During the art session the lecturer informed us in depth about a unique art project called “Room 13”. This room was a re-appropriated to become an art studio and encouraged pupils to create whatever they want in any fashion they desire. They are supervised by an adult but otherwise this freedom of expression allows for far greater benefit than an average classrooms. The purpose of this project is to allow for fusion between the arts themselves and critical practice whereby these ideas are given physical form (Atkinson et al., 2005 cited in McAuliffe, 2013)

This week during the music session we learned about figure notes and attempted playing music by following the new notation. Figure notes differ greatly from standard musical notation as it highly simplified representing notes as colours which are marked accordingly with notes on your piano/glockenspiel (see examples of both below).

Later in the session the class were split into pairs and instructed to collect a piano or glockenspiel and several sheets of figure noted music. Due to the proximity of Christmas all songs were Christmas themed such as jingle bells. The glockenspiel my partner and I collected was already marked with the colours we were to play and so began playing jingle bells. The notes would extend if they lasted longer than one beat and was very simple to read and play off of. I found it extremely helpful in allowing me to play well without any previous musical knowledge.

McAuliffe, D (2013) Art and Design Education. In T. Bryce, W. Humes (et al. eds.) Scottish Education (4th Edition): Referendum. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press