[accessibleimage] Fw: Fw: Sight Reading of Braille Music

----- Original Message ----- 
From: billlist1@xxxxxxxxxxx 
To: Robert Jaquiss 
Sent: Tuesday, December 09, 2008 4:07 PM
Subject: Re: Fw: [accessibleimage] Sight Reading of Braille Music


Dear Robert,

Thank you for forwarding this message.  Please send the following reply for me 
as I am indeed not a member of this listserv called AccessibleImage.

Dear Members of the AcessibleImage List,

Robert Jaquiss kindly forwareded a copy of the message below to me.  I am not 
subscribed to this list so if you wish to send me an E-mail, please use my 
info@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx address.

As the term implies, sight-reading involves seeing a piece of music for the 
first time and playing it "at sight".  In fact, blind singers who read braille 
music can sight-read music.  But for those of us blind musicians who are not 
singers, we must study and memorize the braille score before we can perform it. 
 However, we now have technology to augment the information provided on a 
hardcopy braille page.  Please read on to learn more.

As Robert knows, I founded Dancing Dots 16 years ago.  It is a technology 
company for blind musicians.  We have developed the GOODFEEL Braille Music 
Translator which has been integrated with a mainstream music notation editor 
called Lime.  Lime is comparable to Finale or Sibelius but has been marketed as 
shareware.  

Anyhow, if the new material to be learned can be obtained in the form of a Lime 
notation file, the student can learn by listening to the PC perform the music 
inn tempo or moving through the score note by note or chord by chord.  The JAWS 
screen reader verbally describes the note as it sounds.  Users with a 
refreshable braille display can feel the corresponding braille music symbols as 
they navigate through the score.  Print and braille notation scrolls in sync so 
that sighted and blind musicians working together always know the bar and beat 
of the highlighted note  This integration facilitates communication between 
sighted musicians who may not know how to read braille music and blind 
musicians who know little or nothing of how print music is read.

Creating Lime files can be accomplished by scanning hardcopy print music using 
the SharpEye Music Reader music OCR software included with GOODFEEL, by 
importing it in the form of MusicXML which can be exported from third-party 
music editors such as Finale or Sibelius, or Lime files can be created directly 
by typing in or playing in the notes using the PC and musical keyboards.

Using Lime, one can vary the playback tempo and even mute or solo individual 
parts.  For example, if you have memorized the music for the first section of 
the soprano part of a vocal score, you can mute the soprano part during 
playback.  Then, as the PC plays the other parts, you can play or sing the 
soprano part that you have memorized. Or, alternatively, you can simply listen 
to the audio playback while reading along from your hardcopy score.

The Lime notation editor permits you to transpose music using the Key Signature 
dialog that appears after you press CONTROL+K.

Here's a bit more information about Lime and Lime Aloud.  See 
www.DancingDots.com and follow links to GOODFEEL or Lime Aloud to learn more.  
Click on "Presentations" link from our home page to choose from a list of audio 
and video presentations you can review or see the Lime Aloud page to download 
the mp3 file for that audio presentation.

Lime is software that lets you read and write printed music notation. Lime 
Aloud gives the blind musician excellent access to Lime's rich set of notation 
editing features. With the JAWS for Windows screen reader software installed, 
Lime Aloud provides the blind musician with verbal and musical cues that make 
it easy to use Lime independently and most productively. 
Lime Aloud functions as a stand-alone product and also as a feature of the 
GOODFEEL Braille Music Translator software from Dancing Dots. In addition to 
the many verbal and musical cues Lime Aloud provides, GOODFEEL customers can 
read the equivalent braille music for the current measure on their electronic 
braille display. Of course, GOODFEEL can also convert the entire Lime file into 
the equivalent music braille and send it to your embosser to make a hardcopy 
document. Go to www.DancingDots.com and select the link for GOODFEEL for more 
information. 
Using Lime with Lime Aloud, you can: 
Listen to playback of all or selected parts in tempo with a metronomic click as 
a reference. It's easy to set playback tempo at, under or over the marked tempo 
of the piece. 
Memorize new material by listening to the verbal and musical cues as you move 
note by note or chord by chord through the Lime file. 
Play along on your own instrument with Lime's playback at a practice or 
performance tempo. 
Prepare printed scores of your musical ideas such as original compositions and 
arrangements or assignments for music courses. 
You will find a brief audio presentation  demonstrating our access solution to 
the Lime notation editor at:
http://www.dancingdots.com/prodesc/limealoud.htm 
See the heading labeled:
Audio Presentation of Lime Aloud Available for Download 

Alternatively, go to www.DancingDots.com and follow the "Presentations" link 
and then select the Lime Aloud demo from the list.

Regards from Dancing Dots!

Bill McCann
Founder and President since 1992
www.DancingDots.com


  -------------- Original message -------------- 
  From: "Robert Jaquiss" <rjaquiss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> 

  Hello Bill:

       I thought I would send this your way, since I don't think you are on the 
accessibleimage list.

  Regards,

  Robert Jaquiss

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Phillip M Minyard (pminyard) 
  To: 'accessibleimage@xxxxxxxxxxxxx' 
  Sent: Friday, December 05, 2008 2:06 PM
  Subject: [accessibleimage] Sight Reading of Braille Music


  We are fortunate to be able to Email a great guy who Brailles music for a 
student who is blind. The student is a music, voice, major at the University, 
but an essential element of the music program is sight reading music 
selections, learning and playing new selections on the piano, and transposing 
music.

   

  Can any of you offer suggestions as to how we can facilitate this by more 
than just handing him sheets of Braille embossed music?

   

  Phillip Minyard
  Disability Services Coordinator

  Student Disability Services

  University of Memphis
  110 Wilder Tower
  Memphis, TN  38152-3520
  Voice 678-2880 - fax 678-3070

   

  "Education is what survives when what has been learned has been forgotten."

  B. F. Skinner

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