Braille Music: Let’s Tackle the Basics! (Extra 22)

Topics covered in this session:

• Debunking some myths
• Notes and note values - quavers, crotchets, minims, semibreves and dotted notes
• Sharp, flat and natural signs
• Time signatures and their placement - 2/4, 3/4, 4/4, common time, 6/8, 9/8
• Key signatures and their placement - D major (2 sharps), A major (3 sharps), B major (5 sharps) and F sharp major (6 sharps)

Resources of interest:

• RNIB Music Advisory Service
• Braille Music for Beginners for the Piano by Joan Partridge: available from RNIB, product code 25282902 (braille) or 25282903 (print)
• A Course in Braille Music by Maeve Smith
• Focus on Braille Music by Lisette Wesseling, published by Musicians in Focus Ltd and available from Techno-Vision Systems Ltd
• Who's Afraid of Braille Music? by Richard Taesch and William R. McCann, available from Dancing Dots
• Braille Music in a Digital Age, by Roger Firman and Clare Gailans, published by the International Council on English Braille at its Seventh General Assembly (2020):
  • Microsoft Word
  • BRF
  • Video presentation by Roger Firman and James Bowden on Youtube
• Hadley School for the Blind braille music course (no longer available)
• ICEB Braille Music page
• New International Manual of Braille Music Notation
• BrailleOrch (in English)
• Braille Music Editor

Follow @stuartlawler and @roisindermody on Twitter

Join the next event on Monday 10 May 2021 at 8:00 PM in the UK and Ireland

Join the Braillists Foundation on Clubhouse