re. on-line survey for use of braille music reading and production

Hello Keith:

I have attempted to go to the APH site, but without success.

>From our perspective at SCCM Braille Music Division, the demand for braille
music literacy is becoming most dramatic, critical, and overwhelming!  Here
are a few facts that may be of help.

Just before the program at our La Canada satellite was halted due to a
forced relocation project, our enrollment of blind music students topped
thirty alone in that division, and we had eight professional faculty and
staff serving them.  Many inquiries were turned away, as we were unable to
accommodate them due to overload. SCCM is a music conservatory - not a
school for the blind - all students are considered equally, and offered
equal opportunities in musical training. This number equals more than a
third of the school's small general roster.

Our braille music library occupies hundreds of linear shelf-feet, and
includes a database of thousands of selections, many transcribed by myself
for our students and for others at large.

Many live-in resident students had attended our facility, some from school
music programs such as Yale, Berklee College, Oberlin, and others.  When we
closed our doors more than one year ago, 12-15 anxious college resident
students were waiting to come for study, and were abandoned because we lost
our place of business.  We hope to re-open soon, and perhaps repair the
damage that has been done.

One blind student, who continued his exam preparation  with my Co-director,
acheived the highest grade in all of Southern California in the Royal
American Conservatory (Toronto) practical exam program. My Co-director is
L.A. rep for RAC examination center.  One year we placed 12 blind students
in those exams, along with many of our sighted students. That year, the
second highest grade in this sector was one of our blind children. All of
them were required to read braille music!  All of them needed their
repertoire in a timely fashion, and we met those needs.

All of this requires students who are braille music literate! ALL repertoire
is learned from the braille score, and not by ear or training tapes.
Properly trained blind students read and learn their music often more
efficiently,  and generally memorize more quickly than sighted students!

We have seen two of our students through college graduations recently, one
from USC, and the other from Berklee College of Music in Boston. The Berklee
girl is the first blind graduate enrolled in the Music Production and
Engineering program in the history of the college, the largest in the world!
All of them have required careful mentoring, training,  and tutoring in
braille music disciplines. (harmonic analysis, counterpoint, etc., is
impossible in classroom situations without it.)

As to software, I use ED-IT PC. But NONE of the technology is relavant to
the fact that students need the services of qualified - and experienced -
braille music educators and transcribers throughout their entire lives, even
after graduation. Both of which are in serious short supply!

As to your mission, "to increase the capacity to produce it," referring to
braille music, first we must offer training programs taught by qualified
educators - first in secondary schools, then in the local colleges and
elsewhere. Not only for transcribers who produce music, but for those who
train the students in HOW TO READ IT!  Unfortunately, we rarely seem to hear
of that aspect, only the transcription and production.  Without
experienced - career-based - teachers, what is the point of increased
production??

I hope that this can help in lieu of the survey on line. I will try again
later, but meanwhile, I am very grateful for an opportunity to share the
view from here.

Sincerely,
Richard Taesch
SCCM Braille Music Division - www.sccm.us
MENVI Headquarters - www.superior-software.com/menvi