Braille Music Division

Founded in 1992, SCCM’s Braille Music Division teaches music to blind and visually-impaired children, providing the expertise, specialized curriculum, and teacher training required to serve blind students in the mainstream of its general music program. Visually-impaired students are trained to compete with their sighted peers.

In addition to receiving a traditional music education, students learn to read braille music and sight sing, become familiar with keyboard geography, and develop applied listening skills.  Basic distinctions, such as high and low variance of pitch, direction of pitch, dynamic ranges, and tempo variations, have been shown to provide insights beyond the obvious musical references which help the students relate more thoroughly to the world around them.

SCCM houses an extensive braille music reference and resource library which includes over 5,000 music repertoire titles, methods, and collections. All materials are available to blind students, their instructors, and the community at large. The braille music portion of our curriculum is published and distributed worldwide by Dancing Dots Braille Music Technology.

SCCM is the center for MENVI, the Music Education Network for The Visually Impaired.  This free, worldwide information network is composed of musicians, specialists, students, parents, and music educators of visually impaired students. The MENVI Advisory Committee is made up entirely of blind musicians and teachers. MENVI exists for, and is guided by blind musicians.