Drake Music Scotland’s vision is to transform people’s lives through the power of music. They are Scotland’s leading disability music organisation and won Scottish Charity of the Year in 2019.
Since 1997, Drake Music Scotland have created equal opportunities for over 14,000 disabled children and adults to play, compose and perform music, delivering a range of music-making projects with the emphasis on active participation and widening access for all.
They believe that everyone should have access to music-making and its proven benefits to health and wellbeing, self-worth and social interaction.
The Challenge
Figurenotes, a revolutionary notation system that uses simple colours and shapes to represent the same information as standard music notation, is a key part of Drake Music Scotland’s delivery. This adaptable and accessible tool makes a great starting point for all learners and helps them to reach their potential. The online Figurenotes resource base holds educational and training resources that can currently be accessed by teachers and schools via a small annual subscription.
Drake Music Scotland’s challenge is to create a new online platform that will transform their Figurenotes resource base into the world’s first and most comprehensive inclusive music hub. They would like to work with a Challenge Respondent to develop a platform that allows users to download resources, constructively rate and critique learning materials, and upload their own creations, creating a unique crowdsourced database of accessible music resources.
A successful solution to this challenge will provide Figurenotes customers with a space to share best practice in accessible music-making and support each other through their vast and varied personal experience. The data collected through this new platform (using accessible data collection methods) will enable the Figurenotes team to better understand their users, informing the development of future resources to enhance customer experience and growing the Figurenotes community through increased sales.
Developing a new platform specifically for inclusive music-making resources will provide music educators around the world with a unique set of tools to make the benefits of learning and playing music accessible to all.
For the Challenge Respondent this is an opportunity to work on the development of an innovative, inclusive, and accessible new platform that could have wider applications across creative and wellbeing settings.
Applications for this Challenge Project are now closed. If you have any questions, please contact us at creativeinformatics@ed.ac.uk.