EP0257311A2

EP0257311A2 - Dance-activated musical instrument

Info

Publication number: EP0257311A2
Application number: EP87110720A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Liu Zhongdu
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1986-07-26
Filing date: 1987-07-24
Publication date: 1988-03-02
Also published as: CA1268063A; CN86105546A; EP0257311A3; CN1004838B

Abstract

Dancing-Musical Instrument is a new type of musical instrument and performance apparatus to be used with the special performing art "Instrument dance", "instrument exercise", "instrument boxing" etc. It comprises a floor keyboard, on which the performer can either do the dancing, or produce switching signals with the performer's feet, hand or hand hammer in accordance with the intention of the performer; a similar wall keyboard; a multi-color system and an electronic organ circuit. The performer can play on the floor keyboard while at the same time adjusting with ease the tone, timbre, volume and color, to achieve the multiple artistic effect of producing the shape, sound, light and color by the same performer.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a new type of musical instrument for use in the special performing arts "instrument dance", "instrument exercise", "instrument acrobatics", "instrument boxing" and for use in performing, contests and health care.
Traditional dancing which in the broad sense comprises free exercise, acrobatic gymnastics, acrobatics, material art consists in showing the beauty of the performer's bodily configuration and gives the viewer a visual enjoyment according to the "dancing choreography" written by a designer, while traditional instrument playing consists in the playing of a musical instrument by the musician according to the musical score written by a composer, to produce the audio-artistic effect in the audience. But dancing usually requires special musical accompaniment. Thus far, these two performance art forms cannot integrate into each other so as to be shown by the same performer and hence the talent of an artist cannot be shown inpromptu to the full measure.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The purpose of this invention is to provide an apparatus for recreation and entertainment performince, which serves both as a keyboard instrument for producing music by the performer, and as the stage on which the performer shows his or her dancing. The performer integrates instrument music with dancing art either by playing according to the "dancing and musical score" or by playing impromtu. This is the creation of a special kind of performance art.
Another purpose of this invention is to provide apparatus for recreational show, which can, through a kind of "light and color system", realize a variety of artistic light and color effects by the performer's voluntary combination. The light abd color changes synchronously with the musical notes, to accomplish the multiple art of shape, sound, light and color, bringing the performer's artistic talent into full play.
Dancing-Musical Instrument of this invention comprises a key board on which the performer can both do dancing and produce switching signals responding to the performing content by the touch of the performer with the foot, hand, other part of the body or a hand hammer, a similar wall keyboard and a multifunctional electronic organ circuit. Certain switching signals are produced correspondingly when the performer acts on the floor keyboard, touching the keys of the floor or wall keyboard with the foot, hands, other parts of the body, or hand hammers and sent to key circuit of the electronic circuit as key signal. The output signals of the electronic organ circuit will be sent to the amplifier and loudspeaker and the corresponding music is produced. Dancing-Musical Instrument of this invention may also comprise a sound/light signal separation circuit, a light signal processing circuit and a light-driven circuit. The sound/light signal separation circuit separates the switching signal into a musical tone audio signal and a light signal, which, after being reshaped by the light signal processing circuit, is sent to the light-driven circuit to drive the three light sources of red, green and blue colors, and, on the basis of three basic colors, a variety of dynamic effects of colored light in relation to the dancing performance and the musical notes is created.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The following is a brief explanation of the accompanying figures.

Fig. 1. is block diagram of the electrical system of the present invention;
Fig. 2. is a sketch of the exterior of one of the enbodiments of the present invention;
Fig. 3. is a sketch of the color are of one of the keys of the keyboard;
Fig. 4. is another example of one of the keys;
Fig. 5. is diagram showing the electrical principle of a rigid immobile key;
Fig. 6. is drawing showing part of the electrode of Fig. 5;
Fig. 7. is sketch of the controller of glissando vibrato;
Fig. 8. is cross-section of the hand hammer for special use with specially made for the Dancing-Musical Instrument;
Fig. 9. is a sketch of the plan of the dancing shoe for special use with the Dancing-Musical Instrument;
Fig. 10. is diagram showing the electrical principle of the sound/light signal separation circuit for the 61 keys of the floor keyboard;
Fig. 11. is diagram showing the principle of the light signal processing circuit and light-driven circuit;
Fig. 12. is another embodiment of the present invention, namely, the flexible keyboard.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERED EMBODI MENT

