In this article, I’d like to introduce you to my project “Blindpiano”, an educational website designed to help blind students learn to play the piano. The idea came about following a conversation with a blind student who had purchased some of my courses. Talking to him helped me understand how best to structure my teaching materials to make them more accessible to blind students.
Although the project is aimed at blind students, this teaching approach could also be useful for anyone who wants to learn how to play the keyboard but doesn’t have the patience to learn to read music.
Here are some more detailed thoughts on how I decided to structure the website and the lessons.
How I structured the piano course for blind people
Although there is a Braille notation system for notating music, I have decided to do without it because I believe that learning to use it requires commitment, determination and resources that most students do not have.
Buying a tablet to read Braille sheet music is very expensive, but beyond that, the challenge of reading music is already considerable for many sighted students; I believe it is even more daunting for a blind beginner pianist.
I have therefore structured the course in such a way as to dispense entirely with written sheet music. This represents a limitation in the medium and long term, but it also has certain advantages.
Learning the piano without sheet music: advantages and limitations
For many centuries, musicians relied solely on paper as a medium for the music they composed, and this allowed the system of musical notation to develop and improve over time. In particular, classical music is usually learnt from a score, rather than by ear.
A blind student who wishes to study classical music seriously will, sooner or later, have to familiarise himself with the Braille music notation system. However, the first steps can certainly be taken without the aid of a score, focusing on the physical aspects (such as the shape of the keyboard), musical ear training, and an understanding of the mechanisms of music: scales, chords, keys and various symmetries.
In practice, in my courses for blind students, I have completely eliminated sheet music, seeking to prioritise other aspects. In particular, I have tried to give greater emphasis to the following elements:
- Hand movements, with a focus on shifts and distances (known in music as ‘intervals’).
- Ear training, to learn to quickly recognise neighbouring notes, parallel and contrary movements, and leaps.
- Form analysis, to identify all the recurring elements in a piece and reduce the need for rote memorisation.
Doing without sheet music also offers certain advantages that can at least partly make up for the inability to use musical notation. Here are those advantages:
- Focusing on sound from the very beginning, encouraging the development of musical ear.
- A more physical approach to the instrument. Without the mediation of the score and without being able to see the keyboard, a blind student is led to immediately develop that relationship with the keyboard which normally comes at a later stage.
- A strong incentive to understand what is being studied, through the analysis of form and aspects that normally take a back seat for those who read the score: parallel motion, symmetries, fingering.
Classical or jazz piano? The choice of the Beyer method
For jazz enthusiasts, sheet music is less important, as this is a genre one learns mainly by listening and practising specific harmonic patterns. For now, however, I have focused on the ‘classical’ side, to tackle the more challenging aspects straight away.
Once again, I have chosen one of the most widely used piano methods of all time, Ferdinand Beyer’s Op. 101, which is extremely gradual and well-structured, yet also quite ambitious. I preferred not to create a method from scratch, for fear of producing something too basic.
Beyer’s Opus 101 is very effective and I have used it with hundreds of pupils, so I wanted to put myself to the test and try teaching it to blind students as well. In particular, I felt it was suitable for blind students due to certain characteristics:
- The hands remain in the same position for many exercises, allowing the student to memorise the sound of the notes and associate them with the fingerings.
- The exercises are short and well-structured; in particular, it has been easy to divide them into sections of 4 or 8 bars, which is essential for learning them by heart.
- It is a method that introduces new challenges relatively slowly, which is a positive feature for those who have to rely solely on their ear and memory.
Technical aspects: more pros than cons
In a world dominated by video, I realised that a course based solely on audio lessons has significant advantages. Building a website for blind students was easier – and even more enjoyable. Here’s how I approached building Blindpiano and my piano course for the blind:
- No flashy, unnecessary graphics; no covers, photos or illustrations. Just the essential content, organised as clearly as possible to make the site easy to navigate and accessible to ‘screen readers’ – the automated reading systems used by blind people to browse the web.
- No marketing. A blind person who wants to try playing the piano must already have their own motivation, and if they visit my site, they can start the first course without having to pay, register or read anything unnecessary.
- Removing videos and images means having a lighter, more efficient, faster website with fewer technical issues.
- Producing the audio lessons was much simpler; there was no need to set up a complicated rig with various cameras to frame my hands, as I had to do for my previous video courses
Help me spread the word about Blindpiano
The BlindPiano project was launched in two languages from the outset, with a website in Italian and one in English. There are several ways you can help:
- By browsing the site and checking that everything works. I’ve done this myself several times, but I know from experience that some things might work on my PC and smartphone but not on someone else’s.
- By trying out the course yourself, particularly if you’ve never played the piano and can’t read music.
- By spreading the word about BlindPiano to a wider audience, by posting links on your social media or on your website, if you have one.
BlindPiano is available in Italian and English; here are the links
Piano course for the blind, in English
Piano course for the blind, in Italian
I’d be delighted if you’d let me know what you think of this project, if you have any ideas for promoting or improving it, or if you’d like to get involved with BlindPiano in any way. Thanks, hope to hear from you soon!