Carousel artists lead an introduction to figurenotes workshop for SEN music students

Carousel music facilitators support learning disabled artists to lead an introduction to figurenotes workshop. 

We visited St Johns College a SEN education centre in Brighton. Carousel House Band members delivered two workshops for students studying music. The topic of the workshop was figurenotes. Figurenotes is a musical notation system that uses colours and shapes to aid the learning of musical parts and the playing of instruments. The workshop was a success with students and staff providing some positive feedback. 

'St John’s learners were treated to a truly interactive and exciting afternoon introducing them to the fundamentals of the Figurenotes notation system. The workshop culminated in a rendition of the Star Wars theme, played on synthesizer, xylophone and bass where learners followed a Figurenotes score and displayed a solid understanding of the principles of the system. Throughout the workshop, learners considered their emotional responses to colour, matched colour cards, played a given note in time to a beat, practiced changing between notes and clapped and played along to a score. Every single learner was involved and engaged in what was a very well planned and fun workshop with learners commenting afterwards that they enjoyed the session and would like to do it again'

Gabrielle, Head of music St Johns College, Brighton