[MusicTlk] Useful Apps?

[shanahanw1983 at gmail.com]

These are all great suggestions. I was able to get a few of Bill Brown's tutorials from friends. Since I live in Canada I don't have access to NLS which is unfortunate because I would love to use their music library. I do have a basic book on Braille Music and am attempting to teach myself from that.

Shannon

-----Original Message-----
From: MusicTlk <musictlk-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of Micky Holdsworth via MusicTlk
Sent: April 28, 2021 12:26 PM
To: Music Talk Mailing List for Blind Musicians <musictlk at nfbnet.org>
Cc: Micky Holdsworth <mqholdsworth88 at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [MusicTlk] Useful Apps?

Hi Shannon,

For ear training the best source I found is Bill Brown’s Ear Training for Guitar on NLS. While it is designed around guitar the goal is to recognize pitches and chords by ear without an instrument in hand. You can create your own comparable exercises on piano using his format as a guide.

I would dearly love to have favorite scores converted to digital or paper braille but I keep hitting road blocks. 
Dancing Dots has some software that does this but it seems it still requires a motivated , sighted and skilled music teacher or performer to  validate the results. That seems true whether the sighted helper is scanning the print score or producing a digital music file.

These and other roadblocks prompted me to follow Mick jagger’s advice: 
‘you can’t always get what you want...but if you try sometimes, you just might find you get what you need.’
I stopped trying to relive my sighted musician years and begin with
 What is available from NLS music braille method books and improve my braille  musicreading skills.
At the same time I found recordings on iTunes of elementary guitar short performance pieces and began to transcribe them by myself, one measure at a time. I have also used Bill Brown’s individuallessons to transcribe  into braille. You just have to get used to his by-ear orientation sincehe doesn’t always indicate measure divisions. 
I have a few musician friends who will help me it the time requirements are brief and they
 Can meet the request in their own time and space.
All have been willing to help decode problem measures and complex chords etc.
 
The most  valuable pot of gold I found was a method book from NLS and a companion audio CD for that book on the internet. That has kept me busy  for a long time.

I am not familiar with the traditional piano methods but I stil  have my daughter’s Suzuki Method piano recordings and print books. No doubt these are available from NLS.

Best wishes,
Micky Holdsworth, Illinois
Sent from my iPhone

> On Apr 27, 2021, at 2:54 PM, Shannon Williams via MusicTlk <musictlk at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> 
> Are there any useful apps or websites out there for learning to play by ear?
> For learning piano? For translating a pdf of sheet music into a music xml or
> brf file?
> 
> 
> 
> Shannon
> 
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