[Menvi-discuss] Sight-reading

[Rick Coates]

Brandon, since a greater deal of bias is created by the conductor I would
suggest you go to school and train to be a conductor, whether it is for
sighted or blind.  Rick

On Tue, Jan 10, 2012 at 10:26 PM, Brandon Keith Biggs <
brandonboy13 at comcast.net> wrote:

>   Hello,
> It is one of my dreams to be able to create a conductor's wand that blind
> musicians can follow. I’m planning on making it through school and gather
> information on what I’d need to get company's interested in developing a
> product like this, but so far I haven’t had much success by telling the
> company's that this wand is crucial in being a professional blind musician.
> I need to get numbers and info on grants and funding to be a little more
> convincing in my arguments. If anyone knows how many blind musicians
> graduate from college each year, or how many there are out in the world, or
> know anything like that it would be very helpful. Perhaps this is something
> Dancing Dots could do? Because I’m not sure if DD has literally fulfilled
> the “Dancing” part of their name yet [image: Smile with tongue out].
>
> I’m not sure what level of orchestras you play in, but I know in my
> community theater I’m barely able to convince the musical directors to let
> me be a part of the chorus because I can’t see the conductor. I’ve talked
> to the smaller professional Opera houses and they said absolutely not ever
> as a lead if I can’t follow the conductor.
> In the professional orchestras that I’ve sung with and my friends sing
> with they meet around 4 times before they perform. If I’m able to make it
> to the big Opera houses like San Francisco I won’t be in rehearsal a day if
> I want to make an understudy debut. If you can’t follow the conductor you
> are unprofessional and won’t be hired, especially in the Opera world. The
> argument against just listening to the music is that because you are behind
> the pit and about 30-40 feet away from the front row the time it takes the
> sound to reach your ears, your brain to respond and the sound from your
> voice to reach the audience you are a half a beet too late. In even the
> community houses that I am a chorus member for, a half a beet is enough to
> never get you hired back.
> I’m surprised nothing like this has been developed considering its crucial
> role in a musician's life.
> Thanks,
>
> Brandon Keith Biggs
>
>  *From:* SClark6144 at aol.com
> *Sent:* Tuesday, January 10, 2012 7:55 AM
> *To:* menvi-discuss at menvi.org
> *Subject:* Re: [Menvi-discuss] Sight-reading
>
>  Sometimes you can play with a local group.  Forget the New York
> Philharmonic.
> My student is in college now, and he does not play anymore.
>
> As for following a conductor, the violins have it easy because they can
> tell what to do by hearing the other violins.  If you played a wind, it
> would be much harder because they don't run in a pack like the strings.
>
> Also, as a harpist, I practice my parts with recordings, so when I'm
> practicing, I'm playing without seeing a conductor.
>
> Some orchestra or band players don't look at the conductor much.  You can
> tell during rehearsal because when the conductor wants to stop and tell
> them something, there will be people still playing after he's given the
> signal to stop, so you know they weren't watching him.
>
> Syl
>
>
>
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