[Menvi-discuss] Quirks of print music notation

[Debra Baxley]

Thank you for the information!

Debra

-----Original Message-----
From: menvi-discuss-bounces at menvi.org
[mailto:menvi-discuss-bounces at menvi.org] On Behalf Of Bettie Downing
Sent: Thursday, August 09, 2012 7:03 PM
To: This is for discussing music and braille literacy
Subject: Re: [Menvi-discuss] Quirks of print music notation

Ha!  Good try but no cigar!!



On Aug 9, 2012, at 7:34 PM, Debra Baxley wrote:

> A sighted piano teacher told me that it is like dots 3-6 (hyphen) in
Braille.  Example: A c natural in print music would resemble an x in
Braille; the c being dots 1-4; the natural sign-dots 3-6.
>  
> Debra
>  
> From: menvi-discuss-bounces at menvi.org
[mailto:menvi-discuss-bounces at menvi.org] On Behalf Of STEPHANIE PIECK
> Sent: Thursday, August 09, 2012 10:01 AM
> To: This is for discussing music and braille literacy
> Subject: [Menvi-discuss] Quirks of print music notation
>  
> Hi again ...
>  
> In light of some of the recent discussion about print music, especially
for blind teachers working with sighted beginners, here are some quirks of
printed notation that I've encountered.
>  
> 1. Note heads are oval, not round. Line notes are positioned so that half
the note head is above the line it's on and the other half below, while
space notes are positioned so that the entire oval takes up the space it
occupies--no bulging over lines allowed!
>  
> 2. Usually, the stems on notes cover enough lines and spaces to create the
interval of an octave when measuring from the note head itself to the tip of
the note's tail. (Not useful except if you have to teach kids to notate
things. I think it's neat, though.)
>  
> 3. The innermost curl of the treble clef sign wraps around the second line
of the staff. Fourth octave G is written on this line. It is the interval of
a fifth ABOVE middle C.
>  
> 4. The bass clef sign looks something like a backwards print letter C with
two dots arranged in a vertical pair to the right of it (similar to the dot
placement of the Braille letter k). These two dots appear above and below
the fourth line of the staff. A note on this line is third octave F, a fifth
BELOW middle C.
>  
> For this reason--with the notes F and G as "landmarks", students who are
unfamiliar with old-fashioned script can easily remember "the F clef" and
"the G clef".
>  
> 5. Middle C can be written EITHER as a short ledger line above the top
line of the bass staff OR as a ledger line below the first line of the
treble staff. On a grand staff, the staves appear in pairs--treble on the
top, bass on the bottom. Some students inadvertently count each staff
separately when counting measures--so they think they've got to learn twice
as much music!
>  
> 6. A sharp sign looks like a print number sign or tic-tac-toe pattern (two
parallel vertical lines intersected at 90-degree angles by two parallel
horizontal lines). The flat sign looks like the print lowercase letter b. I
have yet to come up with a good, short description of the natural sign.
>  
> 7. The whole rest HANGS DOWN from the fourth line of the staff. The half
rest SITS UP on the third line of the staff. Both are rectangular in shape
and fill half of the space between the third and fourth lines.
>  
> 8. The quarter rest is a weird shape--it doesn't look at all like anything
else in music. I have seen it described as a sideways letter Z stuck to the
top of a slanted letter C. It's positioned in the middle of the staff.
>  
> 9. In piano music or any music containing chords, the notes to be played
simultaneously are aligned vertically with each other
>  
> 10. . But, if notes on ledger lines, especially those including middle C,
D, or B on the grand staff are to be played as a chord, they are set a bit
on a diagonal--otherwise, you'd just have this big splotch of ink with stems
coming out and couldn't tell what you were supposed to play. (Braille uses
interval signs, so often this predicament of sighted students can be
confusing.)
>  
> 11. Teach your students to recognize intervals visually based on the
number of lines and spaces between notes. This will speed up their reading
immensely:
> 2nd: always a line and the next space above or below it; or a space and
the next line above or below it
> 3rd: two consecutive lines or two consecutive spaces
> 4th: The two notes always have BOTH a line AND a space between them (and
make sure students are measuring using the heads of the notes, not the
tails, and also that they include their starting note when counting
intervals)
> 5th: A space to a space skipping over one space between, or a line to a
line skipping over one line between
>  
>  
> 6th, 7th and octave are a bit harder, but the rule is that all
ODD-NUMBERED intervals (3rd, 5th, 7th etc.) contain all lines or all spaces,
whereas all EVEN-NUMBERED intervals (2nd, 4th, 6th, octave, etc.) contain
mixtures of line notes and space notes.

>  
> Hope this helps.
>  
> Stephanie Pieck
>  
>  
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