Many students who are blind or low vision thoroughly enjoy music and participate in music-related classes. Paths to Technology often receives emails asking about how to make music more accessible. The two most common ways to make printed sheet music accessible for students who are unable to see the print is to create braille music or to record the music. Example: If the student plays the trumpet in band, the music teacher may make an audio recording of the trumpet’s part.
The Sheet Music Scanner app is designed to take scanned or uploaded print sheet music and then plays the music in different formats and using different instruments.
Editor’s Note: I am not a musician and do not have personal experience using this app. However, AppleVis has reported that Sheet Music Scanner is accessible with VoiceOver and is easy to use.
Details below are from the written description available in the App Store and in Google Play.
Description of App
Ever wanted to know how that interesting-looking piece of sheet music actually sounds? Now you can know instantly. Just point your iPhone or iPad at the sheet and let it play the notes for you.
Listen to the notes and help yourself learn along the way. Sheet Music Scanner lets you scan and playback from any part of the song, just tap the measure and listen to your sheet music.
You can even choose the instrument, pick the speed and enjoy!
Download Sheet Music Scanner and scan your sheet music today!
2 for 1 universal iOS app: iPhone / iPod touch and iPad – you get Sheet Music Scanner for all your iOS devices for the price of one.
Sheet Music Scanner Features
- Scan the whole sheet instantly using your built-in camera
- Scan and playback from any image in your Photo library or from a PDF *
- Playback from anywhere in the song – simply tap the measure, the notes and symbols are highlighted as they’re played
- Reads and recognizes the following symbols of musical notation pertaining to melody, harmony, and rhythm: treble, bass, and alto (viola) clefs, notes, duration dots, rests, accidentals, note ties, triplets and other tuplets, repeat signs *
- Support for voices played in tandem, e.g. both piano hands at the same time, or all the choir voices
- Support for playing individual staffs separately, e.g. right or left piano hand
- Support for multiple pages
- Accommodates speeds between 50 and 330 beats per minute
Export Options
- Export as MIDI, MusicXML, audio (M4A / AAC, MP3, WAV), PDF to cloud storage, directly to other apps or via AirDrop
- All major cloud storages supported: iCloud, Dropbox, Google Drive, One Drive, etc. Note that the appropriate cloud storage client app has to be installed for this to work.
Instruments
- Accordion, Acoustic Bass, Alto Sax, Bagpipes, Banjo, Bass Guitar, Celeste, Cello, Choir, Clarinet, Double Bass, Flute, French Horn, Guitar – Classical, Clean, Distortion, Glockenspiel, Harp, Mandolin, Marimba, Oboe, Organ (Percussive, Pipe, Reed, Rock, Tonewheel), Piano, Recorder, Tenor Sax, Trombone, Trumpet, Tuba, Vibraphone, Viola, Violin, Xylophone
- Supports actual instrument pitch for transposing instruments
- Supports pitch shift / sound transposition by semitones up to 2 octaves up or down
- Change your pitch standard based on instrument, from standard 440Hz to 380-480 Hz
Minimum Recommended iOS Devices
iPhone 6, iPad Air, iPad Mini 2
Limitations
- Reads printed sheet music, not handwritten or mimicking handwriting, tablatures, etc.
- Reads standard oval note heads only, no special symbols like shape notes.
- The following symbols are not currently supported: codas, percussion notation, dynamics, double sharps, double flats, and grace notes. These are planned to come in the future updates.
- Use high-quality printed sheet music and take photos under good enough light, when scanning from your camera, for optimal results. For scanning from a file, the recommended resolution is 300 DPI or 8-12 MPx per page.
- Some older prints and unusual fonts may not be recognizable.
Resources
If you experience any problems, please contact support at [email protected]
By Diane Brauner
