[Menvi-discuss] In need of persuasive braille music vibes for wayward education planners

[Brandon Keith Biggs]

Hello,
You can't do classical music theory, jazz music theory or any in depth 
quality music theory on a competitive level without Braille music.
If she ever wants to do anything with music later on she needs Braille 
music or she will be viewed as the poor blind musician who needs to be 
spoon fed all her music (Yes, being spoon fed is the term musicians use 
to describe learning by ear).
Ask any professional musician why print music is important. Take what 
they say and multiply that importance by 2. Because she is blind she 
needs to be on the ball for learning any new piece she is handed and 
can't just be handed a piece of music, she has to know it in and out.
She needs to be able to say: Vas ist Sylvia. Is in the key of F, 4/4. My 
first measure is A3 half dotted, f3 quarter. Measure two is f3 quarter, 
e3 quarter, quarter rest. The words for that line of music are: Vas ist 
Sylvia.
I know that because I memorized the music off the page and didn't use my 
ear to count or get notes. For Ombra mai fu that I learned by ear, I 
have no idea how long the first note is. I know it is an A3, but I just 
hold it till I hear my queue in the music.
Because when one is performing correctly they are counting themselves, 
and not taking their queues off the music, learning by ear is like 
learning a map by having it described to you. A picture paints a 
thousand words and a recording is the distilled output everyone hears. 
You don't see all the details when you are being described a picture, 
you only get what you know to ask about.
  If you want another example, A computer program is thousands of lines 
of code, even a simple application has tons of code. One can't create a 
copy of that program without reading that code. If there is a message 
that pops up after the program has been idle for 5 min its, there is no 
way to know that message will show up without trying it first. If you 
don't have all the same features in your program as the original, it 
isn't the same program, it is different.

If I have any mis spellings in this message it is because I didn't here 
them with my screen reeder. This message sounds perfect and is perfect 
spelling wize. It isn't important to know how to spell because everyone 
nos wat ai am trying to sei.
My voice teacher's motto is:
"Music is nothing but precise."
lurning by ere is anything but procyse.
Thanks,

Brandon Keith Biggs

On 8/29/2013 10:41 AM, David Goldstein - Resource Center wrote:
> I see we listers are out in full force today.  I was wondering whether 
> students and teachers on the list could write in a few sentences in 
> support of braille music for a high school student, for whom there are 
> some "you don't need to do something so hard" people involved in the 
> school year planning.
> This is a bright, literary braille reading  student we've worked with, 
> who started learning braille music last year and has already been 
> reading some of her choir parts.  She plans to take theory in fall 
> 2014, and this year, time was supposed to be set aside to help her 
> gain more braille music fluency and to learn how to use Lime Aloud.  
> Last week, someone came along (a blind pop musician, actually) and 
> suggested to the family that she could do just fine without braille, 
> and the family is asking the teachers to reconsider.  So far, the 
> teachers remain firm on the braille front, but the dykes are 
> weakening.  The vision teacher asks,
> ... "for info on students that learned the braille music code, went on 
> to college, used the software, or pursued a music career. Info such 
> as: did they pursue music in college? Did they graduate? Did they 
> continue to use the braille music code and was it helpful? What are 
> they doing now?"
> Could a few of you send me a few sentences on your successes and how 
> not knowing the code would have been difficult for theory and choir, 
> etc.?  No need for editorials on what should be, because we know it.  
> I'd just like to be able to give this conscientious vision teacher 
> some positive statistics.  The student already knows ten of the 
> lesssons in the Primer, so it would seem she would have more to 
> unlearn than what she needs to learn now.
> Thanks,
> David
>
>
>
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