Music – Accessories – Teaching devices
Reexamination Certificate
1999-12-29
2001-01-16
Donels, Jeffrey (Department: 2837)
Music
Accessories
Teaching devices
C084S47000P, C084S600000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06175069
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD
This invention relates to a music instruction apparatus. Specifically this invention relates to a new apparatus for teaching students the structure and relationships between different musical scales and chords.
BACKGROUND ART
Music instructional textbooks are the conventional resources for learning music theory. Music is an international language, therefore, certain rules, patterns, and formulas apply so that written music can be interpreted by all languages and all musical instruments.
Music is written with symbols that represent different things, and some symbols representing more than one thing. For example Music Notes are used to identify time value. Key Signatures are used to identify Sharps # and Flats b. Numbers such as 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 are used to identify degree of a scale. Roman numerals such as I II III IV V VI VII VIII are used to identify different degrees of a scale for identifying a chord. Letters such as C, Dm, G7, Eb are used to identify the names of chords. Music staff, treble staff and bass staff are used to identify lines and spaces on which music is written. Letters such as A B C D E F G are used to identify notes, scales, chords, lines and spaces.
All text books for teaching music theory or how to play a musical instrument use the music staff. This means that a student must be able to read the notes on lines and spaces. Although the written music is the same, different musical instruments such as keyboards, string instruments, and wind instruments produce sounds in different ways. The student is forced to learn scales and chords for corresponding instruments by finger memorization and repetition. Understanding and memorizing scales and chords by this method can be very difficult for a student first learning music theory.
Unfortunately most instructional books do not visually organize scales and chords in alternative formats which are easily understandable. Some texts include cryptic two-dimensional charts which compare the notes of one chord or scale to another. Other texts provide cryptic charts of whole steps and half steps taken to make scales and chords, all of which are shown on a music staff (lines and spaces). Other books use a chart commonly called the circle of fifths to show the relationships between Major scales, Minor scales, chords, and key signatures.
However, all of these books, charts, and tables are for reference purposes only. None of these materials offer an interactive mechanism for learning scales and chords. Consequently there exists a need for an apparatus that supplements the information in music instructional books by providing an easier method for learning music scales and chords. Learning and understanding scales and chords in the music language is as important as learning the alphabet and words in any language.
The prior art includes a few devices which are operative to display scales and chords, however, none of them are overly useful for learning scales and chords. For example prior art hand held computer devices have been developed which are operative to display the lines and spaces of a music staff. Again these lines and spaces are just as are found in a text book. Other prior art devices display the keys of a piano keyboard. Although these devices provide a quick and easy method to lookup the notes of a particular scale or chord, these devices are not practical for teaching a student the relationships between different scales and chords.
Consequently there exists a further need for an instructional apparatus that is useful for teaching a student which notes comprise major and minor scales. There further exists a need for a music instruction apparatus that is operative to teach a student how to construct chords from scales. There further exists a need for a music instruction apparatus that allows a student to learn music theory without first having to learn to read lines and spaces, note values and, music terminology.
DISCLOSURE OF INVENTION
It is an object of the present invention to provide an instructional apparatus which aides a student in learning and understanding music scales and chords.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide an apparatus which enables a student to interactively manipulate the musical notes that comprise scales and chords.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide an apparatus which enables a student to interactively construct a minor scale from a major scale.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide an apparatus which enables a student to interactively construct chords from a scale.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide an apparatus which enables a student to see and understand the names of the different degrees of a scale and chord.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide an apparatus which enables a student to physically construct chords from scales by using formulas.
Further objects of the present invention will be made apparent in the following Best Modes for Carrying Out Invention and the appended claims.
The foregoing objects are accomplished in one exemplary embodiment of the invention by a music instruction apparatus that includes music note selectors such as rotatable blocks arranged in an array pattern within a support frame. Each of the blocks includes a side that is blank and a side that includes indicia representative of a musical note. A plurality of the blocks have additional sides that include indicia representative of other musical notes. By rotating the blocks different musical scales and chords can be displayed.
To assist a student with understanding music theory and the construction of scales and chords, the array is organized in a format that is conducive to quickly learning the relationships between different scales and chords. In the exemplary embodiment the array pattern is comprised of 8 vertical columns and 13 horizontal rows. Each row includes blocks with musical notes that correspond to a Major Diatonic Scale. With thirteen rows, each of the 13 Major Diatonic Scales can be viewed at once.
For forming minor scales from the thirteen major scales, some of the blocks have second and third sides with music notes that are either a half tone (half step) above or below the musical note on the first side. A student is enabled to construct a minor scale from the major scale by turning the correct blocks to the second sides. In this described exemplary embodiment the first side is the front side of a block, the second side is the left side of the block, and the third side is the right side of the block.
For forming chords from the scales, some of the blocks can be turned to a blank side. The remaining blocks with visible notes are representative of chords that correspond to the originally displayed scales. These chords can be further changed to other corresponding chords by turning the blocks in the chord to display other notes that are a half tone (half step) above or below the original note in the original chord. By rotating one or more blocks, the present invention enables a student for example to interactively create minor chords from major chords, to create an augmented chord, to change a Major 7th chord to a Dominant 7th chord, or to change a Sixth chord to a Diminished chord.
In other exemplary embodiments, the described apparatus can further include a magnetic display board, or other medium for interactively displaying indicia representative of sheet music. With a magnetic display board for example, small circular magnets can be arranged on the lines and spaces of the music staff indicia to form scales and chords that correspond to the scales and chords being displayed by the rotating blocks of the present invention. Students can thus practice generating sheet music representative of scales and chords with the assistance of the interactive array of blocks.
For the present invention, the front, left and right sides of the blocks may have corresponding color schemes to aid the student in learning the relationships between different scales and chords. In other alte
Donels Jeffrey
Jocke Ralph E.
Parmelee Christopher L.
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