This jazz cat is helping Irish kids learn about music (seriously)

CAN AN OCTOPUS called Igor and a feline named Jazz Cat help children learn about music? continues thejournal.ie.

Photo: Dabbledoo Music

That’s what Irish music programme Dabbledoo wants to prove. A new way of teaching music, it is based on animated graphic notation, and Shane McKenna (32) – who founded the programme – explained:

It’s an easy way to get a group performance going in the classroom, using colours and shapes. The kids can then learn through performances.

Dabbledoo is aimed at primary school children aged from six to 12, and Shane thought up the idea after studying alternative types of music notation (how music is written down) for his Masters in Trinity College Dublin.

He wanted to come up with a type of notation “that can be used by loads of different people, regardless of their previous musical experience”.

Animated graphic notation is being used within the avant garde music realm, but Dabbledoo brings it into the educational space.

The website is in beta mode right now, and is available for free, so that teachers can begin using it right away for no cost. The intention is that it fits right into the existing music curriculum.
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Source: thejournal.ie