[Menvi-discuss] Support for sighted musicians learning Braille music?

Thu Apr 27 19:45:03 EDT 2023

Hi All,

I think this is an absolutely excellent idea and have not seen anything fully online in the way of a course.  I have a young friend who has been helping me with some reading of music and did enquire as to steps on how he could learn Braille music if he was interested.  If there was a course available he could do in his own time at his own pace and just get a taste of it to see I think he would at least look into it.  I know of another partially sighted lady who is keen to learn also with the aim of being able to transcribe and assist others but also has not found an easy path way to learning.

One of the barriers I often hear put in front of people is the idea that they need to be proficient in literary Braille before they start learning music.  I can see why for reading by touch this is really important as I quickly found that without context and so many formations with dense dots I had to set music learning aside while I improved my literary and touch.  But for a sighted person who has good music skills I really can’t see why they can’t learn Braille music without the literary first and a basic knowledge of the alphabet would suffice for uncontracted titles and other small bits of text in the music at a basic level.

I am imagining an online course that utilizes something like Lee’s materials or even one of the regular courses for learning Braille music but simply puts the text elements into print, so no assumption of already reading Braille.  I would love to see examples that could be done lesson by lesson online and self marked.  Maybe if the set up could have a screen of explanation about a topic followed by examples that comprise a blank music staff with Braille exercise below and using a palette selection tool they could click the correct notes onto the staff to duplicate the Braille and then have a button at the end that says check answer and when pressed adds the correct answer in a different colour over top of their notation so they can easily see if they have errors.  The reverse could then be done on further exercises so it gives the staff notation and a field below which they can 6 key entry the corresponding Braille.

A tool like that would be amazing.  I think we have an urgent need to be training up the next generation of music transcribers and something that gives as many people as possible a basic knowledge and taste of what it is like would cast the net as wide as possible so that some having done a basic online course might then be keen enough to develop their skills further.

Jeanie

From: Menvi-discuss On Behalf Of Lee Strickland via Menvi-discuss
Sent: Friday, April 28, 2023 9:36 AM
To: This is for discussing music and braille literacy <menvi-discuss at menvi.org>
Cc: Lee Strickland <dottedbeats at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Menvi-discuss] Support for sighted musicians learning Braille music?

Hi Mark,

I have been wanting to create an online accessible Braille Music Course for so long but do not have the technical skills to do so.  I have asked the creators of UEB Online (free braille literacy program) to make a Braille Music Course but I know this is a big task and nothing as yet has come about.

I work with students and adults teaching them Braille Music, some of whom have recently lost or have had severe decline in vision and others who are blind.  The main book I use, and have learnt from being sighted myself is Mary De Garmo's Introduction to Braille Music Transcription.  This is my Braille Music Bible : )

It is not a braille music course, rather a guide for sighted users to learn braille music.  Having over 15 years teaching music as a teacher (both secondary schooling and special needs), I make my own programs to teach based on the knowledge I have learnt from the De Garmo book (and others).

I can send you the words and brf files of this book if you like?  

I would also be more than happy to share resources I have made to help students and adults learn how to read and write Braille Music.  Please let me know offline if you would like to chat more about this?

Warm regards,

Lee Strickland 

Dotted Beats Pty Ltd

  <https://ci3.googleusercontent.com/mail-sig/AIorK4z1HrfxCXPC77jZBUGEzEcCQFsZ_m2RsYPNGohR8zw1x-35JZOv-Id7GL2o2rKzPutq2TKNNc8> 

Music Tuition and Mentoring: 

Multiple Disabilities and Vision Impairment

P:  0428 697 370

E:   <mailto:dottedbeats at gmail.com> dottedbeats at gmail.com

On Fri, 28 Apr 2023 at 05:38, Marc Sabatella via Menvi-discuss <menvi-discuss at menvi.org <mailto:menvi-discuss at menvi.org> > wrote:

As a sighted educator who sometimes works with blind students, I've learned a bit of Braille here and there.  I've long had it in my head to learn more - not expecting to become fluent, but just to be able to help students more.  Also to be able to do small amounts of transcription of simple examples using the basic tools available to me (automatic conversion tools, editing in Toby Rush's Braille Music Notator, etc).  And now, I have one student who is also an educator and is not currently blind but recently learned that this is probably in her future, so she is also interested in getting a head start on learning Braille music.

I'm wondering two things.  One, what resources might one recommend for someone in my/our position - sighted educators wanting to learn a little more than just the basics of Braille music?  And two, on the assumption that there really isn't a resource perfectly tailored for this already, what could I do to help facilitate something along these lines?  I have experience in creating accessible online courses and I have a reasonably accessible online community where I could host someone interested in coming on as a coach.

-- 

Marc Sabatella
marc at outsideshore.com <mailto:marc at outsideshore.com> 

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