[MusicTlk] Braille music transcription

[Ella Yu]

Hi Tara, Those are some good questions, and I'm happy to talk about it.

My first question is, what kind of music do you intend to have transcribed
into braille? For what instruments and for what context? I gather from your
post that you're mainly looking at flute music and violin/viola/cello
music, right? While professional human transcription is still very much
relevant and necessary, software-assisted transcription using programs like
GOODFEEL or Sao Mai Braille is very effective and works well for a range of
musical situations. I currently play violin/viola with community
orchestras, and the music for that is not notationally complex, it's mainly
just notes/rests, articulation marks, dynamics, and text indications, so
software-assisted transcription is great for that sort of thing. Flute
music (and all wind instruments for that matter) is generally even a little
simpler than that since there are generally no chords. However, if you're
looking at advanced solo piano music with in-accords everywhere, music
theory textbooks, or anything else where non-standard notation and extended
techniques are used where even the print notation file can often be iffy,
human transcription is necessary for that sort of thing.

As for programs for converting electronic files to braille, I personally
love Sao Mai Braille. SMB is free, while GOODFEEL costs a lot of money, and
since SMB produces very high quality results for free, I highly recommend
trying it. That said, as with any software-assisted transcription program,
you can't go directly from a PDF file to braille music because PDF is an
image-based format. What you need is a file format called MusicXML, which
is a format used to exchange music between notation software programs like
MuseScore, Dorico, and Sibelius. While there are websites with MusicXML
files online, you will still need someone who is proficient with notation
software, such as MuseScore or Dorico, to type the music up in the program
and export an XML for music that is not available in XML online. The good
news is that it is generally easier to find someone who is skilled with
notation software to do this, since tons of mainstream musicians use
notation software and braille music knowledge is not required. For
instance, as much as I don't know about the ADA or laws around procuring
braille music for your daughter's middle school orchestra (I'm from Canada,
not the US), it would be reasonable for her orchestra director to do the
music up in notation software and then you run the exported XML through Sao
Mai Braille to give to her. If you want to learn how to use Sao Mai Braille
for music transcription (SMB can do also do literary and even math and
graphics stuff in addition to music), I highly recommend looking at this
demo from Sound Without Sight
<https://soundwithoutsight.org/demo-braille-music-translation-using-sao-mai-braille-smb/>
.

Ok, that's a lot of info. I hope this helps.
Ella

On Sat, Aug 16, 2025 at 7:26 AM Tara Briggs via MusicTlk <
musictlk at nfbnet.org> wrote:

> Hi all! I have a few questions about braille music transcription. First of
> all, I have spent the past 10 months learning braille music with a private
> Braille music teacher, and I’ve loved it! Leslie is so knowledgeable and
> inspirational, because as a professional, blind cello player, she uses
> Braille music all the time herself! During my  flute lesson  yesterday, we
> used Braille music for the entire hour, and it was fabulous! My flute
> teacher has commented that I am much more solid in my playing, and it has
> made a difference!
>  So here are my questions. First of all, I gather that a human transcriber
> is still necessary. I know dancing dots has a music transcription program,
> and I recently heard about a program called sao mai Braille that can
> translate an electronic music file into braille music. Does anyone have
> experience with these programs? I just find it so strange that there
> doesn’t seem to be a way to easily translate an electronic music file into
> braille music. I would love to hear about anyone’s experiences with these
> programs.
> My daughter recently successfully auditioned into the advanced Orchestra
> at her middle school. She’s very excited! However, her one area where she
> struggles is reading music. I now have the knowledge to help her. Has
> anyone had success in having your child’s school give you access to their
> music in braille? It is  my understanding that under the Americans With
> Disabilities Act, I have the right to access my child’s education. Any help
> with these two questions would be great! Thanks so much!
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