You have raised some valid points. Perhaps HW could liaise with Dancing Dots over this? I never used the Eureka because I hated the voice and the fact that it had no Braille output, but I definitely agree that the idea of Braille music as it is now, particularly with scores, would be extremely difficult.
However, perhaps there could be a start made for students of music who want to do their music assignments on the BN. Remember, composers and various musicians might not use Braille music anymore - I am one of them when I can get away with it, but my course demands reading music as one of its criteria and the current programs available which produce Braille music, do not allow lyrics and music on the one page, to my knowledge. Anyway, I'd like to see at least something done in this area. Cheers! Michele -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of FunGuy Sent: Monday, 5 February 2007 6:30 AM To: Braillenote List Subject: Re: [Braillenote] Music Composer Wow! I hadn’t thought about the Eureka in a long time. Yes, I think the music composer on that product was interesting but it had nothing at all to do with Braille music. As I recall, you used the arrows to set pitch and time values. I use to play piano and did learn Braille music, but as I think about complex arrangements for many voices or many instruments I have a hard time even imagining it being efficient on a sheet of Braille paper. Many of the blind musicians I know don’t even read Braille music. I wonder if now is the time to rethink the way we write or lay out music in Braille. Consider the potential of vibration, the tremendous benefit of not being forced to use a 42 by 26 page, and the things we might be able to do with dot 7 and 8. I love Braille and will advocate for it any day of the week, but I wonder if the Braille music paradigm is the best approach for composing or arranging on a Braille Note? The fact that a sheet of paper in the bn could easily be 200 characters long and 100 lines down creates some interesting possibilities. On the other hand, the fact that you can only see one line of Braille at a time creates some huge challenges! Would it be better to use intervals and try to display all pitches on one Braille line or would it be better to use one line for each voice? I certainly don’t have the answers, haven’t really thought enough about the question, but I would suggest that using the paradigm of a normal sheet of Braille paper may not be the best approach. Also, the paradigm of using traditional Braille music notation would have to be evaluated. That may not be the most efficient approach Consider the idea of using vibration rather then the bottom 2 dots to show time value. Also, consider the idea of moving vertically to see the voices that play on a particular bar as in print. I would suggest that this may be a better project for dancing dots then HW. If this were to be done, it would be nice to see it be more then just a toy as it was in the Eureka. I don’t mean to denigrate that product, but serious blind musician couldn’t have used that to create full scores. . ----- Original Message ----- From: "Michele Thredgold" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "'Braillenote List'" <[email protected]> Sent: Saturday, February 03, 2007 7:58 AM Subject: RE: [Braillenote] Music Composer > Hi Martin and others. I have been pushing for ages for the Braille > music code to be added as either an extra, like the multi-lingual > software, of incorporated onto the BN in the unicode table. There are > heaps of symbols in there I've never seen in my life and which I > figure are maths Braille. > > The music composer would also be a great idea. I've currently having > to use Sibelius for my music theory assignments but would much prefer > my BN, even if it has to be connected up to something else, providing > it's still portable. > > Another thing which would be great for blind muzos who play digital > keyboards, would be if there was some kind of thing which could feed > output to the BrailleNote as to what is on the screen of the keyboard. > It would bake programming and manipulation of keyboards much easier > and stress-free when performing. > > Cheers! > > Michele -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Martin > Courcelles > Sent: Thursday, 1 February 2007 2:02 PM > To: Braillenote List > Subject: [Braillenote] Music Composer > > > Hi there, > I think the subject line says it all. Some of you may remember the > Eureka? You know, the NoteTaker with the Nice sounding Australian > woman with a lisp? > I loved that thing. I had a chance to test drive one once and had a > great > old time composing music on it. It had a wapping 3 voice processor. > Well it > was wapping back then. I'm just wondering if the BrailleNotes could be > engineered to do that sort of thing. If not, then maybe they could be > coupled with a USB MIDI controller. You could then compose the music > and > have the BrailleNote spew it to a MIDI Keyboard. > Just throwing out ideas. I just figure that there are so many of us who > are > musician, it's nice to have a NoteTaker which can help you in htat sort > of > thing as well. > Cheers, > Martin > > > > ___ > To leave the BrailleNote list, send a blank message to > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > To view the list archives or change your preferences, visit > http://list.humanware.com/mailman/listinfo/braillenote > > > -- > No virus found in this incoming message. > Checked by AVG Free Edition. > Version: 7.5.432 / Virus Database: 268.17.18/662 - Release Date: > 31/01/2007 3:16 PM > > > -- > No virus found in this outgoing message. > Checked by AVG Free Edition. > Version: 7.5.432 / Virus Database: 268.17.18/662 - Release Date: > 31/01/2007 3:16 PM > > > > ___ > To leave the BrailleNote list, send a blank message to > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > To view the list archives or change your preferences, visit > http://list.humanware.com/mailman/listinfo/braillenote ___ To leave the BrailleNote list, send a blank message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To view the list archives or change your preferences, visit http://list.humanware.com/mailman/listinfo/braillenote -- No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.5.432 / Virus Database: 268.17.22/666 - Release Date: 3/02/2007 3:31 PM -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.5.432 / Virus Database: 268.17.25/669 - Release Date: 4/02/2007 9:58 PM ___ To leave the BrailleNote list, send a blank message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To view the list archives or change your preferences, visit http://list.humanware.com/mailman/listinfo/braillenote
