HEllo Ardith,

On Wed 2039-Feb-02 23:42, Ardith Hinton (1:153/716) wrote to Richard Webb:

RW>  I haven't read a piece of sheet music of any kind now
RW>  since the '80's  and then it was part of the process
RW>  of my wife and I copping something from library of
RW>  congress braille music collection to our own, which


AH>           Thanks for the insight!  It hadn't occurred to me that
AH> music could be written in Braille... but why not??  Years ago there
AH> was a gal in our community band who recorded the music, then took it
AH> home & memorized it.  I am aware that (with the exception of
AH> classicists, who seem to think the highest accolade they can give a
AH> student is "s/he copied it perfectly") others may not learn the same
AH> way.  As it happens our conductor likes to experiment from time to
AH> time.  Folks such as yours truly who can read the music & watch the
AH> conductor simultaneously are quite comfortable with his modus
AH> operandi.  It didn't work for her, though, because she was blind. 

YEp, braille music isn't on the familiar staff, and
instruments such as the piano which can play chords have
their own particular notation styles, depending on the
instrument.  For piano and organ folks one learns about
intervals and scales in the process of learning music,
because that's the way chords are notated.  Guitar chords,
etc. are written such as cm7 for a c minor 7, bdim for a b
diminished, etc.  OFten if I'm looking for a lead sheet of a popular tune and
wish to learn it I'll look at the guitar
chords and the single note melody line, as I have to think
hard sometimes to remember the complex interval signs etc.
if there's also a piano part written, but often all that's
written is the chord notation and the melody line along with words.

Strange thing was back in my younger days often by the time
I'd received my sheet music transcriptions, unless I did it
with somebody else dictating I'd already memorized the part
by just attending rehearsals .  My mother learned to
read sheet music enough to do the dictation whileI
transcribed to braille, with resources she could call on the phone such as the
band director to decipher an unfamiliar
symbol when needed.

AH> If I'm expected to memorize or play by ear or copy what somebody
AH> else has done, I feel like a fish out of water.  She probably did
AH> too. 

INdeed, as do I often, can do it, but it isn't quite as
easy.  I guess that's why I'm a jazz person .

AH>           Now you've got me wondering about that C/W gig in
AH> Lethbridge....  ;-) 

WAs fun and interesting for a few days.  I couldn't quite
get used to the fact that if I had a drink, even
nonalcoholic while on break and wished to take it to the
bandstand I couldn't do that, one of the wait staff had to
bring me my drink on the bandstand.  OTherwise, was just
another 6 day stand in another town basically .


Regards,
           Richard
--- timEd 1.10.y2k+
 * Origin:  (1:116/901)