Music – Accessories – Teaching devices
Utility Patent
1999-05-20
2001-01-02
Donels, Jeffrey (Department: 2837)
Music
Accessories
Teaching devices
C084S46400A, C084S645000, C084S47000P
Utility Patent
active
06169239
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is generally related to a method and system for visually coding a musical composition to indicate particular musical concepts and the level of difficulty of the musical concepts.
2. Problem to be Solved
Providing musical instruction to individuals with no music experience or education can be a very difficult. This difficulty is intensified when the musical instruction is directed to children. There are many factors which contribute to such difficulty. These factors include:
a) an overwhelming number of musical concepts, e.g. arpeggios, chromatic scales, chords, etc., to be learned;
b) difficulty in understanding and recognizing various musical concepts;
c) insufficient time devoted to portions of musical compositions having a relatively higher level of difficulty; and
d) poor concentration of the student receiving instruction.
One attempt at solving the aforementioned problems is the disclosed in Quinn U.S. Pat. No. 5,775,915. Quinn discloses indicating accidentals in a musical score by visual coding of the individual notes and associated components as they appear throughout the score. Quinn also discloses indicating changes in the bass or treble clefs by visual coding. However, Quinn does not address the issue of identifying particular musical concepts in a musical score. Specifically, Quinn does not teach the visual coding of musical notation to indicate particular musical concepts defined by such musical notation. Furthermore, Quinn does not teach the visual coding of musical notation to indicate the level of difficulty of the musical concept defined by the musical notation.
Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide a novel method of visually coding musical notation of a musical composition to indicate particular musical concepts defined by the musical notation.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a novel method of visually coding musical notation of a musical composition to indicate the level of difficulty of the particular musical concepts defined by the musical notation.
Other objects and advantages of the present invention will be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art in light of the ensuing description of the present invention.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is directed to, in a first aspect, a method for visually coding a musical composition comprising the steps of:
a) defining a set of musical concepts;
b) providing a musical composition having a plurality of measures that comprise musical notation which may define at least one musical concept that has a level of difficulty;
c) evaluating the measures to determine the musical concepts that may be defined by the musical notation of the measures; and
d) visually coding the musical notation of each measure with indicia of a first indicia set to indicate a particular musical concept that is defined by the musical notation.
In a related aspect, the present invention is directed to a method for visually coding musical notation of a musical composition to indicate musical concepts defined by the musical notation and the level of difficulty of the musical concepts, comprising the steps of:
a) defining a set of musical concepts;
b) providing a musical composition having a plurality of measures wherein the measures comprise musical notation which may define at least one musical concept that has a level of difficulty;
c) evaluating the measures to determine the musical concepts that are defined by the musical notation of the measures and the level of difficulty of the musical concepts;
d) visually coding the musical notation with a predetermined color that corresponds to a particular musical concept; and
e) visually coding the musical notation with a predetermined indicia to indicate the particular level of difficulty of the musical concept defined by the musical notation.
In a further aspect, the present invention is directed to a system for visually coding musical notation of a musical composition to indicate musical concepts defined by the musical notation and the level of difficulty of the musical concepts, comprising:
an electronic keyboard having an output for outputting electrical signals that represent musical notes;
a MIDI interface having an input coupled to the output of the keyboard and an output;
a computer having (i) an input coupled to the output of the MIDI interface, (ii) a display screen, (iii) a keyboard, and (iv) a storage medium for storing a first set of indicia and a second set of indicia wherein each indicia of the first set corresponds to one of a predefined set of musical concepts and each indicia of the second set corresponds to a level of difficulty associated with musical concepts, the storage medium being encoded with machine-readable computer program code to (i) effect display of the musical composition resulting from receiving the electrical signals from the MIDI interface, (ii) allow a user to visually code the musical notation to indicate the musical concept represented by the musical notation, and (iii) allow the user to visually code the musical notation to indicate the level of difficulty of the musical concept defined by the musical notation.
In yet another aspect, the present invention is directed to a storage medium encoded with machine-readable computer program code for processing digital audio data, comprising:
means for causing a computer to receive digital audio data from a MIDI interface wherein the digital audio data defines a musical composition;
means for causing the computer to display the musical composition;
means for causing the computer to store a first set of indicia and a second set of indicia wherein each indicia of the first set corresponds to one of a predefined set of musical concepts and each indicia of the second set corresponds to a level of difficulty associated with a musical concept; and
means for causing the computer to allow a user to (i) visually code the musical notation to indicate the musical concept represented by the particular musical notation, and (ii) visually code the musical notation to indicate the level of difficulty of the musical concept defined by the musical notation.
REFERENCES:
patent: 3698277 (1972-10-01), Barra
patent: 5408686 (1995-04-01), Mankovitz
patent: 5526284 (1996-06-01), Mankovitz
patent: 5540132 (1996-07-01), Hale
patent: 5544562 (1996-08-01), Jeon
patent: 5561849 (1996-10-01), Mankovitz
patent: 5574238 (1996-11-01), Mencher
patent: 5689078 (1997-11-01), McClard
patent: 5740345 (1998-04-01), Danielson
patent: 5775915 (1998-07-01), Quinn
Donels Jeffrey
Nuzzo Raymond A.
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