[blindkid] .brf file & Music braille

Thu Jan 14 22:10:57 UTC 2016

Very interesting.  Thanks for posting, Bill.

Carol

Carol Castellano
Parents of Blind Children-NJ
National Organization of Parents of Blind Children
973-377-0976
carol_castellano at verizon.net
www.blindchildren.org
www.nopbc.org

On Sat, Jan 9, 2016 at 10:40 AM, Bill via blindkid <blindkid at nfbnet.org>
wrote:

> Hello, Traci,
>
> If you did obtain that .brf file from the NLS Music Section, I think it is
> safe to presume that it has been proofed and is correct.  You should only
> need to run Duxbury and open it as a braille file.
>
> If the braille appears wrong, and your machine is running a screen reader
> such as JAWS, make sure that the screen reader is not translating the text
> of the .brf file.  That is, turn any automatic braille translation function
> of the screen reader off.  I am a subscriber to their service too so I
> could
> download a copy and check it out for you if need be.
>
> As Chris Nusbaum notes, we do make accessible music software but it creates
> formatted braille scores.  That is, it does not read formatted braille
> files
> such as .brf files but rather writes formatted braille output.  Our
> GoodFeel
> translator creates formatted braille files with the .gf extension.  Recent
> versions of Duxbury will recognize .gf files as formatted braille and open
> them.  For older versions of Duxbury, you can simply rename the .gf files
> to
> .brf and then open them.
>
> The NLS Music Section has some helpful online resources to get you up and
> running with music braille including a free download of a book I wrote with
> Richard Taesch entitled
> "Who's Afraid of Braille Music?"  available in both braille and print.
> This
> book explains the differences between the braille and print systems for
> notating music and why Louis Braille invented his ingenious system.
>
> Our book also debunks certain myths about the braille music system such as
> that it is just impossibly difficult to learn, etc., etc.  The book
> explains
> that Braille himself was French and called the note we call Middle C "DO"
> (pronounced doe).  Only certain Germanic languages like English give
> alphabetic names to the 7 degrees of the scale.  When Braille devised his
> system, he was definitely not thinking of C, D, E, F, G, A and B as the
> names of the notes but rather, Do, RE, MI, FA, SOL, LA and TI (or some
> systems call it SI).  He decided to use the 7 dot patterns we know and love
> in literary braille as the letters D through J to represent the 7 notes of
> the scale.  He probably chose these patterns because each character has at
> least 1 dot in the top to rows of the cell.
>
> When teaching braille music, we always introduce the notes using their
> solfege names and not their letter names.  This approach helps students to
> train their brains to perform the required "code switching" needed to
> distinguish between music braille and literary braille.  The same kind of
> code switching is needed to know the difference between literary braille
> and
> math braille.
>
> Otherwise, teachers risk creating the following unfortunate but
> all-to-often
> situation:
>
> Teacher: "Today Joey, I am going to teach you music braille.
>
> Joey: Yay! Sound fun!
>
> Teacher: OK, Joey.  Here's a line of music notes for the note C, the first
> note of the scale.  C is dots 1, 4, 5.
>
> Joey: Wait a minute.  No it isn't!  The dots for C are 1, 4.  This system
> doesn't make any sense!
>
> Teacher: Hmm, you're right, Joey.  Let's move on to something else.
>
> Again, I am sure that Monsieur le Professeur Braille was thinking about
> geometric patterns to form the seven degrees of the scale and not letter
> names.  He uses the top 4 dots of the braille cell in combinations to form
> the scale degrees.  He uses the bottom two dots, dots 3 and 6, to indicate
> the duration of the note.  Consequently, under the tip of a finger, we can
> learn both the pitch and the duration of a note instantaneously.  For
> example, if I feel dots 1-2-3-4-6, I immediately know that it is a
> whole-note MI (pronounced me) or, in the English letter name system, the
> note E.
>
