Articles - Part 2

KNOWING THE SCORE

Technology and Resources for the Blind Musician from Dancing Dots

Second Article in a Three-Part Series:

By Bill McCann

Reprinted with permission from the AT Journal, Volume 44, March 1, 2002,

The AT Journal is a publication of the AT Network and operates out of the
California Foundation for Independent Living Centers. To view the current
issue of the AT Journal, go to
www.atnet.org.

Author's Note: This series of articles describes technology and related educational resources to support the blind musician. In the first article, I described a new course in braille music reading. In a future article I'll cover access to mainstream music software for creating audio recordings and printed scores. The following article focuses on the importance of braille music literacy and the development of the GOODFEEL Braille Music Translator to automate braille music transcription.

Mrs. Bettye Krolick, whom I fondly refer to as the Fairy Godmother of Braille Music, likes to tell a story about her first experience of transcribing music into braille. It was 1970. She had studied hard and learned to transcribe her first assignment, some clarinet music for a local elementary school student named Jeff. Soon after, at an early morning band rehearsal, she observed the student, braille score on his music stand, playing one of the parts before practice began. A couple of the sighted students looked on, and one said to the other in admiration: "He plays from memory!"

On hearing this remark, Jeff sat up straight and tall in his chair and played on with greater confidence than ever. This simple but eloquent gesture by a blind fourth-grader motivated Mrs. Krolick to dedicate a substantial portion of her time and energy to this very day to transcribing, standardizing and promoting the use of music braille all over the world. She quickly realized that memorization comes naturally to the blind and that she could provide in braille the unfiltered information the composer meant to convey to the player.

Certainly, information is power. Having the information we need, when we need it, empowers us blind people to participate and even lead. Knowing the score gives us confidence to succeed. This young clarinetist has gone on to succeed in areas unrelated to music. But his positive experience and elevated self-esteem gained through his school band days certainly played a part in his subsequent success.

Literacy leads to inclusion and independence. For example, although 70 percent of the blind are unemployed, the vast majority of those who do have jobs can read braille. No doubt, the benefits of literacy are not confined to the sighted. Educators are increasingly aware of the importance of braille literacy. Unfortunately, we still hear of mainstream music educators and even vision teachers who sincerely believe that a blind student need not learn to read music! Some prestigious colleges and universities continue to confer advanced degrees in music to blind graduates who are functionally illiterate when it comes to reading music. We are beginning to see a shift in these attitudes but there is still a long way to go.

So how do we create a ready supply of material in music braille? We simply don't have enough Bettye Krolicks to produce braille music for students and professionals. In fact, today there are only a few dozen active transcribers certified by the Library of Congress. In my own study of music, from elementary school through graduation from a conservatory, I was constantly confronted with the challenge of obtaining music I needed to learn in the form of braille notation.

By 1992, after working as a full-time Systems Analyst for a Philadelphia-based oil company while continuing to perform as a part-time professional musician, it was time for me to pursue my dream of automating the process of transcribing music into braille. In the early 1980's, I began to hear of software that allowed sighted people to print music using a PC. I reasoned that, if we could print music with a computer, we could certainly braille it out too. In 1992 I formed what would become Dancing Dots. In 1997 we released the first version of our GOODFEEL Braille Music Translator.

Sighted people, who know something about conventional staff notation, can scan and edit music using mainstream software. Once the music they see on the screen agrees with the music on the hardcopy version, they simply pass the information to GOODFEEL, which produces the equivalent braille characters and sends them to a braille embosser or printer. The result: students and professionals receive their braille scores on time according to current production standards.

Blind users also benefit from GOODFEEL. They can scan printed music too, although support from a sighted helper is sometimes required to clean up scanning errors. The results can be imported into Cakewalk, a mainstream music editor and sequencer. The blind musician can add title text and other annotations to the piece and pass the information on to GOODFEEL for conversion into braille.

In dozens of countries, GOODFEEL's users are bringing literacy, independence and inclusion for blind people to life by opening the doors to the world of music. For more information please see www.dancingdots.com or call toll-free: 1-866-336-8746 (1-866-D-Dots-GO).

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