[MusicTlk] Braille music transcription

Sat Aug 16 16:58:05 UTC 2025

Hi Ella.
I don't know anything about SMB.  Can it go from a PDF, or only from musicxml?  And, if it can go from a pdf, does each page have to be "printed" to an interim format that SMB recognizes?  
Dancing Dots uses Sharpeye, and pdf pages have to be converted to tif files before they go into Sharpeye.  Or Sharpeye can use a scanner to pull in music, but for me pdf is easier.
Tracy

-----Original Message-----
From: MusicTlk <musictlk-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of Ella Yu via MusicTlk
Sent: Saturday, August 16, 2025 12:17 PM
To: Music Talk Mailing List for Blind Musicians <musictlk at nfbnet.org>
Cc: Ella Yu <ellaxyu at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [MusicTlk] Braille music transcription

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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