Re: Producing scores for visually impaired and blind people

[David Kastrup]

Dirk Koopman <address@hidden> writes:

> There is something called "Music Braille", invented by the man
> himself. But, I am reliably informed by an ex-chairman of the RNIB (a
> fine tenor) that it really is too much trouble to use because it is a)
> verbose b) requires a spare hand that would otherwise be playing the
> instrument and c) is made even more difficult when lyrics are
> involved.
>
> So he learns his part, by ear, and just uses normal  braille for the
> underlay.

I encounter a lot of music first as sheet music, developing my own
artistic vision (or rather soundscape?) without ever having heard it
first.  While a Braille version would in most situations not allow for
sight-reading, it should at least facilitate off-line study, either as
only source of information or supplemental.

Also I would imagine that learning by ear is pretty tricky for ensemble
rather than solo work.  Availability is likely not favoring Braille
currently: you are probably only likely to find Braille renditions for
music that is "important" enough that recordings are plentiful.  I have
no idea whether LilyPond could make a difference here if Braille
renditions "just fell out" in a manner similar to how Midi renditions
are done.

I don't know whether Braille distinguishes cis and des: if it does, that
would likely be the major stumbling block against just using a
computer-generated Midi as the starting point for Braille generation.

-- 
David Kastrup