Braille Literacy

Braille Music

Louis Braille, himself a talented pianist and organist, created a basic Braille music code at around the same time he invented the Braille alphabet. This has now become a highly established and priceless resource for visually impaired musicians worldwide, who are now able to access through a Braille library, or to request for transcription, almost any music score in Braille which currently exists in print. The issue of having to adjust to several different Braille codes, depending on the subject or language, does not apply in music. This is one consolation at least, since music is, generally speaking, an international code; a Braille score produced in one country can be easily read in another, although it may be presented slightly differently according to which instrument the music has been transcribed for.

Braille music, as like the literacy and other codes, is read using the finger tips. Due to the tactile nature of reading Braille, it is not possible to read and play music simultaneously, unless the reader is a fluent singer. Instead, portions of the music is learned, memorised, then applied into a musical context according to the specific musical and instrumental requirements; a visually impaired musician will therefore perform their music entirely from memory. The process of learning and memorising music is generally much longer compared to a sighted musician, however, once a piece has been successfully learned and applied to memory, it is unlikely to require the same amount of effort to recall the details for future performances if revisited regularly.