[Menvi-discuss] Hi from Colorado

[Margery Herrington]

Hello David,

I hope things are going well for you.  I've been reading your assorted
posts on the MENVI list serve, and I'm sure that the people involved
appreciate your comments and help.

The spring semester went very well for Jourdan Peters.  She's now
registered for her fall classes, which include her junior recital.  This
past school year, the music department didn't have staff meetings related
to Jourdan as they had the previous year.  They now worked out their
strategies for getting the materials Jourdan needs and for involving her
in the classroom activities and don't need extra meetings.  This past
school year, the only thing they needed me to do was to braille one class
assignment that they forgot to send to the transcriber.

In May, I retired from teaching biology at Adams State and moved to
Pueblo, CO.  Pueblo has a population of about one hundred thousand,
compared to ten thousand people in Alamosa and about forty-two thousand
people in the whole San Luis Valley, which is the size of the state of
Connecticut.  I enjoyed the 17 years that I lived in the Valley, but now
that I am retired, I will enjoy the wider range of activities available in
a bigger place.  Pueblo is about 20 miles east of the mountains, so I
still have the chance to go hiking and such.

My sister and brother-in-law have a question I said I'd ask you.  They
have a friend who is about 35 years old and is blind who has just started
taking piano lessons.  He hasn't been involved with music before but is
interested in expanding his range of activities.  He's taking lessons from
a sighted person who doesn't know literary or music braille. From what my
brother-in-law has heard, it sounds like the instruction is currently
being done by rote.  Their friend, who uses literary braille, would like
to learn music braille.  What do you suggest?  Are there beginning piano
books in both music braille and print?  If so, where can they be obtained?
 Is there a book in braille for someone without a music background to use
in learning music braille?

Thanks for your help.  I'll look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,

Margery Herrington