GOODFEEL 4 Tutorial (SharpEye, Lime and GOODFEEL)

This document describes how you can automatically convert print music scores into braille music using the GOODFEEL Braille Music Translator together with the other applications in the GOODFEEL suite: The Lime notation editor, the Lime Aloud scripts (optional but helpful to screen reader users), and the SharpEye Music Reader music OCR program. The latest version of this document can be found at https://dancingdots.com/tsgf4/gf4tutorial.htm

What is GOODFEEL®?

GOODFEEL is a suite of software that automates transcription of printed scores into accessible score formats including braille music, verbal and audible musical cues. It provides visually impaired users with an accessible environment for both reading and writing print scores which is equally usable by the sighted user. Presentation of the score in print/magnified print notation, braille, spoken word and musical cues is simultaneous and scrolls in sync. All users can choose their preferred presentation mode or modes while still being able to work with others who may prefer different presentation modes.

The suite contains 4 software titles:

  1. SharpEye (for scanning print music scores),
  2. Lime (for reading and writing print scores),
  3. Lime Aloud (optional: scripts to make Lime accessible to users of JAWS and other screen readers such as NVDA via the "talking score" feature),
  4. GOODFEEL® Braille Music Translator (for automatically converting print score from Lime into the equivalent braille music).

Who uses GOODFEEL:

Function of Each Component

Think of the Lime music notation editor as a kind of word processor for music notation. Once the notes and related information of a score have been entered into Lime, you simply choose "Launch GOODFEEL" from Lime's File menu to submit your score to GOODFEEL for automatic transcription. GOODFEEL plays the role of the braille music transcriber.

Most of the effort required to convert a score from print to braille with GOODFEEL is focused on creating a well-made Lime score. You can enter notes and other annotations directly into Lime's editor. You can import scores saved in the MusicXML or NIFF interchange formats into Lime. Or you can use SharpEye or other music OCR applications to scan print scores which can be passed to Lime via MusicXML or NIFF. This document describes each method below.

Options for creating scores in Lime format (applies to both GOODFEEL and the related Lime Lighter solution for low vision musicians)

The following summarizes your options for creating an accessible score from the print score.

  1. Direct Entry: Score information can be entered manually into Lime using the mouse, PC keyboard, a musical keyboard, or any combination of all three.
  2. MusicXML Import: Scores can be imported into Lime as MusicXML, NIFF, or MIDI from programs like Finale and Sibelius.
  3. Music OCR: Scores can be scanned with SharpEye or other music OCR applications and results passed to Lime.

Creating Lime Files via Direct Entry

Lime is a kind of word processor for music notation. Instead of entering letters, words, and sentences, you enter notes, measures and musical phrases. The score appears on the screen on a musical staff in Lime's main window. Since Lime is integrated with GOODFEEL, the equivalent braille music for the current measure also appears in a separate braille window.

Lime is a full-featured editor capable of producing simple to quite complex musical pieces. In order to use it most effectively, you should have a basic understanding of music notation and music theory. Otherwise, try to recruit an assistant who has those skills such as your local music teacher or a competent student.

Enter notes and other musical symbols by clicking on the on-screen keyboard, typing on the Home Row of your PC keyboard, or playing on an electronic musical keyboard attached to your PC. To learn how to use Lime's editor, sighted users should refer to the Lime user manual and addendum. These documents can also be of help to visually impaired users but we recommend that VI users start with the Lime Aloud Guide.

You should find shortcuts to all of these documents from the submenu for Lime on the Windows Start Menu. Alternatively, see the "Docs" folder for the version of Lime installed under your "Program Files (x86)" or "Program Files" folder on your PC's main hard drive.

We recommend that you read on here to learn about the other two options for creating Lime scores that follow here: MusicXML import and music OCR with SharpEye and other applications. You will find more specifics on best practices for preparing Lime files for GOODFEEL below.

Importing Scores Created in the MusicXML Format

The Lime notation editor can import MusicXML files thereby making them immediately accessible to both fully sighted users as well as users of speech, braille, and Lime's Lime Lighter magnification feature. To import MusicXML scores into Lime, choose “Import” under Lime’s File menu and then MusicXML.

In the best of all possible worlds, publishers would routinely make the MusicXML version of their scores available to those of us who need to access that information in an alternative format. Those kinds of arrangements are already happening on an informal basis. That is, a good number of our customers already have successfully persuaded some publishers to supply them with MusicXML versions of pdf or hardcopy scores for which they have already paid.

Failing availability from the publisher, there are a growing number of MusicXML files available for download at little or no cost. Here are a couple of examples you can download for free followed by a list of some sites that offer MusicXML scores for download.

