[blindkid] braille music notation?
Bonnie Lucas
lucas.bonnie at gmail.com
Sun May 30 21:04:26 UTC 2010
This is exactly what I forgot tomention in my post of a couple of days ago.
In teaching Aubrie to read Braille music, we worked quite a lot on sight
singing. It does help that she has perfect pitch, (I do not) but I know
that with practice, I could learn to sight sing, or at least I could have
when I was a young thing, ha. Now, when she reads music, she always sings
the notes to herself which helps in the memorization process before playing.
Had I been expected to do this when I was a girl taking piano, I am
convinced that I would not have become hopelessly bored, and thus not a very
determined piano student in spite of my wonderful teacher's best efforts.
Bonnie
----- Original Message -----
From: "Heather" <craney07 at rochester.rr.com>
To: "NFBnet Blind Kid Mailing List,(for parents of blind children)"
<blindkid at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Saturday, May 29, 2010 1:37 PM
Subject: Re: [blindkid] braille music notation?
>A couple of things. One thing is that reading Braille music isn't enough.
>It is a good start, but she will have to be able to sight sing it to some
>extent. I understand that she is not a vocalist, but memorizing
>theoretical music you have just read and then transfering that to the
>trumpet, piano, violin, etc, is not practical. However, if she can read
>it, while using solfedge, or simply humming or singing the pitches, she
>will be able to translate that to her instrument. Some sighted musicians
>only ever look at the music while playing, and that is it. But the good
>sighted musicians, the intelligent and tallented and practical ones will
>hum or sing the pitches while reading the music at times, to get an idea of
>what they want to hear when they play it. Additionally, no blind musician,
>no matter how good can read while playing, sence, the fingers can't be in
>two places at once. So, whoever is teaching her Braille music should also
>be focusing on having her be able to sing or hum the pitches as she goes,
>not merely recognize which positions on her instrument should corrispond to
>the notes on the page, or what musical theory figure the notes on the page
>are representing. One thing that I have to disagree with you on, to some
>extent, is that musicians will never be able to perform a piece completely
>their own way, if they learn it by ear from a recording of someone else
>playing it. A medioker musician with technical ability, but no artistic
>vision or true tallent might struggle with interpriting the music into
>their own take on it, but a truly good musician should not have a problem
>with this. I do absolutely agree that Braille music is important and
>should be learned, but that is not the main reason, and it is dangerous to
>make that assertion, because I know some amazing musicians far better than
>me, better than you and better than your daughter, who learned purely by
>ear, out of neccessity at the time, who sing or play a song their way, with
>their own understanding of the music, despite learning from the performance
>of others. Also, very few musicians play a piece the way "The composer
>intended it." for two reasons. A. That is limiting, and all true artists
>will do something different in terms of tone or inflection, and B. Every
>publishing company of braille, print or electronic sheet music is biased in
>one way or another and will interprit a composer's origional score in
>different ways, although I do understand the point you were trying to make.
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Mike Freeman" <k7uij at panix.com>
> To: "NFBnet Blind Kid Mailing List,(for parents of blind children)"
> <blindkid at nfbnet.org>
> Sent: Saturday, May 29, 2010 12:36 AM
> Subject: Re: [blindkid] braille music notation?
>
>
>>I concur completely.
>>
>> Mike Freman, member
>> Board of Directors
>> National Federation of the Bliknd
>>
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: "Deborah Kent Stein" <dkent5817 at att.net>
>> To: "NFBnet Blind Kid Mailing List,(for parents of blind children)"
>> <blindkid at nfbnet.org>
>> Sent: Friday, May 28, 2010 1:58 PM
>> Subject: Re: [blindkid] braille music notation?
>>
>>
>>>
>>>
>>> I am not a musician myself, but I know several serious blind musicians
>>> all of whom are proficient users of Braille music. I think the same
>>> argument we make for literary Braille can be applied to Braille music
>>> code - if being able to read notation is important for sighted students,
>>> it is important for blind students as well. A student who learns
>>> exclusively by listening to the performances of others never has full
>>> access to what the composer intended; he/she only knows how others have
>>> interpreted the material.
>>>
>>> Debbie
>>>
>>> ----- Original Message -----
>>> From: "Richard Holloway" <rholloway at gopbc.org>
>>> To: "NFBnet Blind Kid Mailing List,(for parents of blind children)"
>>> <blindkid at nfbnet.org>
>>> Sent: Friday, May 28, 2010 12:58 PM
>>> Subject: Re: [blindkid] braille music notation?
