BBC Children in Need

BBC Children in Need is supporting a new project which will give 28 children with additional support needs in Granton and Niddrie Mill opportunities learn new skills and gain confidence through playing music.

From January to June 2013, we’ll run weekly workshops with North Edinburgh Childcare Centre and Niddrie Mill Primary School which will enable children to play, compose and perform their own music using Figurenotes notation.

Elinor Denholm, Teacher at Niddrie Mill Primary School said “The children in this area just as in any area, have musical talents and abilities, and it’s really important that we can start nurturing that in the children at this early age”

How Figurenotes Works
Figurenotes is a notation system developed in Finland which has proven successful in enabling children and adults with learning disabilities to play music. It uses a simple system of coloured shapes instead of conventional musical notes which players match up with identical stickers placed on chime bars, keyboards or guitar finger boards. The colours and shapes of Figurenotes have enabled our musicians to design a huge range of fun and inclusive games and activities for young children and, being a strongly visual system, it is particularly effective for children with verbal communication difficulties.