Survey
* Your assessment is very important for improving the workof artificial intelligence, which forms the content of this project
* Your assessment is very important for improving the workof artificial intelligence, which forms the content of this project
DANCING DOTS Latest Technology and Publications Presented to International Symposium on Braille Music Notes November 13th and 14th, 2008 German Central Library for the Blind (DZB), Leipzig By William R. McCann Founder and President Dancing Dots Braille Music Technology, L.P. USA DANCING DOTS Latest Technology and Publications Automatic Transcription of Braille Music Accessible Music Notation Editor Series of Publications on Teaching Braille Music Overview GOODFEEL® from Dancing Dots® comes with a suite of software that make the following possible: Sighted non-specialists can create braille music scores without necessarily knowing braille or braille music. Blind musicians can learn new material prepared for them by receiving information via a multisensory experience. That is, they receive musical, verbal and braille information about the score which is also displayed on the screen for sighted musicians to review. Print and braille music scrolls in sync. Blind musicians can independently enter, revise and print out music notation of all kinds so that sighted teachers, colleagues and students can read and perform the compositions/arrangements of the blind. Automatic Transcription of Braille Music One of the basic challenges for blind musicians is to learn new material from printed scores. GOODFEEL and related software make it possible to prepare accessible materials in the form of braille music notation, audio playback, and verbal description. GOODFEEL works together with two mainstream pieces of software: the Lime notation editor and the SharpEye Music Reader for scanning notation. Lime Aloud is a set of JAWS scripts that make Lime accessible to blind musicians. GOODFEEL can not only transcribe musical information into music braille but can also transcribe literary text such as titles and lyrics. There is also an optional integration with the Duxbury Braille Translator to facilitate transcription of materials with large blocks of text interspersed with musical excerpts. All programs were originally published in English. Lime and Lime Aloud have been localized to German and Spanish. There is also a German-language version of SharpEye. GOODFEEL relies on mature, mainstream music technology to handle scanning and editing tasks. Although there are 3 separate programs, each one can launch the next so that processing flows from one piece of software to the next. That is, one can launch Lime directly from SharpEye's menu and one can launch GOODFEEL directly from Lime's menu. Dancing Dots has integrated GOODFEEL into Lime making it possible to display the equivalent braille music simultaneously with the print notation on screen. This approach has benefits and challenges. By using established scanning and editing software, Dancing Dots can focus on development of the missing link, automatic braille music transcription. On the other hand, the user must contend with 3 separate user interfaces, 3 different help systems and sets of documentation materials. The GOODFEEL software creates braille music scores from the same information used to print music with a computer. GOODFEEL can transcribe Lime notation files or MIDI files. Sighted non-specialists who prepare files for GOODFEEL need only read print music notation, not necessarily braille. The transcription process consists of the following steps: acquisition of musical information, editing to revise or add missing information, and finally transcription by GOODFEEL. Acquisition Music can be scanned by SharpEye and passed to Lime for further editing. Music can be imported directly into Lime via MusicXML. Or music can be played or typed directly into Lime using a musical keyboard and/or the PC keyboard. These processes assure entry of all notes and rhythms at the least. Scanning and importing also acquire the majority of related text and graphic annotations such as crescendos, accents and lyrics. Editing Once scores have been entered into Lime by scanning, importing or direct entry, a certain amount of editing is required before the Lime file is ready for transcription by GOODFEEL. At the minimum, one must enter the title text and name the parts using traditional orchestral names. For example, it is important to name a part "Trumpet" rather than as "Part 1". Other details of the score may need to be added such as finger numbers which SharpEye does not usually pick up or rehearsal letters which Lime does not always automatically import from a MusicXML file. If music is played in directly, all text and graphic annotations such as dynamic markings and lyrics must be entered manually. Transcription Once the Lime or MIDI file is passed to GOODFEEL, users can choose from a range of transcription options that dictate the content and format of the braille score. Current styles include common transcription options for North America, the United Kingdom and a general "International" category. Results can be viewed on a paperless display or embossed. All transcriptions are saved in an "Output" folder as formatted braille text files for future use. Accessible Music Notation Editor Blind musicians have always been challenged to express their musical ideas correctly in print notation for the sighted to read. Dancing Dots has developed the Lime Aloud scripts to enable users of JAWS to independently operate the Lime notation editor so that they can confidently create printed scores. Lime Aloud also provides the accessible environment referred to above that allows blind people to review and learn new material. One can use keystrokes from the PC keyboard to hear the sound of the previous, current or next note in the currently highlighted part, previous, current or next chord in the currently highlighted part, or previous, current or next chord in all parts. While the note or notes sound, JAWS gives a verbal description of the currently highlighted note including its pitch, octave and duration. The current bar and beat value is automatically spoken when the user moves to a new position. A set of status keys permit the user to request a report on value of current bar and beat, part name, clef, staff and system number, page number and file name. There are three ways to enter notes directly into your Lime document. 1. Choose desired rhythm and enter notes using only the PC keyboard. 2. Choose desired rhythm with PC keyboard and enter a note or chord by playing on your electronic musical keyboard. 3. Press CONTROL+R to open Lime's Record Dialog and play notes to be entered in tempo on your musical keyboard in sync with a metronomic pulse. One can insert, delete or change individual notes and rests, groups of measures and a comprehensive set of musical symbols. Lime can assign different parts to different general MIDI instruments for a more realistic playback. The braille music notation for the current measure is shown on the braille display. The cell or cells associated with the currently highlighted note in the print score on the PC’s screen bounce up and down to indicate the highlight. One can also bring a “braille window” to the foreground and move through the current page of braille text. Once all parts are complete, one can print the score or separate parts on any standard ink printer in conventional staff notation. You can also create a companion braille score with GOODFEEL. With Lime Aloud, blind musicians have excellent control over the content of their compositions to be printed. However, at this stage of development, it is important that one recruit a sighted musician to check score layout to ensure that there are an appropriate number of systems per page and that notation has an acceptable density. That is, the notation should not appear to be too crowded or too sparse. Series of Publications on Teaching Braille Music An Introduction to Music for the Blind Student: A course in Braille Music Reading Parts I and II An Introduction to Piano for the Blind Student Books 1 and 2 Dancing Dots publishes the courses above which have been authored by Richard Taesch. These courses help blind musicians to learn how to read and write braille music. They introduce concepts of music theory as related braille music symbols are introduced. Material is presented in a graded, logical progression from very simple melodies to pieces for piano using both hands. Plenty of examples, assignments and questions are provided. The author stresses the importance of solfeggio on general musical principles and particularly as a means of avoiding confusion with literary braille. The books come in both print and braille. The print editions are especially designed to help a sighted person who may not know braille and may not even know music that well to help a braille reader to learn the music braille code. For example, print notation and braille notation for the same musical examples are shown on facing pages. The braille is shown in a braille font with annotations in print to highlight the use of signs introduced in the current lesson. Blind instructors can also use the courses to teach a beginner to read braille music. Dancing Dots introduced “Who’s Afraid of Braille Music?” a few years ago. This brief book teaches the reader something about the structure of braille music but its main purpose is to persuade readers of the usefulness, appropriateness and logic of Louis Braille’s system for representing scores for the blind.