[sib-access] Re: Advice wanted - how to learn new pieces - Sibelius, Lime Aloud or something else?

  • From: "Dan Rugman" <sib-access@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: <sib-access@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Tue, 11 Nov 2008 23:35:02 -0000

Hi Chris,

If you want a personal recommendation then I can say this.  My main reason
for developing the scripts was to get access to a serious composing tool so
that I could write the music I needed to write without all that sighted
assistance.

The fact that you could use Sibelius to actually learn an existing piece
didn't really dawn on me until much later on, but when I realised how far I
could push the plug-in language I started to think along different lines.

As absurd as this sounds, the true power of this monster I created didn't
really hit me until this weekend.  I recently started work on another Bach
prelude and fugue.  I have the score in Braille and it's one of the better
transcriptions I've seen, meaning that it doesn't have any stupid mistakes,
is laid out clearly  and didn't drive me completely insane.  The prelude
didn't cause me any real problems but I found learning the fugue to be
rather tedious, so I pulled a MIDI file down off the net and opened it in
Sibelius.

I was dubious about this, because MIDI files can often need a lot of
cleaning up in Sibelius, however the classical MIDI site has a lot of good,
well transcribed MIDI files and it took about an hour to make the
adjustments so that it was laid out in the way that I wanted and I then
tried to learn it from Sibelius.

Wow! What was I wasting my time with the Braille for.  It isn't just the
part about pressing the arrow keys and having the thing read out.  I can
solo the staff and play the notes in one part over and over again, learning
the thing aurally.  I can also slow the speed down with a single keystroke,
which is always useful in a Bach fugue, they do clatter along.

I'm not saying that Sibelius replaces Braille, it definitely has its uses,
but I'm now drastically rethinking my learning procedures.  I must also say
that I'm extremely happy to be using this thing at last instead of spending
all my time with my head in a plug-in or a JAWS script.

Regarding documents on what the scripts can do.  I'll be updating the site
at the end of the week to include various goodies.

At some point in the near future I'm going to do a couple of audio demos to
show people what kind of things you can do with the scripts.  I know that a
lot of the users on the list have already been pushing them pretty hard, but
there are some interesting tricks which you can pull which haven't been
described in the documentation, at least not in length.

One thing I should warn you about is that the second beta is nearly ready
for release.  I can't commit to a date yet but several features have been
heavily rewritten to make them more reliable and much easier to use.  This
means that if you do read the design specification (called "milestone 1")
then some of that information will soon be out of date.

Regarding your specific inquiries.

You can use the arrow keys to move through the score note by note.  Each
chord is treated as a single object, so if you have a passage of chords,
pressing the right arrow key will move you to each chord in turn.  All the
notes of the chord are spoken in one message but you can use Alt+UpArrow or
Alt+DownArrow to move between each note in the chord.

All time signature and key signature changes are spoken as you arrow through
the score.  Rehearsal marks, repeat bar lines, rits, ralls and accels are
also spoken.  You can also press Control+F2 to hear the current time
signature and key signature.  F2 on its own reports the name of the staff,
the current clef and the key signature on that staff if it has one.

Every possible articulation is spoken.  You also get note head shapes and
ties.

Any annotations which are written in the score will also be spoken.  If they
are directly above or below the note then they are spoken before that note
and if they are written after the start of the note then they are spoken
after it.  These include all dynamics, expression text, technique text,
chord symbols, roman numerals or just plain old waffle.

The playback features are also useful.  You can solo an individual staff
(most people use the mixer but you can actually do this by just selecting
more than one note in the staff).  You can also use keystrokes to change the
speed that the score plays back at, Which is very useful if you're learning
a frantic study or a very boring slow movement.

We're all around if you need any further info.

Dan Rugman
 
Visit www.musicaccess.co.uk
The new on-line resource for visually impaired musicians and home of
Sibelius Access.


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