[blindkid] [blindkidblind musicians
trising at sbcglobal.net
trising at sbcglobal.net
Thu Feb 5 21:03:52 UTC 2009
I am totally blind, and I have a Master's degree im music. My major
instrument is voice. I have been reading Braille since age four, but I do
not read Braille music. I memorize all of my music from recordings. If a
recording is not available, I get someone to play the part on a piano and I
record it. I did all of my analyzing of music scores for music theory and
for my comprehensive exams by listening to a recording or having a professor
play the music. Then, I either analyzed and told the answers orally to be
written down by a sighted assistant, or I put my answers down on tape. This
was in the nineties before I had much assistive technology. Now, if I was in
college, I would still need recordings, but I could do my own reading of
materials and recording of answers using my Pacmate, braille display,
computer with Jaws, and Kurzweil. I am not saying this is the only way to do
things. It is just the way that worked for me. I have never heard of a blind
musician that read Braille music and played simultaneously. We all must
memorize our music to be played or sung later, rather than reading and
singing at the same time.
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