Music – Accessories – Teaching devices
Reexamination Certificate
1995-11-09
2001-04-03
Nappi, Robert E. (Department: 2837)
Music
Accessories
Teaching devices
C084S478000, C084S47900R, C084S48500R, C084S46400A
Reexamination Certificate
active
06211452
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to an electronic musical instrument having a function of displaying approximate places where a player should position his or her hands and fingers to depress keys as an assistance in playing the musical instrument (“key-depression instructing display” function).
The present invention also relates to an electronic musical instrument which divides performance information into a plurality of sections (phrases) in accordance with its contents, and is applicable to electronic musical instruments such as one having a key-depression instructing display function, and automatic performance devices and other similar devices.
Electronic musical instruments have been known which have a function of automatically instructing a player about keys to be depressed as an assistance in playing the musical instrument (key-depression instructing display function). Such electronic musical instruments typically have light emitting diodes (LEDs) provided adjacent to the upper edges of the keyboard keys in corresponding relations thereto and, in accordance with the progression of performance, sequentially lights the LEDs corresponding to the keys to be depressed, to thereby visually instruct what keys the player should depress.
Among the above-mentioned electronic musical instrument having the key-depression instructing display function, there are known one type which is designed to light only the LEDs corresponding to the keys to be depressed now, and another type which is designed to collectively light the LEDs corresponding to the keys to be depressed within a phrase (phrase-by-phrase LED lighting). Upon actual depression of a key by the player, these electronic musical instruments turn off the corresponding LED. A typical example of such electronic musical instruments is disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Publication No. SHO 63-187525.
However, in the prior art electronic musical instrument which is designed to light only the LEDs corresponding to the keys to be depressed now (key-by-key LED lighting type), it is necessary for the player to repeat operations, such as in a reflective action test, to quickly depress a key in response to lighting of a corresponding LED. Such performance operations would inevitably result in a sporadic, scattered performance, and therefore a natural, smooth performance could not be attained.
On the other hand, the electronic musical instrument which is designed to collectively light the LEDs corresponding to the keys to be depressed within a phrase (phrase-by-phrase LED lighting type) has the advantage that the player can recognize approximate places where the player should position his or her hands and fingers to depress the keys more easily than the key-by-key LED lighting type. But, with the instrument of the phrase-by-phrase LED lighting type, it is necessary that performance information to be utilized should be previously divided into phrases with particular data indicative of boundaries between the phrases. Thus, in the case of performance information undivided into phrases, the LEDs can not be lit on a phrase-by-phrase basis, so that it is necessary for the player or user to read out the performance information to divide it into phrases in advance.
Further, because of such an arrangement that the LEDs are turned off in response to actual depression of the LED-instructed keys, the player's eyes tend to unconsciously follow the turned-off LEDs, which would make it rather difficult for the player to accurately recognize the key-depression instruction by the LEDs.
In addition, because the LED displaying states are changed phrase by phrase, the LEDs corresponding to the keys to be depressed are collectively lit in response to each phrase change, and thus the key-depression instructing display immediately after the phrase change would be difficult to recognize.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is therefore a first object of the present invention to provide an electronic musical instrument having a key-depression instructing display function, which allows key-displaying elements to be activated phrase by phrase even with music piece performance information undivided into phrases.
It is a second object of the present invention to provide an electronic musical instrument having a key-depression instructing display function, which is capable of preventing a reduced recognizability of the key-depression instructing display due to turning-off of key-displaying elements activated phrase by phrase.
It is a third object of the present invention to provide an electronic musical instrument having a key-depression instructing display function, which is capable of achieving an increased recognizability of the key-depression instructing display, activated phrase by phrase, at the time of a phrase change.
It is a fourth object of the present invention to provide a phrase dividing device which is capable of automatically dividing music piece performance information into phrases.
To achieve the above-mentioned objects, an electronic musical instrument in accordance with a first aspect of the present invention comprises a plurality of performance operators corresponding to a plurality of tone pitches, display means including a plurality of key-displaying elements provided in corresponding relation to said performance operators, performance information supply means for supplying a series of performance information constituting optional music piece, said performance information containing at least tone pitch information, dividing means for dividing the performance information for a music piece supplied from said performance information supply means into a plurality of sections, in accordance with contents of the performance information, and control means for, in accordance with performance progression of the music piece and for each of the sections, activating, into a displaying state, said key-displaying element corresponding to every tone pitch information contained in the performance information present within the section.
In the case of a keyboard musical instrument, for example, the performance operators comprise keys corresponding to various tone pitches, and the individual key-displaying elements comprise optical key-displaying elements such as light emitting diodes (LEDs) disposed in easy-to-see positions in corresponding relations to the individual keys. On the basis of the tone pitch information contained in a series of performance information for a music piece supplied from the performance information supply means, any of the key-displaying elements corresponding to the tone pitch information is activated into a displaying state (such as a lit or blinking state), so that the performance operators to be operated in accordance with the progression of performance are displayed to the player as a performance assistance or guide. Such a performance guide display is executed, for each section, by an automatic dividing process on the performance information by the dividing means.
The electronic musical instrument according to the first aspect of the present invention is characterized in that the dividing means operates to automatically divide the supplied performance information for a music piece into a plurality of sections in accordance with the contents of the performance information. The “section” divided by the dividing means is an equivalent to a “phrase” of a music piece. The term “phrase” as used herein refers to an optional fragment divided from a music piece just as a facility for key-depression guiding instruction and has a broader meaning than the normal “phrase” referring to a music piece fragment defined by a certain musical theory.
In one preferred embodiment, the dividing means includes determination means for, in accordance with the contents of the series of performance information for a music piece supplied from the performance information supply means, determining boundaries or dividing points between the sections, and means for supplying dividing information corresponding to the boundaries between
Fletcher Marlon
Morrison & Foerster
Nappi Robert E.
Yamaha Corporation
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