✨ First off, our best wishes for a fantastic New Year! We also want to take a moment to say a heartfelt "Thank you," for being a crucial part of this educational community and for embracing the incredible impact of music and education.

Let's stroll down memory lane to revisit 2023 – a year packed with learning, dedication, and tuning into your valuable feedback! 🚀 This article gives you a rundown of the standout features we rolled out last year. See if there's anything you may have missed, as there might just be something that can quickly take your music lessons to new heights. 🎶

Editor

Music Snippet Updates

Education features

Editor

New instruments


We've added 20+ new instruments!

  • HQ Horns
  • HQ Baritones
  • 10 new HQ Choir instruments
  • Contrabassoon
  • Woodblocks
  • Erhu
  • 9 bass synths

And we won't stop there – new instruments are coming very soon!

Flip slurs

Our Flip Slur feature helps ensure that slur marks are correctly positioned on the staff. This feature is especially useful when working with complex scores.

Flip a slur in Flat for Education


We also have a great resource that you can share with your students to explain the role of slurs in music notation 👇🏼

The Role of Slurs in Music Notation
The slur is a curved line above or below a group of notes of different pitches, specifying that the notes should be played without breaks.

Recorder fingering

We're thrilled to announce an update that makes playing the recorder even easier. Now you don't have to worry about creating finger charts yourself – this feature does it for you automatically. 

To enable this feature, go to your instrument settings and enable the recorder fingering:

This improvement will make learning and teaching music simpler and more enjoyable. Give it a try with your students!

Brass fingering

Brass fingering is a visual guide for correctly placing one's fingers on the instrument valves to generate different notes. This type of notation makes it easier to read and teach scores for brass instruments.

To enable brass fingering, just go to your Instruments settings:

Enable brass fingering in Flat for Education

Trumpet fingering 

We've also created a beginner's guide on how to interpret and use trumpet fingering, in case you want to share it with your students 👇🏼

Trumpet Fingering: Charts and Tips for Learning
Get the must-have chart for trumpet fingering and valuable tips for learning and teaching this amazing instrument.

Horn in F fingering

And there's more! We also have a guide for students on how to interpret the horn in F fingering👇🏼 

Horn in F Fingering
Get the must-have chart for horn in F fingering and valuable tips for learning and teaching this amazing instrument.

Roman numeral text input


The option to add Roman numerals in your scores in Flat for Education has been available for a while now. Below you can find a step-by-step tutorial on how to use this feature 👇🏼

Add Roman numeral notation - Flat for Education
Select the position you want to bind with a chord, click on the Roman Numeral button, and just type it.. Flat Help Center

Then last year we added a new text-based way of inputting Roman numerals to facilitate faster workflows. 

Inserting Roman numerals in Flat for Education

The system now displays the Roman numerals it reads from your score to the left of the text input.

Displaying Roman numerals in Flat for Education


Rests within beams 


We've added the possibility of having rests within the beam connecting 8th notes. 

Several rests within a beam

You can enable this option in the beaming pattern tool, located in the note toolbar.

Display rests within beams


✨ Beams replace the individual stems on each note, making the notation simpler and clearer to read.

If you want a simple guide to share with your students on how and why we use beams in music notation, this is the resource for you:

What is beaming in music?
Discover what beams are in music with this easy explanaition. Get tips for using this feature in our notation software, plus discover our latest enhancement: displaying rests inside beams.

Custom note color schemes

🎨 Design your own color scheme for your noteheads with this feature! Just go over to the layout settings and you'll see how to select colors for each distinct note pitch. 

Setting the colors for each pitch


This grants you a new level of artistic freedom when creating assignments for your students. Learn all about this feature and some use cases in our dedicated guide here.

Alto recorder in F


While the alto recorder is typically in concert pitch, having one in F can be beneficial for educational purposes.

This tuning can be particularly beneficial for beginners, especially young students:

  1. Simpler Finger Positions: This tuning makes it easier for beginners to produce clear, accurate notes due to its straightforward finger positions.
  2. Transposition Practice: It provides an opportunity for students to practice transposing music.
  3. Integration into Ensembles: This tuning allows for easier integration into ensembles where other instruments may be in different keys.
  4. Introduction to Transposition: It offers an introduction to the concept of transposition, helping students understand how music can be written and played in different keys.

To find this instrument, just look for it in the instruments options of your score:

Alto recorder in F

Music Snippet Updates

Music Snippet is the Google add-on for creating and embedding music notation into your Slides and Docs. The free version lets you insert short music snippets in your documents, which is already amazing. But there's more...

✨If you have an education account, you can link it with Music Snippet and get access to awesome features that make your content even better! This option gives you the complete notation editor with premium features like colored notesslursbowsKodaly notation, and more. Plus, you can save, edit, and export your scores in different formats. That's a lot of creative power!

Connect Music Snippet to your Flat Power or Flat for Education account

💡We've created a guide for you to make the most out of Music Snippet. Check it out 👇🏼

The ultimate Music Snippet guide!
Master the easiest way to add musical notes to your Google Slides and Docs. Save time and make your content more interesting.

