Music – Instruments
Patent
1985-01-08
1987-04-21
Perkey, William B.
Music
Instruments
84 116, 84267, 84DIG30, G10D 108, G10D 300, G10H 312, G10H 314
Patent
active
046586903
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to electronic music making and in particular to electronic musical instruments.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART
The prior art can principally be divided into two groups, namely electric fingerboard stringed instruments, and synthesisers. The expression `fingerboard stringed instruments` is here used to denote instruments in which the strings are struck, plucked or bowed without the use of a keyboard, and the note played is determined by shortening the effective length of the string by the amount necessary to cause it to vibrate at the desired pitch. It is first desirable to consider such fingerboard stringed instruments generally.
There are many forms of "guitar-like" or plucked, stringed instruments, from the Oriental Koto and the Indian Sitar, to the American Banjo and the Spanish Guitar. Although there are marked differences in the sizes, materials used, forms of construction and numbers of strings employed on these instruments, one common feature of the guitar family of stringed instruments is that the musician can produce a variety of notes on each string by altering that effective length of the string. This is done by pressing the string down on the face of the neck of the instrument (this face is called the fretboard on a guitar).
This feature makes this family of stringed instruments stand apart from those of the keyboard family (piano, harpsichord, clavichord etc), in which each note produced has its own individual key on the keyboard with its own individual string.
The violin family (including the viola, cello and string bass), has a similar pitch control arrangement to the guitar family in that each string produces a variety of pitches according to the length of the string, but the dynamic performance of a note is usually started and sustained by bowing the string.
In contrast, the guitar family of instruments is dynamically triggered by plucking the string. This may be done with the bare fingers, or it may be done with individual finger picks, or a plectrum or quill. In each case the result is similar. The string is displaced from its state of equilibrium by the plucking device prior to the start of the note, and the string is released at the moment the note is required to start. The string will then vibrate, producing a musical note. The amplitude of the note that the string produces now goes through a dynamic cycle of `Attack` and `Decay` which will depend on the extent to which the string was originally displaced, and also on the inherent acoustic characteristics of the particular instrument.
Unlike a violin, the duration that the note remains audible or "sustains" is dependent on these last two factors, whereas a violin note can be sustained for as long as the player chooses by bowing the string.
The natural decay of the plucked string of a guitar can be brought to a premature end by damping the vibrating string with the hand. This can effectively make the note "switch off" if the musician desires.
This fact limits the playing style of the guitar player. An open string, that is a string which is free-standing in its natural state of mechanical equilibrium--i.e. it has not had its musical note value modified by the musician's finger "stopping" it on the fretboard and thereby shortening its effective length, may be plucked, and will continue on its natural attack and decay cycle in a free standing state, regardless of the behaviour of the guitar player's hands, so long as he does not interrupt this cycle by damping the vibrating open string.
However, when a guitar player modifies the note produced by the string by holding it down on the fretboard and shortening the effective string length, he can start the dynamic cycle by plucking it, but he has to keep the string pressed down on the fretboard with his finger in order to maintain the natural attack and decay cycle of that string. If he does take his finger off the string, the note will prematurely switch off, or damp.
The surface of the neck of a guitar is divided by lateral wires, or frets
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Aitken William A.
Dixon Michael S.
Sedivy Anthony J.
Perkey William B.
Synthaxe Limited
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