[blindkid] [blindkidblind musicians

[trising at sbcglobal.net]

I am totally blind, and I have a Master's degree im music. My major 
instrument is voice. I have been reading Braille since age four, but I do 
not read Braille music. I memorize all of my music from recordings. If a 
recording is not available, I get someone to play the part on a piano and I 
record it. I did all of my analyzing of music scores for music theory and 
for my comprehensive exams by listening to a recording or having a professor 
play the music. Then, I either analyzed and told the answers orally to be 
written down by a sighted assistant, or I put my answers down on tape. This 
was in the nineties before I had much assistive technology. Now, if I was in 
college, I would still need recordings, but I could do my own reading of 
materials and recording of answers using my Pacmate, braille display, 
computer with Jaws, and Kurzweil. I am not saying this is the only way to do 
things. It is just the way that worked for me. I have never heard of a blind 
musician that read Braille music and played simultaneously. We all must 
memorize our music to be played or sung later, rather than reading and 
singing at the same time.