Excerpt from Bach's Well-tempered Klavier (right-click and save)
Mozart Sonata in B-Flat (right-click and save)

MusicXML Sites

A List of Sites with Sheet Music in MusicXML Format

Extracting MusicXML Files from the mxl Compressed Format

MusicXML scores are often only available in the compressed .mxl format. Here is your quick tutorial on how to unzip .mxl files.
  1. Download the .mxl version.
  2. Right click on the file and rename to .zip extension. That is, change .mxl to .zip extension.
  3. Right click and choose "Extract All" Windows should create a folder that contains the source .xml file.
  4. Run Lime. Choose“Import” under Lime’s File menu and then choose “MusicXML.”
  5. Browse to where you saved the MusicXML file and then click “Open.”
  6. Lime may present a dialog asking for information such as number of measures per system. 4 is usually a good value for measures per system or systems per page.
  7. Once you OK any dialogs, the score should now be displayed in Lime’s main music window.

Options for Converting from PDF Scores to MusicXML

Although more and more scores are becoming available online in the MusicXML format, at this writing there are far more scores available for download as PDF documents. One promising application for converting from PDF to MusicXML is PDFToMusic Pro. Sometimes, it does a great job but sometimes it does not.

Some pdf documents are printed from a music notation program like Finale or Sibelius. If you can contact the author of those scores, you could ask him or her to export to MusicXML instead of printing to PDF. That is, users of Finale, Sibelius and over one-hundred other notation programs can now export to MusicXML format directly. MusicXML export has become a standard feature.

Users of Sibelius and Finale can also download and install the free Dolet plug-in for exporting MusicXML. We have found that, in many cases, Dolet creates more detailed MusicXML scores.

If you are a teacher of the visually impaired or a VI student yourself, ask your school's music educators if they use any kind of music notation software. They might be able to prepare musical materials in their software of choice and export the results to MusicXML. Then all you would need to do is to import that MusicXML into Lime, make any revisions if needed, and launch GOODFEEL from Lime's File menu..

SharpEye Music Reader, the music OCR program that is a component of the suites of accessible music notation we supply, cannot read pdf format directly. Users must first convert pdf to the tiff image format. There are some free and some paid tools to make that conversion. The Tiff Image Printer from Peernet.com works very well.

The music scanning applications optimized for use with Finale and Sibelius, SmartScore and PhotoScore respectively, can read and scan pdf documents directly. But, as with any OCR process, scanning errors are still inevitable. See more about using SharpEye below. Regardless of your choice of music OCR programs, it is almost always best to correct any scanning errors before exporting the results to Lime.

Music OCR: Scanning Music with SharpEye

SharpEye is an excellent music OCR application but it is important to understand that it is not perfect. Inevitably, SharpEye will report what it calls "Rhythm errors." Unless these errors are corrected before passing the results to Lime, the resulting print and braille scores will likely contain critical mistakes.

Of the three options for preparing Lime files for GOODFEEL to transcribe, scanning the music with SharpEye or other music OCR software is generally the most labor-intensive. That being said, it can be an excellent option for rapid transcription. But one must learn to use SharpEye's graphical interface to correct errors. In order to make corrrections, one must look at the original score. Accordingly, it would not be reasonable to expect a blind user to ask of cleaning up scanning errors.

  1. SharpEye
  2. Lime
  3. GOODFEEL

When Scanning is not a Good Option

If the sheet music is hand-written or printed in a font that makes it look hand-written, or if it is very faint or dirty, you may not be able to successfully scan the music. In that case you will not use SharpEye at all but, instead, you will perform all notation editing in Lime using the direct entry method described above.
  1. Lime Quick Reference
  2. GOODFEEL

Setting up and Using SharpEye

  1. SharpEye Configuration
  2. Scanning and Recognition
  3. Editing techniques for error correction VERY IMPORTANT!!!
  4. How to scan multi-page scores
  5. Note on Passing Music to Lime from SharpEye
    Some things are incredibly easier to fix in SharpEye than in Lime. Before editing your score in Lime, make certain that you have completed all possible work in SharpEye. Otherwise, if you must return to SharpEye to more easily fix something, you will lose all of your revisions made with Lime.
    You can export your score to the MusicXML format or the NIFF format from SharpEye: Lime information

SharpEye: Configuration

N. B. To make required environment settings, be sure to run Lime once and then close it before using SharpEye.

It will probably only be necessary to take the configuration steps in this section once or perhaps from time to time depending on the type of score you wish to scan.

