Music – Instruments – Stringed
Reexamination Certificate
1999-03-30
2002-01-01
Nappi, Robert E. (Department: 2837)
Music
Instruments
Stringed
C084S320000, C084S321000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06335477
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND—FIELD OF INVENTION
This invention relates to a pick for sounding the strings of musical instruments and to a method of its use. More particularly, the present invention provides a type of pick for sounding the strings of musical instruments which is securable to the fingers and thumb of a player's hand so that a string-actuating tip is positioned to a side of the fingers and thumb to sound strings.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Several types of musical instrument picks are well-known in various forms. These types of picks include thumbpicks, flatpicks, and fingerpicks. These types of picks are generally associated with particular methods for their respective use. That is, thumbpicks and fingerpicks are typically associated with fingerpicking methods, and flatpicks are typically associated with flatpicking methods. However, fingerpicking may also be performed without picks, thumbpicks may be grasped and used in the manner of a flatpick, and a flatpick can also be held and combined with fingerpicking strokes of the remaining fingers. The various methods and picks are commonly understood to have unique advantages and limitations, relative to particular musical contexts and purposes. Moreover, players frequently alternate between, or intercombine the use of the known picks and methods. Persons skilled in the art will therefore appreciate that a novel and effective type of pick may provide various players with novel advantages including a range of intercombinational possibilities with the known picks and methods.
The method of playing classical guitar is strongly associated with Andres Segovia, whose pedagogy is referred to here. In the classical method the strings of the instrument are engaged and sounded by a combined stroke of the natural fingertip and fingernail, and a “minimum transition” from flesh to nail is stressed as an ideal form of the playing stroke. The position of the hand in relation to the strings supports the implementation of this stroke, and the precise character of this stroke serves as a key, or reference point in the method, relative to other strokes employed for variation. The classical method is advantageous in that this stroke has a distinct feel for the player, which facilitates consistent articulation of notes, and tonal control.
Disadvantages of the classical guitar method include the problems of maintaining the nails. The different relation of the thumb toward the strings may produce uneven tones when the thumb is employed in alternation with strokes of a finger against a string. The natural nails may also produce thin tones on steel strings, which are customarily strung at greater tension than nylon strings. Players who use the classical method may be reluctant to play upon steel strings because of detrimental effects to their nails. And players who have learned the precisely combined classical stroke, described above, frequently find conventional fingerpicks and thumbpicks intolerably clumsy and imprecise to use. It is therefore desirable to provide a type of pick which facilitates a precise, combined stroke of the flesh and a string-actuating tip, and also that such a stroke be generally adaptive to the hand position of the classical method. It is advantageous for such a pick to permit and protect the maintenance of playing-length nails. It is also desirable for a thumbpick to be employed with strokes of the natural fingers to balance the tones produced alternately by the fingers and thumb, when such a method may be musically advantageous. Those persons skilled in the art will recognize from the foregoing discussion that the classical method is one to which the known types of fingerpicks and thumbpicks are generally least adaptive. Therefore, the preceding discussion is provided as exemplary of some of the deficiencies of known picks and methods.
The known types of fingerpicks provide an actuating tip either in the general form and position of the natural fingertip, or else in the general form and position of the fingernail.
The former type which will be referred to as fingertip-type fingerpicks sacrifices the sensitivity of the natural fingertip contacting the string. This makes it difficult to avoid buzzing a string which is vibrating from a prior stroke, and difficult also for the player to feel the relative pressure of the stroke upon a string, to control that stroke in volume and tone. The loss of sensitivity is especially problematic for classical players in this regard, because the classical hand position “floats” over the strings, rather than being anchored on the instrument by the little finger, as in some other methods. Maintaining orientation toward and among the strings is heavily dependent in this regard upon the sense-memory of the fingers.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,981,857, 1999, Mapson discloses a fingerpick provided with an evacuated area, or hole, in the area of the fingertip, prior to the termination of the string-actuating tip. This provision is disclosed as permitting an advantageous alternation between soft tones, produced by the action of the fingertip where it is exposed by the hole, with stronger tones produced by the action of the provided tip. It may also be intended that a degree of fingertip contact is thus provided, for players who may prefer it. However, the provision of the hole necessarily requires that the player engage the string by the fingertip at sufficient depth to touch the string prior to the sounding stroke-release of the picking tip, if it is used. There may also be found an undesirable raking sound, as the hole terminates prior to the tip, especially if the fingertips are calloused, if the inner edge of the hole engages the string. The action of the fingertip and the pick cannot be made simultaneous nor effectively co-active, if the player desires it so, by this provision. The production of tones cannot be controlled by a relative co-action of flesh and actuating tip upon strings, but rather, as it is expressed, by alternation of these surfaces. It is therefore desirable that a solution be provided whereby a simultaneous engagement of a string by a fingertip and a co-acting tip is facilitated, which also provides for a simultaneous stroke-release of a string when such is desired.
A second general type of fingerpick includes those which provide a tip in the form and position of the fingernail. These will be referred to as fingernail-type fingerpicks. Some of the limitations of these are inherent in the necessity that the imitation nail must overlay the natural nail. The imitation nail must be longer than the natural nail, or the natural nails must be clipped shorter than would be effective for playing purposes. Many players would not sacrifice their nails, even temporarily, to use fingerpicks or false nails. The classical method stresses a “minimum transition” from flesh to nail, and fingernail-type fingerpicks generally increase that transition, as they are not inset in the finger at the side, like the natural nail, but overlaid by their own thickness and that of the nail.
U.S. Des. Pat. No. 356,593, 1995 by Purcell describes a design of fingernail-type picks which provide a nail-like ridge of material to fit under the natural nail. While this addresses the concern of minimal transition from flesh to nail, some players may find it too discomforting to have such a ridge in the tender area under the nail. These picks are ineffective for downstrokes insofar as they are braced upward against the nail, but are easily displaced by any downward pressure. A type of fingerpick is desirable which provides an analogous but distinct sort of combined stroke of the flesh and a rigid material, so that the natural stroke could be retained for its own sake, separately. It is desirable also that such a pick be provided with a securement means adaptive for both up- and downstrokes.
In addition to fingernail-type picks which have securement portions in the form of a ring-shaped band, many players use false-fingernails such as are also commercially available for cosmetic purposes. An advantage of this type of fingernai
Lockett Kim
Nappi Robert E.
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