figurenotes symbol and with the help of stickers attached to their keyboard or fret board, learners are asked to ‘play what you see’.
……
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. Learners pick up rhythms and can play recognisable tunes from the start, and are therefore motivated by this success to progress more quickly.
.
SUCCESS
MOTIVATION
CONFIDENCE
ACHIEVING BEYOND EXPECTATIONS
Annona Thornton, music teacher at Lilybank SEN School in Inverclyde finds that Figurenotes gives pupils the tools to make music independently and it provides an answer to inclusion, with her pupils now joining the orchestra at the local mainstream secondary school, Port Glasgow High.
“Pupils are achieving what seemed to be impossible! Using Figurenotes gives confidence which, in turn, seems to encourage the desire to communicate. It is the first step to so many possibilities.
“I have been a music teacher in both mainstream and special needs for many years and have used many approaches but Figurenotes has helped our children progress in music beyond all expectation”.
.
Another notable success includes work with pupils on the autistic spectrum. Jill Reeves, a teacher at St Crispin’s school in Edinburgh, finds that her autistic learners have been able to succeed in reading music for the first time:
“The concrete, visual nature of the system makes sense to my autistic learners.
“Figurenotes has increased their ability to concentrate confidence. One pupil has learned to use Figurenotes to recreate existing tunes – this shows executive function and the potential to be creative – very significant for ASD learners.”
” I have been teaching a boy of 5 who is on the high end of the autistic spectrum. Today he had only his fourth lesson with Figurenotes but he was playing Old Macdonald - it made him so happy that he had done that and wouldn’t stop jumping up and down!”
Music Teacher Emma Fennessy, Kent
A TRULY INCLUSIVE SYSTEM
Another key feature highly valued by teachers is that Figurenotes enables differentiation within a shared group activity meaning pupils with various levels of ability are able to work together on the same piece of music. Through Drake Music Scotland’s involvement ‘inclusion partner’ with Sistema Scotland and their Big Noise project in the Raploch near Stirling, children with learning disabilities from the local Castleview SEN school are now fully integrated into a mainstream orchestra having learned to read music with Figurenotes.
Mainstream music instructors have also found that Figurenotes enables all children to engage in music making. Julie Carrie, YMI Support Tutor in East Ayrshire says that it is ‘a great motivational tool for new learners’ used successfully with non-music readers transitioning from P7 to S1, who quickly moved on to conventional notation once they understood the concept.
Maggie Malloch, who has explored use of the system with pre-school nurseries in Dumfries and Galloway, commented, “Figurenotes is so intuitive it needs little or no explanation which is such a benefit when dealing with pupils who find verbal instructions difficult. I have also seem some very distractible children maintain focus for longer than ever before”.
Figurenotes is also inclusive when it comes to teachers and staff – those with little musical experience are quickly able to understand it and gain the confidence to lead activities and support learners.
.
PARTNERSHIP WORKNG
Drake Music Scotland’s Figurenotes project, funded by a Creative Scotland Inspire grant, involves a number of partnerships to pilot the system:
National Youth Choir of Scotland
As the pilot stage of the Figurenotes project comes to an end we look forward to working with new partners in the future.
.
FIGURENOTES FUTURE
As part of the project, Drake Music Scotland have been developing Figurenotes Software which offers the possibility of creating and reproducing pieces of music and parts in Figurenotes and composing new music. The first version is being tested by a number of teachers and it will be more widely available in the near future.
For more information about how you can get involved and start using Figurenotes please contact info@drakemusicscotland.org
Figurenotes resource packs including stickers, shapes, templates and tunes will be available from our website shortly.
….
For more information about how Figurenotes works, please download the PDF below:
Introducing Figurenotes (PDF 2.3 MB)
….
Figure it out with Figurenotes! ISM Music Journal Nov-Dec 2010 Article
BBC Scotland video about Drake Music Scotland’s Figurenotes project
