MusicXML and MXL to Braille Converter

How it works

The music braille module of OpenSheetMusicDisplay (OSMD), the MusicXML renderer we maintain, transcribes the score in your browser, as the Music Braille Code 2015 of the Braille Authority of North America writes it: each note sign combines pitch and rhythm in one cell, octave signs before it, a blank cell between measures. The braille appears as Unicode braille text, which a screen reader sends to a braille display like any other text.

The layouts are the code's own. Standard writes the music staff by staff, piano music with a right-hand and a left-hand sign. Bar over bar puts both hands' measures above each other, with measure numbers at the margin, as is usual for keyboard music. Ensemble gives each instrument its line with its abbreviation, for chamber music. With lyrics, the words go on a line of their own above the melody. Facsimile adds the clefs and octave lines of the print, and for a single staff starts a new braille line where a printed line ends: for a braille reader who works from the same edition as sighted musicians.

"What each sign means" explains the braille sign by sign, in words: for sighted teachers checking a student's material, and for anyone learning braille music. The full guide is the OSMD music braille user guide.

Questions

Is my file uploaded?

No. The score is transcribed in your browser, and the file never leaves your computer.

Which file do I take for an embosser?

The .brf file: braille in North American Braille ASCII, the encoding embossers and braille software read. Bar over bar and ensemble are laid out to the line width you choose; in the standard layout, the .brf breaks long lines between measures to fit it. The .txt file holds the same braille as Unicode text, lines unbroken, for braille displays and for editing.

Which layout should I choose?

Standard suits a single instrument or voice. For piano music choose bar over bar, also when the file stores the two hands as two parts, as the sample does. Choose ensemble for several instruments, and tick lyrics for songs; an instrumental piece with stray lyrics in its file reads better without. Facsimile follows the lines of the printed score, which "show the printed score" displays, one staff at a time: pick the staff under Staves.

What does it not do yet?

Grace notes and tuplets, such as triplets, come out as ordinary notes: all the notes are there, without the grace note and triplet signs. Lyrics are written in uncontracted braille, from the first voice. Some layout refinements a transcriber would make, like abbreviated repeats, are left out, so the braille is complete but sometimes longer. For a published braille edition, have a transcriber check it.

Why do the columns not line up on my screen?

Some screen fonts draw braille cells in slightly different widths. On a braille display or embossed paper every cell is the same width, and the bar over bar and ensemble layouts line up exactly.