Kathleen
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Are you doing full score choral with all parts? Or is this for a single singer and you don't know if they're singing the top or the bottom?
If it's full score, I'd break them out into two separate lines.
If it's a line-by-line for a single part and you don't know which to do or you're specifically asked to do both, I would use in-accords to show the separate parts. If the singer is asked to sing the bottom line, it's a 100 times easier to skip over an in-accord part and read the notes she's supposed to sing rather than figure out intervals for each note.
This is how I do things like that: (looks like we are working on the same book...)
,'#D4 ;2,,"T IS A MET] 9 : "! >E #D B1TS P] M1SURE & ! QU>T] NOTE RCVS #A B1T4
,,:OLE ,,NOTES RCV #D B1TS "<C.TS"> 9 ,'#D4 ;2"T4
,,:OLE ,,RE/S 9DICATE A FULL M1SURE ( SIL;E4
,'>/L #D4 "& ''''''''' L M
COUNT3 #A&#B&#C&#D& #A&#B&#C&#D&
Good morning, Robert!
Please don't omit these! These are very important for the musician and definitely need to be included.
If you will email me, I can send you a clarinet fingering chart (I too am currently working on a clarinet method book).
And this is how I describe the conducting pattern for 4/4 (of course, in a transcriber's note):
Begin with the arm extended in front of the body at shoulder height. On beat 1, arm comes straight down. On beat 2, arm crosses the body to the left. On beat 3, arm crosses back to the right. On beat 4, arm returns to starting position.
Adjust the wording for 3/4 and cut time when those show up.
Hi there!
How to Read Braille Music is available through National Braille Press:
https://www.nbp.org/ic/nbp/MUSIC.html?from_search=1
It's a great resource for just starting out.
Also check out Dancing Dots for Who's Afraid of Braille Music:
https://www.dancingdots.com/prodesc/whosafraid.htm
And be sure to download the Music Braille Code 2015:
https://www.brailleauthority.org/music-braille-code
You can also download the Introduction to Braille Music course book here:
https://nfb.org/programs-services/braille-certification/music-braille-transcribing
Hope that helps! Good luck and amazing that you are going to learn braille music for your student!
Hi Robert!
This is indeed a tricky situation. We actually don't need to braille the horizontal lines in either case, as the figures connected by the lines are associated with different notes. They aren't lines of continuation (for which we use the dot 1s) nor are the figures one either side of the line associated with the same note (for which we would use the hyphen).
In both examples, the print horizontal line is just showing that the 4 resolves down to the sharp 3rd. It's not a line of continuation. So remove the two dot 1s and just keep the second numeric indicator.
In the second example - assuming it's the "answer" to the first one - the same holds. The horizontal line just shows the resolution. Remove the hyphen and just use a second numeric indicator and place the 3 directly below the 2nd oct E.
And here's a pdf showing the second example you attached - with the functional chord symbols and the key signature before the initial chord.
Of course, transcriber's notes are abundant in these textbooks, so don't be afraid to explain how you're setting things up!
Great question, Robert.
I tend to rearrange things like this and make them clearer for the reader. The way print has it laid out on a single music staff with labels above and below is really not useful in braille. I tend to make these things lists with the chord first, followed by the appropriate information. There is a fair amount of code switching involved, but I think the reader is more able to get what they need if you do it this way.
(Remember that in theory textbooks and analysis situations, intervals should be read upward.)
Example 1-5 I would set up as follows:
(cell 1) music code indicator and the chord (intervals upward)
(next line cell 3) Root/quality chord symbols: music code indic and chord symbol
(next line cell 3) Quality: major
(next line cell 3) Intervals: maj 3, per 5
(cell 1) music code ind. chord
etc. (see attached pdf for simbraille)
Often, what's printed on a single staff in the textbook really doesn't need to be organized into measures and all horizontal as straight music. It can be easier to understand if presented differently much of the time.
Hi Robert!
I always use UEB textbook pagination when doing music textbooks. So yes - you'll have continuation letters a5, b5, etc.
Kathleen
Hi there!
I deeply apologize for missing this follow-up question!
Yes, you need to use the bracket slurs to show the phrasing in the 14th measure, even though there are only two notes under the slur. There isn't any other way to show that phrasing in vocal music.
I don't think the grouping will make things unclear, especially with the counting below, which theoretically should help with the understanding of the grouping and counting process.
The braille reader will encounter grouped 16ths and ungrouped 16ths in every piece of music they will learn, so I don't think it's a bad idea to use the grouping as prescribed by the code in early things like this.
Hello, Anna!
These are "low" fingerings. Some print editions use the words "lo" (and "high" when necessary) to identify them and some just use the hyphen before the low numbers. There is no standardized method in braille music to show these. I've experimented with a few different options and the only one I've landed on that doesn't cause some other confusion is to use dots 12 after a "low" finger number and a dot 1 after a "high" finger number (if so marked in print.) The low finger number will look at first like a finger number 2 after the fingering printed, but with a proper TN I think the confusion will be mitigated. (I had hoped that using a sharp or a flat before the fingering would be an easy solution but of course, the combination of a flat and a finger number 2 would be a down bow! Definitely not a solution.)
Hope that helps and if you think of another solution, please share!
Kathleen
Hi Anna,
Here's how I usually handle these: I include a TN to the effect of "Measures are often spaced irregularly to accommodate the counting below the notes. Special bar lines (dots 123) separate measures where spacing is irregular. The word "and" replaces the plus sign."
And then I braille the numbers aligned below the notes, like we would for chord symbols or Roman numerals. Be sure there are blank cells aligned vertically between measures in both the music and the counting lines. Sometimes there will be extra blank cells in one or the other part.
Some people like to use the numeric passage indicator and terminator on the counting lines, but I tend to just braille the numbers as they come, especially where there are "and's" involved.
Attached is a pdf and a brf of the way I would do the examples you attached.
(This is certainly not the only right way to approach it - it's just the way I tend to do it and it seems to work ok. You'll notice that I omitted the parentheses around the plus signs - I'd include a TN to that effect if I chose to take them out. If you feel like the parentheses are crucial - which they may well be - I'd probably use the special literary "dropped g" parentheses to save space.)
Hope this helps!
Kathleen
Hi there!
Great question - I would not use the bracket slur for the appogiatura slurs. They aren't really showing phrasing so it wouldn't be quite appropriate. I think the best option would be to use the facsimile slur, dots 56, 14, to show these. (I'd add this symbol to your SS list and perhaps even add a TN about their usage, since it is a little unusual.)
As far as the division of the phrases, that's a matter of transcriber-choice, using your artistic and musical judgement. Remember that the singer will likely memorize the music and we want to lay out the parallels in as clear a way as possible. Dividing the melisma at logical and musical points is always a good idea rather than trying to fit the entire thing into a single parallel that may end up containing 2 or 3 run-over lines. (One run-over line is fine - but any longer than that makes it hard to memorize.)
My suggestion is to sing or play through it and find good breaking points - places where a breath will be taken, for instance, or where there's a cadential feel to the phrase. The Music Code section 35.3 discusses how to show continued vowel sounds on new parallels, so be sure to reread that section as you work through the transcription.
Hope this helps!
Kathleen
Hi Lucas,
I've conferred with some other folks and we agree that it is acceptable to break the rules for this kind of Table of Contents.
On your Transcriber's Notes page, include a statement that you are changing the format of the ToC. Instead of doing alphabetical, as in print, I would follow the order in which they fall in each volume. Then only include what appears in each subsequent volume in that volume's particular ToC.
Hope that helps!
Kathleen