SharpEye: Scanning and Recognition

  1. Screen readers users must press CONTROL+TAB to close the image window when SharpEye first opens in order to access the menus.
  2. Place print score face-down on the flatbed scanner. Put the top edge of the page flush with the edge of the scanner opposite to the hinge.
  3. Acquire the image: File | Acquire
    Your scanner's interface will be opened. See Using Scanning Interfaces for specific directions for some scanners.
    We cannot give any specific directions for this step because it uses the scanning interface for the particular make and model of your scanner.
    Set image type to grayscale.
    Set DPI to 300.
    If your scanner's software displays the file size, check to see that it is about 8MB for a whole page.
  4. Click Scan or equivalent command via your scanner'es interface to start scanning. If you are not sure when this step has ended, just wait until your scanner stops making noise.
  5. Save the image: File | Save Image As...
  6. Convert the image into music notation: Read | Read
    If SharpEye displays the message "Nothing in image" then click in the image window, press the delete key and try Read | Read again. To learn more about zones, look for Zones in Reading in the index of SharpEye's Help.
  7. JAWS users: Press INSERT+NUMPAD 3 to read status line to hear progress report. If number of rhythm errors = 0, congratulations. Otherwise, sighted assistant must help to correct.
  8. Correct any rhythm errors. Not accessible to screen reader users.
  9. Correct any errors in clef, key or time signatures. Global fixes accessible to screen reader users: View Menu | Simple Editing.
  10. Listen to the music (File | Play/Stop or ALT+F, L).
  11. If you cannot hear the music playing. Check MIDI Options under SharpEye's Options menu. Tab to the Velocity field and set to at least 100. Tab to OK.
  12. To Stop playback: Press ALT+F, Y.
  13. Save the Music: File | Save Music As...

SharpEye: Editing

We strongly recommend that you read about SharpEye's editor in SharpEye's help file. See Music Editor in the index.

Here is a brief summary:

Notes

SharpEye: Scanning Scores with Multiple Pages

It is vastly easier to join pages using SharpEye than it is to do so in Lime. (See Multi-page scores in SharpEye's help index.)
  1. For each page perform the Scanning, Recognition and Editing steps.
    After completing work on each page use the menu item File | Save Music As... and include the page number in the file name.
  2. Once all pages have been completed, use the menu item File | Open Music... to open the first page. Click on Replace if you are presented with the Replace or append music dialog.
  3. For each of the remaining pages use the menu item File | Open Music... but click on "Append" in the Replace or append music dialog.

Finishing in Lime from SharpEye

This section lists specific actions that should or could be performed in Lime after creating a piece of music in SharpEye. Most of the recommendations also apply when preparing a Lime score via the direct entry method.

Run Lime. Import your MusicXML or NIFF file by choosing "Import" under Lime's File menu or choose "Open" from Lime's File menu to edit an existing Lime file.

Transcribing with GOODFEEL

GOODFEEL: Configuration

Embosser Configuration

  1. Add a Generic/Text Only printer in Windows if one does not exist.
  2. Start GOODFEEL from the Start menu and go to the menu item Options | Embosser Setup...
  3. Choose an Embosser Device.
  4. Click on Save these values as defaults so that GOODFEEL will use the settings the next time that it is started.
  5. For more help read Braille Setup, Embosser Setup in the index of GOODFEEL's help file.
  6. If you are having problems, please check our GOODFEEL 4 support area.

GOODFEEL: Transcription Options

GOODFEEL offers many transcription options to its users including the option to transcribe the text of titles, tempo markings, lyrics and rehearsal markers to contracted or uncontracted braille text. Version 4 of GOODFEEL is the first to include provisional support for UEB (Unified English Braille).

The Transcription options dialog can be accessed by starting GOODFEEL from the Start menu and then using the menu item Options | Transcription Options. It is especially important for these options to be reviewed by users who live in locales outside of North America and Europe.

GOODFEEL: Processing

  1. The Intermediate Dialog
    When a file is loaded into GOODFEEL, it is screened for some common mistakes and if any errors are found GOODFEEL will list them in the Report tab of the Intermediate dialog.
  2. Screen reader users: press Tab key once to focus on the list of errors and press down arrow to read.
    Help on any item in the list of errors can be obtained by double-clicking that list item or pressing ENTER.
  3. Tab to the Process button or press ALT+P to process. The Process button (bottom left) will produce the braille score and display the "Braille Destination" dialog asking you where you would like to send your braille.
  4. Braille Destination Dialog
    After GOODFEEL converts your music into braille you are presented with the Braille Destination dialog which allows you to:

Getting Answers and Accessing other Learning Resources

To get rapid replies to your questions and to connect with a global community of users of Dancing Dots' software, we urge you to join the GOODFEEL online listserv. Feel free to comment on the list about the usefulness of this documentation or to suggest other resources that you would find helpful.

You may send us feedback off-list (at info@dancingdots) but please post your general "how to" questions to our list. You will often receive a quicker response from helpful list members than from the staff of Dancing Dots.

You will find answers to many of the most frequently asked questions about GOODFEEL on our GOODFEEL FAQ Page.

Contact Information

Dancing Dots
1754 Quarry Lane
Suite DD
Phoenixville, PA 19460-4620
Voice: 610 783-6692, Fax: 610 500-5072
Send an E-mail to Dancing Dots at info@dancingdots