Glossary

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ABC Notation(also: ABC Text, ABC Music Notation)

A shorthand ASCII text format for representing music notation using plain characters that can be read directly by screen readers. In ABC notation, pitch is represented by letters (A-G for different octaves), rhythm by numbers and fractions, and musical elements like key…

Accessible Digital Musical Instrument(also: ADMI)

An Accessible Digital Musical Instrument (ADMI) is a digital musical instrument that has been designed or adapted to be usable by people with disabilities. ADMIs typically use motion capture, gesture recognition, or other sensor technologies to map physical movements to sound,…

Adaptive Instrument(also: Adapted Musical Instrument, Accessible Musical Instrument)

A musical instrument that has been specifically designed or modified to be playable by people with disabilities. Adaptive instruments may use alternative input methods such as touch sensors, breath control, eye tracking, or simplified physical interfaces to enable music creation…

Adaptive Musical Instrument(also: Accessible Musical Instrument, Adapted Instrument)

A musical instrument that has been modified or purpose-built to enable people with disabilities to play music. Adaptive musical instruments may use alternative input methods such as head movement, breath control, eye tracking, or switch access to replace or supplement…

Audio-Reactive Visuals(also: Sound-Reactive Displays, Audio-Visual Feedback)

Visual display systems that respond in real time to audio input, translating sound properties such as frequency, amplitude, pitch, and rhythm into light, color, and movement. In accessibility contexts, audio-reactive visuals serve as a sensory substitution channel for d/Deaf and…

Bluetooth Foot Pedal(also: Page Turn Pedal, Wireless Foot Pedal)

A wireless input device operated by foot that connects to tablets, computers, or specialized music-reading hardware via Bluetooth to enable hands-free page turning of digital music scores. Bluetooth foot pedals are particularly valuable for musicians who cannot take their hands…

Braille Music(also: Braille Music Notation, Music Braille)

A tactile system for encoding Western music notation using the same six-dot cells as literary Braille. Braille Music is read through touch rather than sight, making it particularly useful for blind musicians. However, it has a steep learning curve, requires prior knowledge of…

Cymatics

The study of visible patterns and shapes created when sound vibrations pass through physical media such as water, sand, or metal plates. Cymatic patterns are deterministic — the same frequency produces the same pattern — creating a predictable visual representation of sound. In…

Deaf Music(also: Deaf musicality, Music in Deaf culture)

Music as experienced, created, and culturally interpreted by d/Deaf and Hard of Hearing individuals and communities. Deaf music encompasses a multimodal, spatio-temporal engagement with rhythm, vibration, visual performance, song signing, and emotional resonance — often…

Drake Music Project(also: Drake Music, DMP)

A UK charity founded in 1988 that facilitates music-making for physically disabled people through technology. The Drake Music Project runs workshops using adapted music technology — including MIDI controllers, switches, and customized software — to enable people with physical…

Gestural Interface(also: Gesture-Based Interface, Gestural Controller)

An input device or system that interprets body movements, hand gestures, or physical expressions as control signals for digital systems. In accessibility and music contexts, gestural interfaces are particularly relevant for d/Deaf and Hard of Hearing users who communicate…

Graphic Score(also: Graphical Notation, Visual Music Score)

A form of musical notation that uses visual symbols, shapes, colors, and spatial arrangements rather than traditional staff notation to represent musical ideas and instructions. Graphic scores communicate musical concepts through visual means that can be more accessible to…

Haptic Controller(also: Haptic Interface, Tactile Controller)

An input device that uses touch-based interaction, typically through buttons, pads, or surfaces that can be pressed, tapped, or manipulated. In music technology, haptic controllers include devices like sample pads, drum machines, and synthesizer controllers that respond to…

Haptic Music Technology(also: Vibrotactile Music Systems, Haptic Music Interfaces)

Technologies that convey musical information through touch, typically using vibrotactile feedback to transmit sound properties such as rhythm, frequency, and amplitude to the body. Haptic music technology includes wearable devices like vibrotactile vests and jackets that allow…

Hornbostel-Sachs Classification(also: Hornbostel-Sachs System, Sachs-Hornbostel)

A comprehensive system for classifying musical instruments based on how they produce sound, originally developed by Erich von Hornbostel and Curt Sachs in 1914. The system divides instruments into four main categories: idiophones (sound from the vibration of the entire…

IMSLP(also: International Music Score Library Project, Petrucci Music Library)

A free online repository of public domain music scores, also known as the Petrucci Music Library. IMSLP hosts hundreds of thousands of scores primarily in PDF format, making it one of the largest collections of freely available music notation. While an invaluable resource for…

Large Print Music(also: Enlarged Music, Large Print Notation)

Music notation that has been enlarged from standard size to improve readability for musicians with low vision. Large print music is typically created by photocopying or printing scores onto A3 or tabloid-sized paper, or by digitally enlarging PDF files. While quicker and cheaper…

Lime Lighter

A specialized hardware and software system developed by Dancing Dots, a company led by a blind musician, for reading and navigating music scores accessibly. The Lime Lighter includes features like Bluetooth pedal control for hands-free page turning, Optical Music Recognition,…

MIDI Controller(also: MIDI Input Device)

A hardware device that generates MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) messages to control music software or sound modules without being a traditional musical instrument. MIDI controllers include keyboards, drum pads, wind controllers, joysticks, and purpose-built…

Modified Stave Notation(also: MSN)

A system for adapting standard Western music notation to meet the individual visual needs of musicians with low vision. Unlike simple enlargement (large print music), MSN involves tailored modifications such as adjusting spacing between notes and stave lines, changing font sizes…

Music Haptics(also: Musical Haptics, Haptic Music)

