Jennifer Wagner shows how the forScore app helps her play music with impaired vision
Video Transcript
The Vermont Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired presents Jennifer Wagner, a musician who shares how she continues to play despite losing her vision. Jennifer explains that she plays the trumpet and has been doing so since fifth grade—about 46 years. She has also played the Great Highland bagpipes and Scottish small pipes for about 20 years. Music is one of the most important parts of her life because it represents community and friendships. Everywhere she has lived, she has brought her trumpet or pipes with her, joined community groups or bands, and formed meaningful connections. As she loses her eyesight, it has become especially important for her to find ways to continue playing so she can remain part of these communities that mean so much to her.
Jennifer has macular dystrophy, which causes her to lose her central vision. She will retain peripheral vision, but central vision is essential for reading, and her condition is progressive. She still has some ability to read, but the words look distorted—similar to the warped, twisted letters of a CAPTCHA test used to verify that a computer user isn’t a robot. For her, words appear twisted, incomplete, and missing parts. While her brain can still make sense of familiar letters on a page, music notation is different. Music is written on five parallel lines placed close together, with notes represented by dots on or between those lines. Because of her visual distortion, she can no longer easily distinguish which line a note is on.
To adapt, Jennifer uses an application called forScore—spelled capital F-O-R, capital S-C-O-R-E—available for Apple computers, iPads, and iPhones. forScore allows her to enlarge her sheet music so the distortion becomes much smaller and she can read it clearly. She also needs bright lighting because her vision is both fuzzy and warped, so strong light makes reading noticeably easier. Using her iPad with forScore, Jennifer can enlarge the music to whatever size she needs. She demonstrates how the app displays music, how she can zoom in using the plus button, and how she can switch the display to a scrolling mode where each tap advances the music across the screen. She can even set the scrolling speed to match the tempo of the piece.
Because she needs both hands to play her instruments, Jennifer also uses a foot pedal that replaces tapping the screen. With her right foot, she advances the music, and with her left foot, she can go backward if she needs to repeat a section. With these technologies—enlarged digital music, backlighting, and hands-free page turning—she can continue playing in any concert hall or venue, regardless of lighting conditions. She is thrilled to have found these tools because they will allow her to continue playing music far longer than she otherwise would be able to. She acknowledges that someday she may lose too much vision to read music this way, but for now, she intends to stay active in her music communities for as long as she can.
The video concludes with the message: If you or a loved one needs assistance coping with vision loss, contact the Vermont Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired at 802-863-1358.