Introduction
In this episode of the Sound Without Sight podcast, we host a panel discussion, curated by Zenny Jabeera, exploring the different approaches that blind musicians might take to learning music and communicating musical ideas.
We welcome three very special guests onto the panel:
- Kevin Satizabal, a composer and music journalist, currently working for the BBC;
- Andre Louis, a jazz composer and music technology accessibility consultant;
- and Clare Gailans, a braille music teacher and transcriber, and advocate for accessible formats for music notation.
The panel compare and contrast their approaches, such as using braille music notation, learning by ear, and using notation software to explore digital scores.
This episode was recorded live, as part of the Sound Without Sight Monthly Meet-up Session for June 2024, featuring questions submitted by our community.
Listen to podcast
Resources mentioned
Music-making software
- MuseScore Studio
- Live braille in MuseScore Studio
- Musescore.com score repository
- Avid Sibelius, including free plan and Dolet plugin for better MusicXML export
- Logic Pro
File formats
- BRF – Braille Ready Format digital braille file
- MusicXML files – notation files including musical information
- MIDI files – note data, originally designed for controlling synthesisers
- PDF – flattened document for printing
Converting MusicXML files into BRF
- UKAAF introduction to automated Braille Music transcription
- Sao Mai Braille (SMB)
- MakeBraille
- Dancing Dots
Converting PDF to MusicXML
- MuseScore’s inbuilt Audiveris plugin: File > Import.
- PhotoScore
- DAISY report on optical music recognition (OMR) tools
Other UKAAF resources
Sources of braille music
- RNIB Library
- RNIB Transcription service
- RNIB Shop
- Golden Chord collection
- BraillOrch.org
- Directory of international braille music production agencies
Other RNIB resources
- Guide to accessing music from RNIB
- Articles on memorising music
- RNIB braille music course
- Talking Scores
DAISY Music Braille Project
- DAISY Music Braille Project homepage
- Teaching and learning materials
- Work with RNIB and mainstream publishers – Accessible Music Publishing Action Group (AMPAG)
Music education
- QTVI – Qualified Teacher of Children and Young People with Vision Impairment
- New College Worcester
- Royal National College
- Kings College, Cambridge
- Thames Valley University
Music pieces, composers, and ensembles
- Al Nour Wal Amal Orchestra. Also see Ella Yu’s links: Reddit post, English subtitle transcript to accompany YouTube documentary, English translations of articles and interviews about the orchestra.
- Andre Louis – Morning Incoherence
- Andre Louis – The Perpetual Question
- Beethoven – Moonlight Sonata
- Steve Reich
- My Bonnie Lies over the Ocean
This is Ella. I was the person who spoke about the Egyptian Al Nour Wal Amal orchestra at this panel discussion. My commentary starts just past the 1 hour mark of the video/podcast. I did reference a reddit post I wrote about them, so I’m commenting here with the link:
https://new.reddit.com/r/classicalmusic/
In the reddit post, I also linked to a 2002 documentary about the orchestra located on YouTube. It is in Arabic, but it has on-screen subtitles in English, which I have extracted for the benefit of blind individuals who wish to watch the documentary: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1CPoTYWC5RkhvFOYYOiYJFKfXgkNoHZoakleMqDZF-84/edit?usp=drive_link
I also have a 300+ page document containing all the video interviews and articles I translated into English from Arabic via ChatGPT in order to learn more about the orchestra: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1BnQugmXcXhit-L-WDljFVLyhvakdh0J2/edit?usp=drive_link&ouid=107220353015084697485&rtpof=true&sd=true
Thanks Ella! I have added these links to the article.