The use of touch-based feedback — including vibrations, textures, and force — to convey musical information such as pitch, tempo, timbre, articulation, dynamics, and rhythm. Music haptics draws on the fact that haptic receptors in the skin, muscles, and joints naturally relay…

Music Notation Accessibility

The practice of making written music scores perceivable and usable by musicians with visual impairments and other disabilities. This encompasses the creation of alternative formats like Braille Music, Modified Stave Notation, and large print music, as well as the development of…

Music Pedagogy(also: Music Education, Music Teaching)

The theory and practice of teaching and learning music, including methods for instruction, curriculum design, and assessment. In accessibility contexts, music pedagogy for blind and low vision learners faces significant challenges: most music teachers have little knowledge of…

Music Stand Accessibility

The design and arrangement of music stands to accommodate the needs of musicians with disabilities, particularly those with low vision who must position enlarged scores or digital devices close to their face while playing. Standard music stands may be too small for A3 or…

Music Therapy

A clinical and evidence-based practice that uses music interventions to accomplish individualized therapeutic goals, including improving communication, social interaction, emotional expression, and motor skills. For people with disabilities, music therapy can be particularly…

Music Visualization(also: Music visualisers, Visual music)

The representation of musical content — pitch, rhythm, timbre, dynamics, melody, lyrics, or emotion — through visual rather than auditory channels. Visualizations range from abstract mappings of audio features (spectrograms, particle systems, pulsing geometry, lyric typography)…

Music-Induced Analgesia(also: music analgesia, music-based pain relief)

The phenomenon by which listening to music reduces the subjective experience of pain. Research consistently shows that self-selected, personally meaningful music produces stronger analgesic effects than researcher-prescribed music, suggesting that emotional engagement,…

Musical Emotion(also: Music-Induced Emotion, Emotional Response to Music)

The emotional content perceived in, or felt in response to, a piece of music, typically analysed along dimensions such as valence and arousal or via categorical labels (cheerful, tense, calm, sad, energetic, love, dreamy). Musical emotion arises from low-level acoustic…

Open Sound Control(also: OSC)

An open, network-based protocol for communication between computers, sound synthesizers, and other multimedia devices, developed by Matthew Wright and Adrian Freed (1997). OSC sends human-readable address patterns and floating-point values over UDP/TCP, offering higher…

Optical Music Recognition(also: OMR)

Computer vision technology that automatically converts images of printed or handwritten music notation into machine-readable digital formats such as musicXML. OMR is analogous to OCR (Optical Character Recognition) for text. While OMR can potentially streamline the creation of…

Page Turner(also: Page Turning Aid)

Any device, tool, or person that assists a musician in turning the pages of a music score during performance. Traditional page turners are human assistants who sit beside a musician and turn pages on cue. Technological alternatives include Bluetooth foot pedals for digital…

Perfect Pitch(also: Absolute Pitch, AP)

The innate ability to identify or reproduce musical pitches without the aid of a reference note. People with perfect pitch can recognize and name any musical note by its pitch alone. For blind and low vision musicians, perfect pitch can be a significant advantage, serving as a…

Rhythm Game(also: Music Game, Music/Rhythm Game)

A genre of video game in which players must perform actions — such as pressing buttons, tapping a screen, or moving a controller — in time with music or a rhythmic pattern. Popular examples include Guitar Hero, Rock Band, Dance Dance Revolution, and Beat Saber. Rhythm games are…

Scat Singing(also: Scatting, Vocal scat)

A jazz-rooted vocal technique in which a singer improvises melodic and rhythmic lines using nonsense syllables (such as 'doo', 'bop', 'ba', 'da', 'shoo') rather than words. Scat lets the voice function as an instrument, carrying melody, articulation, phrasing, and vocal timbre…

Sight Reading(also: Sight-Reading, Prima Vista)

The practice of performing music from a written score without prior rehearsal or familiarity with the piece. Sight reading is a core skill in many musical contexts, particularly classical music, orchestral auditions, and freelance performance work. For musicians with low vision,…

Somatic Design(also: Soma-Centric Design, Body-Centric Design)

A design approach that prioritizes bodily experience, physical sensation, and embodied perception as primary channels for interaction and understanding. Somatic design shifts the focus from purely cognitive or visual interfaces to ones that engage the whole body, drawing on…

Song Signing(also: Signed Song, Sign-Singing, Song Sign)

A performative art form in which song lyrics are interpreted in a sign language (most commonly ASL) alongside body movement, facial expression, rhythm, and spatial use, so that the performer simultaneously conveys linguistic meaning and musical qualities such as tempo, dynamics,…

Sonic Agency

The right and ability to influence and interact with sound in a meaningful way, regardless of one's hearing ability. Sonic agency extends beyond auditory perception to encompass visual, tactile, and kinesthetic forms of musical expression, as well as access to the tools, spaces,…

Soundbeam

A touchless digital musical instrument that uses ultrasonic sensors to detect movement in space and convert it into sound. Soundbeam allows users to create music through body movements, gestures, or the movement of any object, without requiring physical contact with the…

Valence-Arousal Model(also: VA Model, Circumplex Model, Valence-Arousal Space)

A two-dimensional model of affect, introduced by Russell (1980), that represents emotional states along two orthogonal axes: valence (pleasant versus unpleasant) and arousal (activated versus deactivated). Emotions such as cheerful, tense, calm, and sad map to the four quadrants…

forScore

A digital sheet music reading application for Apple devices that allows musicians to view, annotate, and organize music scores on tablets and phones. forScore includes features like pinch-to-zoom, contrast adjustment, color annotation, and a Reflow feature that reformats sheet…

41 results.