Learning

Useful equipment - music in the home

Summary: Equipment you can use at home to help you get the most out of playing music. Includes links to some suppliers.

Lighting

If you have difficulty seeing your music, making adjustments to the lighting in your home can be helpful. Adjustable lamps are particularly useful because you can point them to make the light fall directly on what you want to see.

Adjustable task lamps can be floor or table standing or wall mounted. They have a base or bracket to which an adjustable arm and a flexible head are attached. The best position might be on top of a piano, shining down on your music, or angled behind your freestanding music stand.

Fluorescent bulbs

There are now many adjustable lamps available with fluorescent bulbs. Although these lamps are more expensive to buy, they are cheaper to run. Other benefits of using fluorescent bulbs are:

  • they do not get very hot when they are being used
  • they last up to eight times longer and give off five times more light than ordinary bulbs of the same wattage
  • they come in a range of different colours which some people prefer, eg warm soft yellow.

For more information about lighting please contact RNIB Customer Services on 0845 702 3153 or 01733 37 53 50. For general information about lighting, see lighting - see for yourself.

Braille labels for CD cases

If you use braille, you can use a Dymo gun to label your CDs. Select the required letter from the braille or print alphabet dial, squeeze the gun and a braille character of that letter will be embossed on to the Dymo tape. The gun is black with a white dial and black lettering. One three metre roll of tape is supplied. Additional rolls are available separately. The Dymo gun costs £29.99 for blind and partially sighted people, £35.24 for sighted people.

Available from the RNIB online shop: Dymo gun or the RNIB Resource Centre:
105 Judd Street
London
WC1H 9NE
Telephone: 020 7388 1266

Adhesive labels

If you use a Perkins Braille machine or hand frame, you can also label your CDs with adhesive CD labels which are the size of the case, meaning you can write much more information. The labels are clear so that print text and pictures can still be seen under the Braille.

A pack of 50 labels costs £5.75 for blind and partially sighted people, £6.76 for sighted people.

See also the Labels and labeling equipment section of the online shop.

Adapted Music Stands

REMAP (technical equipment for disabled people)

REMAP makes or adapts equipment for individual users where no commercial solution is available. They have successfully made music stands for some blind and partially sighted people.

Mary-Ann Mitchell
Hazeldene
Ightham
Sevenoaks
Kent
TN15 9AD
Telephone: 0845 130 0456

Computer Software References

  • For more information on access technology and items for sale, visit the RNIB Online Shop

Specific information about Screen Readers:

More information about screen magnification:

Music Technology Software:

Learning an instrument with software

Searching the internet for "online music lessons" will reveal a whole host of services, some of which are free.

If you are using a screen reader or other form of access technology, you should always find out if the software you want to use is supported by your access technology. Contact the Music Advisory Service at mas@rnib.org.uk for advice.

MusicPad Pro

MusicPad Pro is a digital sheet music display system which stores thousands of pages of music and allows hands free “page turning”.

MusicPad's touch sensitive screen allows rehearsal marking and annotation to be made without affecting the original score. The brightness of the screen can be adjusted for increased legibility, eliminating the need for external stand lighting and the risk of glare.

Besides the benefit of hands-free page turning for the partially sighted musician, you can determine the size of the notation as it appears on the screen and it's easy to import Modified Stave Notation produced by RNIB using Sibelius. Display colours can also be altered in order to enhance the readability. The systems are silent in operation and suitable for use in public performance or in a recording studio.

Music Pad is not currently available in the UK.

Video magnifiers

If you struggle to read stave notation, a video magnifier may be a suitable alternative option for reading music in the home, if not for public performance.

There are two main types of video magnifier:

  • magnifiers with in-built screens
  • magnifiers which connect either to a computer or television.

A wide range of video magnifiers exists, and their functionality, price, and practicality specifically for reading music vary enormously, so it's always worth trying out several models before you buy.

See our factsheet on video magnifiers for more information.

TV-based video magnifiers

TV-based video magnifiers are a relatively cheap and easy way to turn your television into a video magnifier.

How they work

The magnifier typically connects via the SCART socket to your television and the image is then displayed on the screen on the AV channel. Magnification levels depend on the size of screen, but can be up to 23 times on a 20 inch television set. "Max" video magnifiers can even alter the magnification level.

For those people who prefer reading white text on a black background, this feature is also available on some models.

Examples of use

If your television is in the corner of a room and positioned at a low height, it may be impractical to read music on your television as you play. But it might be a useful way to familiarise yourself with a piece before you play it.

Desktop video magnifiers

As the name suggests, desktop video magnifiers are somewhat larger, but do have their own in-built screen.

How they work

A desktop video magnifier normally has an XY table. This is where you put the item you want to read. The XY table can move from left to right and up and down, allowing you to see the whole of the magnified image on the screen.

Some common features

Most desktop video magnifiers have a wide range of magnification levels, some as high as 50 times. Foreground and background colours can also be altered according to the user's preference, and some have the ability to highlight one line at a time, rather like a typoscope.

The MyReader video magnifier is particularly interesting for reading music - it can store up to 20 pages of text (or music) and reformat them into a continuous line. You can change the speed of the scrolling text, so you can practise sight-reading without having to turn pages. The angle and tilt of the monitor can be changed as well.

Research into new equipment

Talking LCDs

Ways of giving speech output from Liquid Crystal Displays (LCDs) for visually impaired people were investigated at RNIB MAS in 2006. The LCD interface was based on an earlier design by Wayne Thompson of the Kentucky Office for the Blind. The Thompson device was successfully used to give speech output from devices such as telephones, fax machines and electronic musical instruments like sound modules and sequencers. The speech interface relied on the target device using a particular type of LCD that was very popular in the 1990s. Development of the interface stopped during the mid 90s as this particular LCD was becoming less common.

RNIB's Music Technology Officer took up this design and made some adaptations to try to address the modern implementation of LCDs. He wrote a document outlining the concept of a talking LCD interface which points out some of the issues with such an approach. The central processing unit of the original design is no longer available and the component count was quite high (and hence more expensive). By using a modern microcontroller the component count is reduced and the potential to support more modern LCDs such as graphical or serial driven displays may be possible.

For more information regarding this project, please contact stuart.thomas@rnib.org.uk

Content author: mas@rnib.org.uk

Last updated: 01/04/2009 10:22

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