>>>
>>>
>>>> Sounds like you're already thinking of this the right way. Sighted
>>>> musicians sometimes "play by ear" as well, but more successful and
>>>> versatile musicians need to learn to read music.
>>>>
>>>> Does that mean that your kids can't enjoy and benefit from music
>>>> without knowing how to read braille music? Certainly not, but just
>>>> like some kids who could benefit from braille (print) but do not use
>>>> it are still successful, both readers and musicians could probably be
>>>> even more successful with the use of braille text and music notation
>>>> respectively.
>>>>
>>>> In some cases, like with piano playing, braille music readers can play
>>>> the right hand part while reading with the left, then switch, and in
>>>> any case, you always have the option of reading a small passage then
>>>> playing what you just read. Among other things, braille music can (as
>>>> you suggest) ultimately let a musician-- unassisted and without a need
>>>> to play a recording, etc., read and play music-- that is a powerful
>>>> thing to be able to do.
>>>>
>>>> Another option it can allow is to listen to music, perhaps even a
>>>> recoding of yourself and to compare it to the actual printed (or
>>>> brailled) music and then observe that you did (or did not) play (sing,
>>>> etc.) correctly (real time) and correct as appropriate. You can't
>>>> really do that just "by ear".
>>>>
>>>> The "difficult time" thing is hard to know about as every situation is
>>>> different, but is sort of smacks of "I don't want to deal with
>>>> teaching this to anyone so why not wait till later"...
>>>>
>>>> Good luck!
>>>>
>>>> Richard
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On May 28, 2010, at 9:27 AM, Rosina Solano wrote:
>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Okay, I have a couple questions for both the kids and the parents:
>>>>>
>>>>> My sons love music, my ycounger one can read larger size, but my
>>>>> older one is strictly a braille reader. What do you all think of
>>>>> braille music notation?
>>>>>
>>>>> I have read anywhere from, "you can't read braille music and play at
>>>>> the same time, so why bother" to "just learn to play by ear".
>>>>>
>>>>> Or that "he is at a difficult time and just needs to concentrate on
>>>>> doing his math and regular braille better right now"
>>>>>
>>>>> Ok, that all said and done, how many of you learned braille music and
>>>>> do you really use it?
>>>>>
>>>>> My big thing is that if he really loves it, then I hate for him to
>>>>> have to wait for me or someone else to "read" to him the music or to
>>>>> have to find a copy of it somewhere for him to listen to. Shouldn't
>>>>> all good musicians be able to "read" the music in the way it was
>>>>> written?
>>>>>
>>>>> Okay, so maybe he can't read and play at the same time, but he CAN
>>>>> memorize, after all he memorizes all his songs now and he does great
>>>>> with it.
>>>>>
>>>>> I just want him to reach his potential and he really LOVES music. He
>>>>> is 12.5 years old and plays piano and drums. He loves band in school
>>>>> and wants to take his piano even further.
>>>>>
>>>>> So if you are for or against braille music, please chime in and tell
>>>>> me about it. And if you are for it, do you know of a good system to
>>>>> teach him this at home. keep in mind I know NO music myself and
>>>>> don't know the pros or cons.
>>>>>
>>>>> Thank you in advance;
>>>>> Rosina
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>> blindkid mailing list
>>>>> blindkid at nfbnet.org
>>>>> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/blindkid_nfbnet.org
>>>>> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
>>>>> blindkid:
>>>>> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/blindkid_nfbnet.org/rholloway%40gopbc.org
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> blindkid mailing list
>>>> blindkid at nfbnet.org
>>>> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/blindkid_nfbnet.org
>>>> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
>>>> blindkid:
>>>> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/blindkid_nfbnet.org/dkent5817%40att.net
>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> blindkid mailing list
>>> blindkid at nfbnet.org
>>> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/blindkid_nfbnet.org
>>> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
>>> blindkid:
>>> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/blindkid_nfbnet.org/k7uij%40panix.com
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> blindkid mailing list
>> blindkid at nfbnet.org
>> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/blindkid_nfbnet.org
>> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
>> blindkid:
>> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/blindkid_nfbnet.org/craney07%40rochester.rr.com
>
>
>
>
More information about the BlindKid
mailing list