WhiteNote is an application that presents musical note files (in XML form), suitable for visually impaired people.
The name of this application is derived from Persian name for half note, which is called white note as it is like an empty circle. The name also has a reference to white cane which is the symbol of visually impaired.
Visually impaired musicians always had to use braille musical notes. On the one hand, it is very difficult to produce and read these notes, and on the other hand, there are very few organizations that convert and publish Braille notes. Also these notes are very hard to acquire and they can easily be ruined as they are made of heavy paper or cardboard, people usually do not share them. In recent years, they can also be generated by personal braille printers, but this is also not an easy solution because the printers are very expensive and have costly maintenance. Therefore, visually impaired musicians always needed to either copy a braille music manually, or ask sighted people to speak all musical notations and record for them. WhiteNote is developed to solve these problems and using that, people can easily copy and share music sheets as computer files, email them, or download them, and be independent in finding music and reading the notes.
There are several applications that convert are scanned music sheets into computer files (OCR technology). These applications usually convert files in their own defined formats, but almost all of them have the ability to export their formats to XML. On the other hand, several music XML libraries have been created on the Internet, which share music XML files. In this way, using the XML format provides the greatest coverage for existing music files.
A simple description of XML format helps in better understanding of how WhiteNote works. The XML format is actually a standardized approach to record musical notes, which is very difficult for humans to read and understand due to the nature of XML and is usually used when two different applications want to share some data. In this case, as none of the applications know how the other application keeps its data, they both use XML in which every data item has a description saying what it is. WhiteNote converts XML format to a text that is understandable for people and easy to use for visually impaired.
MXL (or Music XML) is the compressed form of an XML music file. WhiteNote is compatible with MXL as well.
In WhiteNote, the user can use shortcut keys to study and memorize music sheet and play it on his/her own instrument. By the help of sound alerts, events like change of voices in polyphonic music, the execution of commands or availability and unavailability of other music items can be found. Therefore users should gradually learn the reasons behind all sound alerts.
WhiteNote uses specific methods to describe some notes or combinations which are different from braille format. Therefore we strongly recommend users to read section 3 on 3. notes presentation in WhiteNote .
WhiteNote is currently composed of three main parts
We have tried to present music notes in a non graphical format (which should be definitely fully text based) as most compatible with braille music presentation, so that the users who are familiar with braille would use WhiteNote easily. Moreover, we can benefit from decades of experience in converting graphic notes into text developed by the Braille notation system and not reinvent the wheel!
But there are minor differences between WhiteNote's method and braille music method; because our goal was not to produce a printable output, but to provide a way that notes would be readable on the same device that the user is using, without the need to a braille printer. Therefore we needed to make some minor changes in notes presentation, like in presentation of polyphonic music or chords.
Similar to braille music notation, we first show the Note name (C,D,...), then it's duration, and finally it's accent if there is any. All notes are separated by an underline.
Note that in WhiteNote, the 3 most bass keys of piano are considered octave 0 and then the most bass C of piano is octave 1. Therefore the middle C of piano will be octave 4.
| Symbol or Expression | Meaning or Presentation |
|---|---|
| Time Signature | The graphical view of the time signature is composed of two numbers, one on top and one on bottom. The top number tells the number of notes in each measure and the bottom number tells the base note. In WhiteNote, Time signature is followed by top number and then bottom number. |
| Voices with rest in several measures | If a voice has silence in several consecutive measures, you can move to that voice, but besides silence, you will hear the number of measures that silence is continued. |
| Expression and Articulation signs like Legato and Volume | The beginning and end of these signs are specified in WhiteNote. The starting sign comes before the first note that should be affected by it and the ending sign comes after the last note that should be affected. |
| Shifting the lines in polyphonic music | If the lines in a polyphonic music shift while you navigate it (like one voice would be rest for some measures or a voice starts after some measures) you will hear a voice alert that tells you to check the voices. |
In WhiteNote, clef, key signature, and time signature are presented by their names.
By default, all signature texts are repeated at the beginning of the current measure when the staff or voice changes, even though the current measure may not be the beginning of the piece. To disable this setting, you can go to 7.3. Settings menu. You can always bring them back temporarily by pressing “CTRL + Space”.
