Music – Accessories – Teaching devices
Reexamination Certificate
1999-07-20
2001-11-27
Witkowski, Stanley J. (Department: 2837)
Music
Accessories
Teaching devices
C084S478000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06323411
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a musical instrument practicing apparatus and method, and a machine readable medium containing program instructions for realizing such an apparatus and a method, and more particularly to an apparatus and a method suitable for practicing the guitar or the like musical instrument, in which a plurality of practice pieces of music are provided such that a desired one can be arbitrarily selected by the student and the musical score thereof is displayed together with instruction about the manner of manipulation on the instrument such as strokes against the strings and fret positions of the respective strings. The invention is applicable in various forms of electronic musical apparatuses such as an electronic musical instrument and a computer-system-configured music practicing apparatus.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Among the prior art apparatus for practicing a musical instrument such as a guitar, there has been a type which stores music piece data for automatic performances of plural pieces of music, renders an automatic musical performance of any selected piece from among the prepared plural pieces and exhibits on the display screen the musical score of the melody of the selected piece for practice. The musical score displayed in such a conventional apparatus is, for example, the one usually referred to as a tablature which includes indications as to the fret positions of the respective strings to depress.
With the apparatus of the above-mentioned conventional type, a student can conduct a practice of melody performance on the guitar reading a displayed tablature, and if preferred, also listeninventioning to the automatic performance of the practice piece of music. With such an apparatus, however, even if the student wants to practice the guitar playing in a desired fashion of practice such as an 8-beat rhythm study, the study piece of music displayed may not necessarily be the one suitable for the intended fashion of practice, thus an efficient practice may not be expected. Further, the conventional apparatuses are not equipped with a function of indicating particular manipulating manners including an up-stroke and a down-stroke, and the student will be perplexed which stroke to use for each tone rendition, which also will deteriorate the practice efficiency.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is, therefore, a primary object of the present invention to provide a novel type of musical instrument practicing apparatus and method and a machine readable medium containing a program therefor capable of training the student in an efficient way.
According to the present invention, the object is accomplished by providing an apparatus for practicing a musical instrument comprising: a display device; a storage device which stores a plurality of music notation exhibiting information pieces defining a plurality of music notations to be displayed on the display device, the plurality of notations being correspondingly provided for a plurality of practice pieces of music in predetermined practice categories; a selecting device which selects one from the plurality of practice pieces of music; a read-out device which reads out a music notation exhibiting information piece which corresponds to the selected practice piece of music; and a display control device which causes the display device to display the music notation which corresponds to the selected practice piece of music based on the music notation exhibiting information piece read out by the read-out device.
With the apparatus of the preceding paragraph, the user or student who practices the musical instrument selects an arbitrarily desired practice music piece using the selecting device, and then the apparatus reads out the musical notation exhibiting information corresponding to the selected practice piece of music and the display device displays a music notation for practice based on the read-out musical notation exhibiting information. The user conducts practice of playing the musical instrument according to the displayed musical notation.
According to an aspect of the present invention, a musical instrument practicing apparatus comprises: a display device; a storage device which stores a plurality of music notation exhibiting information pieces defining a plurality of music notations to be displayed on the display device, the plurality of notations being correspondingly provided for a plurality of practice pieces of music in each of a plurality of practice categories; a first selecting device which selects one from the plurality of practice categories; a first display control device which causes the display device to display the plurality of practice pieces which meet the selected practice category; a second selecting device which selects one from the plurality of practice pieces of music displayed on the display device; a read-out device which reads out a music notation exhibiting information piece which corresponds to the selected practice piece of music; and a second display control device which causes the display device to display the music notation which corresponds to the selected practice piece of music based on the music notation exhibiting information piece read out by the read-out device.
With the apparatus of the preceding paragraph, the user or student who practices the musical instrument selects an arbitrarily desired practice music piece using the first selecting device, and then the display device displays a plurality of practice pieces of music within the selected practice category. Upon selection by the user of an arbitrarily desired practice piece from among the displayed practice pieces using the second selecting device, the apparatus reads out the musical notation exhibiting information corresponding to the selected practice piece of music and the display device displays a music notation for practice based on the read-out musical notation exhibiting information. The user conducts practice of playing the musical instrument according to the displayed musical notation.
In the apparatus of the second preceding paragraph, the storage device may store manipulating position information pieces, each indicating manipulating positions of the musical instrument to be practiced for each of a plurality of chords to be played on the musical instrument, the music notation exhibiting information pieces stored in the storage device may include chord information pieces, each indicating a chord to be practiced; the read-out device may read out a manipulating position information piece that indicates manipulating position of the musical instrument a chord represented by a chord information piece included in the music notation exhibiting information piece, every time one of the music notation exhibiting information piece is read out from the storage device; and the second display control device may cause the display device to exhibit the manipulating positions of the musical instrument for the chord to be played based on the manipulating position information piece read out from the storage device. With such a structure, where the practice categories are the practice on the rhythms of various beat styles, the chord information stored in the storage device can be used in common for plural practice categories.
According to another aspect of the present invention, an apparatus for practicing a musical instrument comprises: a display device; a first storage device which stores a plurality of music piece information pieces representing a plurality of music pieces, each of the plurality of music piece information pieces including practice category information pieces indicating practice categories for the music piece represented by the each music piece information piece; a second storage device which stores a plurality of music notation exhibiting information pieces defining a plurality of music notations to be displayed on the display device, the plurality of notations being correspondingly provided for a plurality of practice pieces of music in each of a plurali
Morrison & Foerster / LLP
Witkowski Stanley J.
Yamaha Corporation
LandOfFree
Apparatus and method for practicing a musical instrument... does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Apparatus and method for practicing a musical instrument..., we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Apparatus and method for practicing a musical instrument... will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-2618553