[blindkid] braille music notation?

Sun May 30 11:22:45 UTC 2010

Thanks for your feed back.  Having spend many a year living with my
Conservatory graduate, as well as our many talented musical friends, many of
whom are professional musicians, I have learned many new things.  If there
is anything I have learned well, it is that no two musicians play or
interpret the same and all a fine artists, using many different methods and
techniques to hone their craft.
Blessings to all who weighed in on this and many other blind issues. WE all
continue to learn!  Thanks!
Sue H.

On Sat, May 29, 2010 at 1:37 PM, Heather <craney07 at rochester.rr.com> wrote:

> A couple of things.  One thing is that reading Braille music isn't enough.
> It is a good start, but she will have to be able to sight sing it to some
> extent.  I understand that she is not a vocalist, but memorizing theoretical
> music you have just read and then transfering that to the trumpet, piano,
> violin, etc, is not practical.  However, if she can read it, while using
> solfedge, or simply humming or singing the pitches, she will be able to
> translate that to her instrument.  Some sighted musicians only ever look at
> the music while playing, and that is it.  But the good sighted musicians,
> the intelligent and tallented and practical ones will hum or sing the
> pitches while reading the music at times, to get an idea of what they want
> to hear when they play it.  Additionally, no blind musician, no matter how
> good can read while playing, sence, the fingers can't be in two places at
> once.  So, whoever is teaching her Braille music should also be focusing on
> having her be able to sing or hum the pitches as she goes, not merely
> recognize which positions on her instrument should corrispond to the notes
> on the page, or what musical theory figure the notes on the page are
> representing.  One thing that I have to disagree with you on, to some
> extent, is that musicians will never be able to perform a piece completely
> their own way, if they learn it by ear from a recording of someone else
> playing it.  A medioker musician with technical ability, but no artistic
> vision or true tallent might struggle with interpriting the music into their
> own take on it, but a truly good musician should not have a problem with
> this.  I do absolutely agree that Braille music is important and should be
> learned, but that is not the main reason, and it is dangerous to make that
> assertion, because I know some amazing musicians far better than me, better
> than you and better than your  daughter, who learned purely by ear, out of
> neccessity at the time, who sing or play a song their way, with their own
> understanding of the music, despite learning from the performance of others.
> Also, very few musicians play a piece the way "The composer intended it."
> for two reasons.  A.  That is limiting, and all true artists will do
> something different in terms of tone or inflection, and B.  Every publishing
> company of braille, print or electronic sheet music is biased in one way or
> another and will interprit a composer's origional score in different ways,
> although I do understand the point you were trying to make.
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Mike Freeman" <k7uij at panix.com>
> To: "NFBnet Blind Kid Mailing List,(for parents of blind children)" <
> blindkid at nfbnet.org>
> Sent: Saturday, May 29, 2010 12:36 AM
> Subject: Re: [blindkid] braille music notation?
>
>
> I concur completely.
>>
>> Mike Freman, member
>> Board of Directors
>> National Federation of the Bliknd
>>
>> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Deborah Kent Stein" <
>> dkent5817 at att.net>
>> To: "NFBnet Blind Kid Mailing List,(for parents of blind children)" <
>> blindkid at nfbnet.org>
>> Sent: Friday, May 28, 2010 1:58 PM
>> Subject: Re: [blindkid] braille music notation?
>>
>>
>>
>>>
>>> I am not a musician myself, but I know several serious blind musicians
>>> all of whom are proficient users of Braille music.  I think the same
>>> argument we make for literary Braille can be applied to Braille music code -
>>> if being able to read notation is important for sighted students, it is
>>> important for blind students as well.  A student who learns exclusively by
>>> listening to the performances of others never has full access to what the
>>> composer intended; he/she only knows how others have interpreted the
>>> material.
>>>
>>> Debbie
>>>
>>> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Richard Holloway" <
>>> rholloway at gopbc.org>
>>> To: "NFBnet Blind Kid Mailing List,(for parents of blind children)" <
>>> blindkid at nfbnet.org>
>>> Sent: Friday, May 28, 2010 12:58 PM
>>> Subject: Re: [blindkid] braille music notation?
>>>
>>>
>>> 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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>>>>
>>>>
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