[Perform-Talk] DottedNotes — bidirectional braille ⇄ LilyPond/MusicXML translator (built out of my own frustration transcribing orchestral scores)
judith at judithlung.com
judith at judithlung.com
Tue Aug 11 14:54:29 UTC 2026
On 2026-08-11 07:35, Leslie Hamric wrote:
Hi Leslie,
ChatGPT seems to fix MusicXML errors using a PDF score as reference
well, but not Copilot. Both Copilot and Google Gemini don't allow large
file uploads, and MusicXML files can get quite big.
Judith> Hi Judith. Are ChatGPT and copilot also an option? Cause with
Claude,
> I discovered last night that there's a limited amount of how many
> times you can message Claude in the free version. In the free version,
> the number of messages does reset. I think you can message something
> like six times and then you get a message saying that the limit will
> reset at a certain time. Thanks.
> Leslie Hamric
> Cello and Braille Music Teacher
> Vice-President of National Federation of the Blind of Illinois At
> Large Chapter
>
>> On Jul 22, 2026, at 10:37 PM, Judith Lung via Perform-Talk
>> <perform-talk at nfbnet.org> wrote:
>
>> hi Ella,
>> Yes, experiment with Claude and see how it works out for you.
>> PlayScore 2's MusicXML exports can be a bit buggy, like placing 3
>> dots after a note when only 2 are allowed in the standard MusicXML.
>> I really should start gathering a list of bugs for the developers to
>> fix.
>> If you encounter an error transcribing the file into braille, just
>> paste the entire error message from Sao Mai or BrailleMuse into the
>> chat and Claude will generate a new file with the fixes. You may
>> have to have Claude make a few passes of the piece before it's good
>> enough for the braille music converters. For larger files like a
>> symphony, you could have Claude break up the PDF into smaller files,
>> one file per movement, before importing them into PlayScore 2. That
>> way, bugs are caught earlier and the transcription process moves
>> faster. The only task I didn't have success with Claude was
>> transposing parts to concert pitch, the sharps and flats just
>> weren't in the right places.
>> It's a great feeling to be able to just download scores from IMSLP
>> and have it transcribed into braille in just 30 minutes or an hour.
>> Judith
>> On 2026-07-22 20:18, Ella Yu via Perform-Talk wrote:
>>
>>> Hey Judith, the Claude AI thing sounds really interesting, because
>>> yeah for
>>
>>> me I use PlayScore 2 but the resulting XMLs have to go through a
>>> sighted
>>
>>> person for fixing, which isn't always easy to get but I do want
>>> the notes
>>
>>> to be 100% at the very least, so... Just for clarity for everyone
>>> reading
>>
>>> (not necessarily the OP) MuseScore does not turn PDF to XML, it is
>>> notation
>>
>>> software.
>>
>>> On Wed, Jul 22, 2026 at 7:14 PM Judith Lung via Perform-Talk <
>>
>>> perform-talk at nfbnet.org> wrote:
>> For music scanning software I like using PlayScore 2, which costs
>> about
>
>>> $30/year. It scans PDF scores I download from imslp.org and
>>> exports them
>
>>> as MusicXML or MIDI. MuseScore Studio is a free alternative.
>>> However I
>
>>> have not used it and therefore cannot attest to its quality.
>
>>> To correct errors, I just attach the original PDF and the MusicXML
>>> files
>
>>> to a chat with Claude AI. I would then prompt Claude to insert
>>> part
>
>>> names and fix code errors. It's not 100% accurate, but it gives me
>
>>> pretty usable results.
>
>>> Judith
>
>>> On 2026-07-22 19:48, Melissa Riccobono via Perform-Talk wrote:
>
>>>> Sorry... I now see I need an XML score to make this work, but
>>> I'd guess
>
>>>> I could get my hands on that fairly easily perhaps? I'll have to
>>> do
>
>>>> some research.
>
>>>> Melissa
>
>>>>
>
>>>> -----Original Message-----
>
>>>> From: Perform-Talk <perform-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf
>>> Of
>
>>>> Judith Lung via Perform-Talk
>
>>>> Sent: Saturday, July 18, 2026 5:19 PM
>
>>>> To: perform-talk at nfbnet.org
>
>>>> Cc: judith at judithlung.com
>
>>>> Subject: [Perform-Talk] DottedNotes — bidirectional braille
>>> ⇄
>
>>>> LilyPond/MusicXML translator (built out of my own frustration
>
>>>> transcribing orchestral scores)
>
>>>>
>
>>>> Hi everyone,
>
>>>>
>
>>>> I'm a blind composer, and for years my biggest bottleneck wasn't
>
>>>> writing the music — it was getting it out of braille and into
>>> something
>
>>>> a publisher, ensemble, or sighted collaborator could actually
>>> use.
>
>>>> Transcribing an orchestral score from braille into LilyPond by
>>> hand
>
>>>> could eat several days of work before I'd even gotten to the
>>> actual
>
>>>> engraving and proofing. That grind is what pushed me to build
>
>>>> DottedNotes.
>
>>>>
>
>>>> It's a free, bidirectional translator between:
>
>>>> - Braille music (.brf / .brl)
>
>>>> - LilyPond (.ly, which compiles straight to publication-quality
>>> .pdf
>
>>>> and
>
>>>> .midi)
>
>>>> - MusicXML (.musicxml / .mxl)
>
>>>>
>
>>>> So you can go from a braille manuscript to a publisher-ready PDF
>>> and
>
>>>> MIDI in one pass, or take a print/MusicXML score and export a
>>> proper
>
>>>> braille edition — with BANA validation built in (standard or
>>> strict
>
>>>> profile), configurable compression levels, and layout presets
>>> for solo
>
>>>> piano, art song, chamber, orchestral, and lead sheet scores,
>>> since
>
>>>> orchestral formatting has its own headaches that a generic
>>> converter
>
>>>> won't get right.
>
>>>>
>
>>>> It's also useful if you're a sighted composer, engraver, or
>>> publisher
>
>>>> who needs to move a score between these formats, or produce a
>>> braille
>
>>>> edition without knowing braille music code yourself.
>
>>>>
>
>>>> Free to use here: https://www.dottednotes.net/
>
>>>>
>
>>>> I built this to solve my own problem, but I know braille music
>
>>>> workflows vary a lot person to person, so I'd genuinely
>>> appreciate
>
>>>> feedback from other blind musicians — especially anyone who's
>>> dealt
>
>>>> with the same orchestral-score transcription slog. Bug reports,
>>> edge
>
>>>> cases in the braille code handling, feature requests all
>>> welcome.
>
>>>> Best,
>
>>>> Judith
>
>>>>
>
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>
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>>
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>
>>>>
>
>>>>
>
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