Drake Music Scotland

31/07/2025

The academic year 2024-25 has been our biggest year yet for LEARN at Drake Music Scotland. We’ve worked with a record number of young people, and we want to celebrate!

Between July 2024 and June 2025 we worked with 1,400 young people in 60 schools across 15 local authorities. This is 1,038 sessions providing music education to young people which equates to around 2,971 hours of delivery. We had brand new projects starting in Scottish Borders and Renfrewshire too!

We also delivered training to 237 teachers internationally through our Figurenotes training programme Developing Your Practice, one off sessions to Sistema Scotland, Carousel and Early Years Music Scotland. Additionally, we also delivered International presentations at the EAS Conference in Dublin, ISME Special Music Education and Music Therapy Conference in Helsinki, and online to the Ambassadors at the Benedetti Foundation.

Thank you to all wonderful team of Associate Musicians across Scotland for delivering such meaningful and fun sessions to young people up and down the country! We can’t wait to see what 2025-26 brings!

// Image Description - A very brightly coloured poster shows the following information:
Drake Music Scotland LEARN 2024-25. 237 Teachers Trained. 1,400 young people with the majority of those being primary and early years. 60 schools in 15 local authorities. 1,038 sessions which equates to 2,971 hours.

Quotes: "This is about so much more than just the music for our pupils"; "I can't believe my mum is going to come and watch me play"; "...A wow moment was seeing a pupil become instantly completely absorbed, staying at the session for 35 minutes... A real turning point in her overall development...".

There are several images of young people - a girl looking down with both hands playing Thumbjam on iPad; a girl sitting on a chair playing chime bars on a table; a girl standing and dancing playing a bodhran drum; two boys sharing a keyboard pressing down the keys; and Associate Musician Stuart, helping a boy to play a djembe drum.

24/07/2025

Don't miss out!

Book your place now to get access to the early bird rate.
https://figurenotes.org/developing-your-practice/

Training for music educators. Learn accessible practices using Figurenotes as a tool.

Early bird rate ends 25th July, so don't miss out.

08/07/2025

We’re happy to see such wealth of experience the new SMIA Board members are bringing to the table. Our Chief Executive Thursa Sanderson is a current Board member and as a champion of less well represented, diverse & marginalised voices is excited about future prospects for the organisation as it champions Scotland’s thriving music sector and huge array of talent. 🎶🎤🎧🎹

04/07/2025

Fancy some free Figurenotes resources?
Sign up to the Figurenotes newsletter to get an exclusive look at the new Figurenotes Starter Pack 🎉

Read more in our latest blog post: 🔽
https://drakemusicscotland.org/2025/07/04/free-figurenotes-starter-pack/

Fancy some free resources? We have updated our free bundle of resources for 2025! Anyone who receives our Figurenotes newsletter can get the new ‘Starter Pack’, so if you haven’t […]

02/07/2025

Young people at Redhall School took part in a project with our Associate Musician, Tilly, this year. Young people used the topics they were learning about in class as the theme for their sessions. One class was learning about animals and played songs like Old MacDonald 🐮🐷; another class was learning about water and they learned A Sailor Went to Sea. ⚓️🏝

This project was funded through The City of Edinburgh Council from Creative Scotland's Youth Music Initiative Funding.

Image Description 1: A young person stands at a table in a classroom and plays ThumbJam on an iPad sitting on the table. They are wearing a red cardigan and smiling.

Image Description 2: A young person sits at a table in a classroom and holds an ocean drum in their hands. They are looking at the drum with a concentrated expression.

17/06/2025

16/06/2025

Here is a clip of Greta Chambers McMillan using eyegaze to play ThumbJam and also trigger live visual manipulations of her own artwork at Hidden Door with Associate Musician Ali Gillies.
Greta has been part of the extraordinary 'Room To Play' creative project run by Tinderbox Collective
Thanks to ray interactive and everyone from Tinderbox!
https://tinderboxcollective.org/room-to-play/

Drake Music Scotland is part of the Talent Development Network supported by PRS Foundation
And receives Multi Year Funding from Creative Scotland

13/06/2025

Did you miss it? Don’t worry, we recorded it just for you. At the start of June, we delivered a webinar with the BBC Ten Pieces team, exploring the accessible resources created over the last decade of partnership. The recording is now up on the Ten Pieces CPD page. BBC Ten Pieces celebrated its 10...

10/06/2025

Young people at Bun Sgoil Achadh na Creige/Rockfield Primary School took part in a project with our Associate Musician, Martin, this year. They sang and played some of their favourite songs, like If You're Happy and You Know It 😄, The Wheels On the Bus 🚌 and Dan Dan the Funny Wee Man 🍳.

This project was funded through Argyll and Bute Council from Creative Scotland's Youth Music Initiative Funding.

Image Description 1: A school pupil plays a metal hang drum that is sitting on a table in a classroom. They look like they are concentrating.

Image Description 2: An adult and a school pupil sit on chairs next to each other in a classroom. They are both playing ukuleles. The pupil is watching what the adult is doing.

Image Description 3: An adult sits on a chair in a classroom holding a large drum sitting on the floor in front of them. A school pupil stands next to them holding the be**er for the drum. The pupil is watching what the adult is doing.

Image Description 4: Two school pupils play a steel drum that is being held in place by an adult.

Image Description 5: A school pupil sits on an adjustable chair and plays a drum with their bare feet. They are smiling and their hands are mid-clap. An adult sits on the floor and holds the drum in place; they are also smiling.

Image Description 6: A school pupil sits on a chair and plays a large drum that is sitting on the floor next to the chair. They have the be**er in one hand and some oatcakes in the other. They are wearing green ear defenders.

03/06/2025

It's TODAY! Last chance to register for our BBC Ten Pieces webinar.

Register here: https://figurenotes.org/bbc-ten-pieces-with-figurenotes

Find out more about Figurenotes and what is available for free from the BBC Ten Pieces website. 3rd June, 4-5pm

30/05/2025

24/05/2025

Looking forward to this so much! 🎻🎻🎶🎶

We had so much fun in Leeds on Wednesday - thanks to the fabulous Fig by Four and the lovely Sabrina Piggott (and our dear friend Barbara Crane!) for a beautiful evening at Wharf Chambers! Now we're heading up to gorgeous Scotland for two shows with Evie Waddell - The Wee Red Bar tonight in Edinburgh and The Glad Cafe in Glasgow tomorrow! Both shows will be BSL interpreted, thanks to Drake Music Scotland!

🎟️📆🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 GET TICKETS HERE:
violinscratches.com/shows