Flat for Education updates, December 2023: Brass fingering, rests within beams, new music fonts, and more!

Hello everyone,

As always, we want to keep you in the loop with our latest Flat product updates:

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Trumpet & horn in F fingering

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

Making your lives easier is why we're happy to announce this new feature for trumpet and horn in F in Flat for Education. To enable brass fingering, just go to your Instruments settings:

Enable brass fingering in Flat for Education

Below you can find a step-by-step tutorial on how to use this feature in our platform:

Brass fingerings: Automatically generated fingerings for trumpets - Flat for Education
Flat allows you to generate valve number notation for trumpets. When enabled, these are automatically updated as you edit the score. . Flat Help Center


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

Roman numerals are a vital feature for music teachers since they provide a simple, easy-to-understand notation system for learning how chords work in music.

💡 To master this topic, we've crafted this guide that you can share with your students:

A Comprehensive Guide to Understanding Roman Numerals in Music
Discover what Roman numerals are in music, why we use them, how to interpret them, and download an easy-to-understand chart to master this topic.

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

But we also have some fresh news this month, namely that we've 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


This month, 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.


New music fonts

Until recently, our choices for music fonts were limited to just two options: Bravura and Petaluma.

Bravura
Petaluma

We've added many new music fonts to Flat for Education, thanks to the SMuFL standard. You can now choose from a total of 11 fonts to use in your compositions, giving you a range of styles and looks for your music.


✨ We're excited to offer you a broader selection to enhance the creative experience for you and your students!

As there are now a number of fonts to choose from, we've redesigned our font selection interface:

Choosing your music font in Flat for Education

Edu resources


If you are looking for fresh inspiration for your music lessons, we have some ideas inspired by amazing composers:

Top articles

Here are some recent articles you might be interested in:

✍🏽 Trumpet Fingering: Charts and Tips for Learning

✍🏽 A Comprehensive Guide to Understanding Roman Numerals in Music

✍🏽 What is beaming in music?

Feedback?

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

Have a wonderful day!