Shortcut keys are presented in this section, grouped by their functionality
| Action | Key | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Focus Change | Tab | Focus moves to the next element in current window. |
| Navigation to next note or sign | CTRL + Right Arrow | Cursor goes to the beginning of the next note or symbol and it is read. |
| Navigation to previous note or sign | CTRL + Left Arrow | Cursor goes to the beginning of previous note or symbol and it is read. |
| Navigation to next letter | Right Arrow | Cursor goes to next letter and it is read. |
| Navigation to previous letter | Left Arrow | Cursor goes to previous letter and it is read. |
| Action | Key | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Navigation to next measure | Alt + Right Arrow | Moves the cursor to the beginning of the next measure. |
| Navigation to previous measure | Alt + Left Arrow | Moves the cursor to the beginning of previous measure. |
| Jump to a another measure | CTRL + G | A dialog box opens where you can enter your destination measure number and hit enter to jump to the beginning of it. |
| Jump to another movement | CTRL + M | A dialog box opens where you can enter your movement number and hit enter to jump to it. |
| Navigation to next page | Page Down | Cursor goes to the beginning of next page. |
| Navigation previous page | Page Up | Cursor goes to the beginning of previous page. |
| Jump to the end of movement | CTRL + End | Cursor goes to the end of current movement. |
| Jump to the beginning of movement | CTRL + Home | Cursor goes to the end of current movement. |
| Action | Key | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Going to next staff | Down Arrow | Preserving current measure, cursor moves to next staff. Note that in two handed instruments like piano, first staff is right hand and second staff is left hand. |
| Going to previous staff | Up Arrow | Preserving current measure, cursor moves to previous staff. Note that in two handed instruments like piano, first staff is right hand and second staff is left hand. |
| Action | Key | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Going to next voice | Alt + Down Arrow | Preserving current staff and measure, cursor moves to the next voice. |
| Going to previous voice | Alt + Up Arrow | Preserving current staff and measure, cursor moves to the previous voice. |
| Action | Key | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Checking Key Signature, Time Signature, and Clef in current measure | CTRL + Space | Key signature, Time signature, and clef are temporarily added to current measure's text. |
| Action | Button | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Navigation to next measure | Next Measure | Moves the cursor to the beginning of the next measure. |
| Navigation to Previous measure | Previous Measure | Moves the cursor to the beginning of the previous measure. |
| Navigation to Next Staff | Next Staff | Moves the cursor to the beginning of the next staff. |
| Navigation to Previous Staff | Previous Staff | Moves the cursor to the beginning of the previous staff. |
| Navigation to Next Voice | Next Voice | Moves the cursor to the beginning of the next voice. |
| Navigation to Previous Voice | Previous Voice | Moves the cursor to the beginning of the previous voice. |
This text box presents everything that is written on top of the music sheet, like composer and movement name. There are also some simple stats like the number of movements, measures, voices, etc.
When you open a new file, the focus is placed on this box, and you can switch between this box and the notes box by pressing tab.
You will see the notes in this text box as a non ending line containing all measures of staff/voice. By navigation, the user can study the piece measure by measure or note by note.
To navigate between notes, staffs, and voices, please read sections 7.2. Navigate Menu and 4. shortcut keys.
To get a description of how notes are presented here, please see section 3. Notes presentation in WhiteNote .
Menu bar is on top of the WhiteNote window, focus moves to it by pressing Tab key. You can see submenu items by pressing Enter key on the selected menu and you can exit each menu by means of ESC key. Also moving between submenu items is practical through up and down arrow keys.
This bar contains 5 menus, File, Navigate, Settings, Help and Home.
This menu opens a new file
This menu presents navigation commands between notes, measures, voices, staffs, and movements.
You can select program settings in this menu.
This menu has four sub menus such as Get Help, Library, Contact us and About WhiteNote.
Music XML files are mostly not indexed by search engines like Google, so you'd better to go directly to XML Music libraries including the following ones taken from http://www.musicxml.com/music-in-musicxml