Education features

Worksheets: New Rhythmic Exercises 


Worksheets are one of the types of assignments available on our platform. In just a few clicks, you can create a series of exercises to assess your students' knowledge of various topics in music theory. 

✨ The best part is that these worksheets are graded automatically based on your settings! Learn all about it in this feature tutorial.

The news we have today is that we've added a new option for the worksheets: (3/4) time signature questions! 

Rhythmic questions in Flat for Education worksheets

Create an assignment directly from a score

We recently enabled the option to create assignments straight from a score. That means whether you're opening a score you already have or creating a new one, you can quickly turn it into an assignment for your students with just a few clicks.

Plus, when you're setting up your task, you can assign it to different classes. And you can customize the settings for each class, taking into account:

💡 Find a guide on how to create assignments below:

Create assignments and activities - Flat for Education
How to create a new assignment on Flat for Education. Flat Help Center

Free up student licenses when archiving classes


When a course has ended, you'll want to archive the related classes. You'll also likely want to free up licenses that were assigned to students who are no longer using Flat for Education, letting you then reassign them to new students. Good news – now this process is even more streamlined! When you archive a class, the student licenses will be cleared automatically.

Archiving a class in Flat for Education



💡 Learn how to archive a class in our dedicated help page 👇🏼

Help - Music notation software
Discover how to easily archive a class on Flat for Education. Flat Help Center

Reset assignments, Teams integration

Flat for Education can be integrated with your favorite LMS, such as Teams, letting you easily sync your classes, assignments, and more. This is a great way to optimize your teaching routine and make the most of your time.

Learn all about this integration here: 

Flat with Microsoft Teams
Use Flat with Microsoft Teams to easily setup your music notation assignments


Last year we faced an issue where resetting an assignment on Flat for Education didn't then update on Microsoft Teams. Fortunately, this problem has been resolved. Now, when you reset the assignment, the grade will sync accurately between the two platforms.


💡For more information on how this works in Teams, check out this guide:

Grade, return, and reassign assignments - Microsoft Support
Return student assignments, give feedback and points, and ask for revisions in Microsoft Teams.

Copy all the resources from a class directly in Canvas 


One of the favorite time-saving features for teachers on our platform is the ability to copy resources from one class to another. 

Help - Music notation software
Once you’ve created an assignment on Flat for Education and saved it to your Resource Library, you might want to use in multiple classes. To reuse an assignment, go to the Resource Library, select the desired assignment and click on Use in class. From here you can select the class (or classes) in wh…


Now you can do that directly in Canvas, without having to open Flat for Education

💡 Remember, you can integrate your preferred LMS with Flat for Education and take your classes to the next level. 

Help - Music notation software
Discover how to use Flat in Canvas to embed rich music notation in your Canvas pages, create seamless assignments from music theory to music compsition in your favorite LMS.. Flat Help Center

Resource Library

Think of it as the database for all your assignments. The Resource Library offers a faster and more efficient assignment creation process, where you can easily keep track of what you've already created and assign tasks to classes as needed.

Resource Library

And this amazing tool comes with a big extra: Sample Resources!

Sample Resources is a collection of pre-designed exercises provided by the Flat for Education team, which can help you save a considerable amount of time when you initially begin using Flat for Education. They will help you quickly get familiar with the different assignment types and show you some of the many possibilities available on the platform.

Read all about it 👇🏼

Stay On Top of Efficiency and Productivity in Music Teaching
The Resource Library is the repository for all of your assignments. This feature makes it easier to re-use or edit assignments, and get inspired thanks to the sample resources!

Automatically save assignments to your Resource Library when you create them in a class


The Resource Library is the central storage area for all your assignments. It offers a swifter and more effective method for creating assignments and enables you to effortlessly monitor your creations & allocate tasks to classes as needed. 

To make things even more convenient, we enabled a feature that automatically saves any assignment you create for a class directly to your Resource Library. 

Saving your assignments in your Resource Library

Resource Library Migration when switching organizations

Don't worry if you have to switch organizations within our platform – your work is safe! We have created an account migration flow that ensures the migration of all previously created resources. 


Continuing with the Resource Library, we have two amazing guides to help you make the most of this tool:


✅ How to optimize your teacher routine with the Resource Library
✅ Resource Library: Use Cases

Unified Grading Option for Google Classroom 

Flat for Education is the best choice for creating music notation activities in Google Classroom. Whether you're working on music theory, composition, or real-time collaboration, Flat easily integrates with Google Classroom and other G Suite apps. 

💡 Learn all about syncing your Google Classroom classes with Flat for Education:

Your Google Classroom one-stop destination for music notation, theory, and performance tasks - Flat for Education
Use Flat with Google Classroom to easily create activities and assignments including music notation. From music theory to composition and collaboration, Flat for Education provides the best Google Classroom integration available on the market.. Flat Help Center


For classes synced with Google Classroom, you can now assign the same grading option when creating a batch of assignments from the Resource Library

Unified Grading Option for Google Classroom 

🙋🏻 Bear in mind, this feature is for Composition and Performance assignments.


Feedback?

If you have any questions or suggestions for our product team, please reach out: edu@flat.io.

Have a wonderful day!