Music – Accessories – Teaching devices
Patent
1988-03-01
1992-05-19
Brown, Brian W.
Music
Accessories
Teaching devices
84474, G09B 1502
Patent
active
051137399
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
This invention relates to a calculator and is more specifically concerned with a calculator for enabling a musician to visualise and organise transitions between scales, modes, chords, melody lines, bass lines, fractions, colour, numerals, timber and the alphabet and to work more easily within a series of chosen scales, etc.
In co-pending Austrialian patent Application No. 28219/84 filed on 16th Apr. 1984 and entitled "Sliding Musical Scale Device" the present inventor has described a calculator comprising two flat sheets one of which provides a mask slidable over the other. The undersheet is marked with musical notation arranged in a row of parallel columns each representing a recurring cycle of notes, the starting note at the foot of each column having a pre-arranged progression, for example a fifth, with respect to the starting note of the preceding column and also shows how to transpose the modes of the Ionian Major Scale into 4th/5th's from their tonic and then transposes the beforesaid modes and scale into 4th's and 5th's.
The masking sheet is formed with windows and opaque sections, also arranged in columns and each registering with a respective note position on the underlying sheet. Each row of windows and opaque sections is labelled to identify a particular type of musical scale or mode represented by the column, and the notes visible through the windows of each column represent those used in that particular mode or scale.
Although the calculator of the co-pending application is useful in enabling students of music to visualise the relationship between musical scales and modes, it has insufficient versatility for a composer who may require to change the relationship of the notes of the columns with respect to one another and to vary the order of the columns and insufficient versatility to write melody lines, bass lines etc.
In accordance with a first aspect of the invention, a calculator has musical notation in which the notes are equi-spaced and arranged in parallel rows on respective elements each of which is independently movable in the direction of the row with respect to neighbouring elements, masks overlapping respective elements and individually movable in the direction of the row or notes on the element beneath, each mask corresponding to a particular musical scale or mode and having opaque and transparent sections alternating with one another to expose through the mask only those notes of the row beneath which are used in the scale or mode denoted by the mask.
Preferably when the calculator is made in a planar configuration the length of the element is substantially greater than the length of the mask and conveniently the element is movable in either direction with respect to its length a distance of at least one complete octave. In one such arrangement the element is in a slideway six octaves long and is itself four octaves long. The mask is suitably two octaves long and may be arranged in a transparent platen which can be moved perpendicularly to the longitudinal direction of the elements beneath.
In accordance with a second aspect of the invention, a calculator has musical notation arranged in circles each representing a scale or mode and in which the notes are equi-angularly spaced from one another, and masking rings superimposed over respective circles and individually rotatable about an axis common to the circles and rings, each masking ring having a circular array of transparent and opaque sections registering with the positions of respective notes in the circle beneath, so that the notes exposed in the transparent sections or windows correspond to those of the mode or scale represented by the ring.
A calculator in accordance with a third aspect of the invention has a set of rings individually rotatable about a common axis and arranged in positionally interchangeable pairs with one ring of each pair covering the other ring of the pair, each covered ring carrying a equi-angularly spaced positions notes of a chromatic scale, and the covering ring of the pair providing a mask identifi
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