[blindkid] braille music notation?

[Richard Holloway]

Sounds like you're already thinking of this the right way. Sighted  
musicians sometimes "play by ear" as well, but more successful and  
versatile musicians need to learn to read music.

Does that mean that your kids can't enjoy and benefit from music  
without knowing how to read braille music? Certainly not, but just  
like some kids who could benefit from braille (print) but do not use  
it are still successful, both readers and musicians could probably be  
even more successful with the use of braille text and music notation  
respectively.

In some cases, like with piano playing, braille music readers can play  
the right hand part while reading with the left, then switch, and in  
any case, you always have the option of reading a small passage then  
playing what you just read. Among other things, braille music can (as  
you suggest) ultimately let a musician-- unassisted and without a need  
to play a recording, etc., read and play music-- that is a powerful  
thing to be able to do.

Another option it can allow is to listen to music, perhaps even a  
recoding of yourself and to compare it to the actual printed (or  
brailled) music and then observe that you did (or did not) play (sing,  
etc.) correctly (real time) and correct as appropriate. You can't  
really do that just "by ear".

The "difficult time" thing is hard to know about as every situation is  
different, but is sort of smacks of "I don't want to deal with  
teaching this to anyone so why not wait till later"...

Good luck!

Richard



On May 28, 2010, at 9:27 AM, Rosina Solano wrote:

>
>
> Okay, I have a couple questions for both the kids and the parents:
>
> My sons love music, my ycounger one can read larger size, but my  
> older one is strictly a braille reader.  What do you all think of  
> braille music notation?
>
> I have read anywhere from, "you can't read braille music and play at  
> the same time, so why bother"  to "just learn to play by ear".
>
> Or that "he is at a difficult time and just needs to concentrate on  
> doing his math and regular braille better right now"
>
> Ok, that all said and done, how many of you learned braille music  
> and do you really use it?
>
> My big thing is that if he really loves it, then I hate for him to  
> have to wait for me or someone else to "read" to him the music or to  
> have to find a copy of it somewhere for him to listen to.  Shouldn't  
> all good musicians be able to "read" the music in the way it was  
> written?
>
> Okay, so maybe he can't read and play at the same time, but he CAN  
> memorize, after all he memorizes all his songs now and he does great  
> with it.
>
> I just want him to reach his potential and he really LOVES music.   
> He is 12.5 years old and plays piano and drums.  He loves band in  
> school and wants to take his piano even further.
>
> So if you are for or against braille music, please chime in and tell  
> me about it.  And if you are for it, do you know of a good system to  
> teach him this at home.  keep in mind I know NO music myself and  
> don't know the pros or cons.
>
> Thank you in advance;
> Rosina
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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