> NLS also has copies of Richard Taesch's series of courses for learning
> braille music which you can borrow for up to six months in both print and
> braille editions.  Look for:
> An Introduction to Music for the Blind Student
> And
> An Introduction to Piano for the Blind Student
>
> The NLS page is:
> http://www.loc.gov/nls/music/index.html
>
> If you want to order your own copies of these publications, just go to:
> http://www.dancingdots.com/main/braillemusicinstruction.htm
>
> Bill
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Fri, 8 Jan 2016 13:10:25 -0500
> From: Chris Nusbaum <cnusbaumnfb at gmail.com>
> To: "Blind Kid Mailing List,    (for parents of blind children)"
>         <blindkid at nfbnet.org>
> Subject: Re: [blindkid] .brf file & Music braille
> Message-ID: <E795648E-90BC-4FD0-8FB1-D3BDEBB3E365 at gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain;       charset=utf-8
>
> If you have the Dancing Dots suite, you may need to run it through Lime in
> order to format it correctly. You could then export it to Duxbury directly
> from Lime and emboss it. Just a thought?sorry I don't know many details. I
> read Braille music often, but don't know much about transcription.
>
> Chris Nusbaum
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>
> > On Jan 8, 2016, at 12:36 PM, Traci W via blindkid <blindkid at nfbnet.org>
> wrote:
> >
> > Hello!  I'm just at the very beginning of figuring out music braille.
> > My child will start band next year in middle and I can find the book I
> > need on NLS in braille - but I have no idea what to do with it now that I
> have it.
> >
> > I am a braillist (in the middle she will attend), and we use Duxbury,
> > I haven't figured out how to open it to make the braille correct.  It
> > isn't capitalizing anything, names, etc. so that seems odd.
> >
> > Does anyone have any experience opening a .brf file and getting it
> > open in Duxbury correctly?
> >
> > Thank you!
> > Traci
> > _______________________________________________
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> blindkid:
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> > ail.com
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 4
> Date: Fri, 08 Jan 2016 15:56:31 -0600
> From: David Andrews <dandrews at visi.com>
> To: david.andrews at nfbnet.org
> Subject: [blindkid] Fwd: Re: Get 3 FREE braille books from Seedlings!
> Message-ID: <auto-000046784055 at mailfront2.g2host.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed
>
>
> >
> >Great news! Every blind or visually impaired child (ages 0-21) in the
> >U.S. and Canada may now get 3 FREE books from Seedlings Braille Books
> >for Children!  Seedlings has expanded its Book Angel Program for 2016!
> >The program was originally called "Anna's Book Angel Project" in memory
> >of our Director's 19-year-old daughter who was killed by a drunk driver
> >in 2001. Each year, every blind child registered received 1 free book
> >in Anna's name, but thanks to Seedlings' generous donors, that number
> >is now 3! Just register your child or student by going to
> ><http://goo.gl/0LebRT>http://goo.gl/0LebRT
> >
> >Karen S. Smith
> >Community Outreach Manager
> >Seedlings Braille Books for Children
> >734-427-8552 x 301
> >www.seedlings.org
> >Follow us on Facebook and Twitter (@SeedlingsBrlBks)!
> >"Placing a book in a child's hands is like planting a seed."
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >From: David Andrews <dandrews at visi.com>
> >To: seedlink7 at ameritech.net
> >Sent: Thursday, January 7, 2016 12:48 AM
> >Subject: Message
> >
> >You sent me a message about getting 3 free books from Seedlings.  I
> >accidently deleted it, can you send again.
> >
> >Dave
> >
> >
> >
> >         David Andrews and long white cane Harry.
> >E-Mail:  <mailto:dandrews at visi.com>dandrews at visi.com or
> ><mailto:david.andrews at nfbnet.org>david.andrews at nfbnet.org
> >
> >
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Subject: Digest Footer
>
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>
> ------------------------------
>
> End of blindkid Digest, Vol 141, Issue 2
> ****************************************
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