[Perform-Talk] DottedNotes — bidirectional braille ⇄ LilyPond/MusicXML translator (built out of my own frustration transcribing orchestral scores)

[judith at judithlung.com]

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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