The following is a description of the embodiments of the present invention in association with the accompanying figures. In the figures, the same numerical designation represents the same parts.
Fig. 1 is a block diagram of the circuit system of the present invention dancing-musical instrument, wherein the contact type floor key board comprises many key means. When the dancer in the dancing shoe 23 steps on the floor key board, the key means is turned on to produce a switching signal which passes through the sound/light signal separation circuit 24. The sound/light signal separation circuit 24 separates the light signal and the sound signal from the switching signal of the floor key board. The sound signal reaches the key circuit in the electronic organ circuit system 25, to produce a sound corresponding to the key which has been turned on. The contact type wall keyboard 2 comprises many key means, which connected to the key circuits of the electronic organ circuit system. When those key means are stricken by the performer with the hammer,switching signals are produced which in turn are sent to the key circuits of the electronic organ circuit system 25, to control the automatic chord of the bass. The stereo musical signals from the left track L and right track R of the electronic organ circuit system 25 are amplified by the hifi stero amplifier 26 and then emitted in the form of sound at the left and right frequency division loudspeakers of the hifi stereo system (12, 12ʹ). The light siganl is sent to the light signal processing circuit 27, which, reshaps the color pulse signal, extends its back edge and makes the front edge AND with the back edge, and then sends it to the thyristor three-phase stage searchlight driver main circuit 28, which drives the red, green and blue stage searchlight groups 29, 30 and 31. At the same time, by means of the color source separating transformer 32 (built in) connected with circuit 28, the three groups of red, green and blue color effect lamps 33, 34 and 35 in the electronic organ are controlled and adjusted. In the figure, A_∼, B_∼, C_∼ are input terminals of the three phase power source respectively, and O is the zero termial. 36 and 37 are the voltage stabilizer system. 21 is the volume control lever, regulating the amplification factor of the hifi amplifier 26 and hence the volume of the music through a rod sliding left and right. Rod 13 is for timbre selection. There are 12 choices, such as piano, electronic organ, clarinet, violin, etc. 14 is for tempo control of the automatic accompaniment. 15 is for the selection of the automatic metre, where one has 18 different dancing metres to choose from, such as waltz, tango, samba, disco, etc. 19 is the controller of glissandi and vibrato.
Besides, the signals from the floor keyboard 1 in Fig. 1 can be directly sent to the circuit of the electronic organ without passing through the sound/light signal separation circuit. Then there would be no effect of change of the colorful lights.
Fig. 2 is a sketch of the appearance of one model of the dancing-musical instruments designed on the principle as shown in the block diagram of Fig. 1, wherein 1 is the contact type rigid floor keyboard, 2 the contact type rigid wall keyboard, 3 a support which is made of light metal and is readily dismounted, 4 & 5 are the first row of keys on the floor keyboard with which one can play melodies by stepping on them, 6 & 7 the second row of keys of the said floor keyboard with which one can play melodies by stepping on them, 8 & 9 keys of the wall keyboard with which one can play brocken chords or bass accomplaniment by percussing on them, 10 is the key for immitation of percussion instruments, 11 the panel for functinal control of the electronic organ, 12 & 12ʹ are resonance boxes for stereo hifi three-way stereo loudspeakers, 13 the timbre selection lever, 14 the tempo controller of automatic chord brocken and bass accompaniment, 15 the automatic rhythm selector, 16, 17 & 18 are the translator interface box of 13, 14 & 15, respectively, 19 is the controller for glissandi and vibrato, 20 the potentiometer, 21 the volume control lever, 22 the main power switch, 23 the conductive dancing shoe.
Fig. 3 is a sketch of the color area of one key on the contact type rigid keyboard, where W is the white area, i.e., red, green and blue lights lit up at the same time with brightnesses in a specific proportion as dictated by the principle of three base colors; R is the red area, G is the gree area, and B is the blue area.
When a player in the dancing shoe steps on a certain key, relevant lights will be given: white light (with all the three sets of red, green and blue lights lit up) will be emitted, when the foot steps on the white area 38; red and green lights will be on at the same time when the foot is at 39 stepping on both the R and G areas; only blue light will be given when only the area B is stepped on with the ball of the foot or the tiptoe40. In a word, with one key of the floor keyboard, only one tone can be produced, but any of the seven colors R, B, G, W, R+G, G+B, and R+B can be obtained when the player dances.
Fig. 4 shows another embodiment of the invention, where the keys are arranged in an annular area, with 41, 42 & 43 corresponding to 38, 39 & 40 of Fig. 2, respectively.
Fig. 5 shows schematically the principle of the contact type rigid immobile key, where the conductive rubber sole of the dancg shoe 44 is shown to be treading on two electrodes and connecting them. In the figure, the common terminal COM is connected to electrode W, sending the high level of the terminal COM to line W signal reflecting the duration of the step. The signal will produce a corresponding tone through the electronic circuitry, and corresponding color of the stage searchlight (white in this case) through the sound/light signal separation circuit. In this kind of key, there are all together 6 terminals, but it could be only 2 terminals when the light effect is not required.
Fig. 6 is a magnification of the part 45 of the key in Fig. 5 to show the shape and arrangement of the electrodes, where the rigid conducting electrodes are made by etching away a tortuous part of the copper coating on the base plate.
Fig. 7 diagramatically shows the priniciple of the glissando and vibrato controller, where 52 is a clock-frequency microadjustment potentiometer of the tone clock oscillator in the electronic organ circuit, 49 is the transmission arm of the potentiometer, 50 is a rubber band, stretched by a spring 53, 51 is a fastening screw to fix and adjust the rubber band 50, 54 is a the means to fix the other end of the band 50.
When a performer plucks with hand or hammer or pushes or pulls the stretched rubber band, the slide of a potentimeter 20, as shown in Fig. 2, will move accordingly, making microadjustments to the frequency of the tone producing clock oscillator of the electronic organ, to make a smooth transition between different tones or to produce an effect of a vibrato with varying frequency.
Fig. 8 is a sketch showing the longitudinal cross-section of the hammer made especially for this instrument, where 55 is the hammer head, 68 is the chrome-plated hammer shank, 76 is the hanle, within the hammer head is an incandescent lamp 62 connected with the wire 67, 61 is a transparent plastic protective cover, 63 is the base for the socket 60 of the lamp and the hammer head 55, which may be dismounted to change the bulb or attach a new hammer head. 58 is transparent elastic foam plastic, 57 is colored transparent plastic film, 56 is an electrode made of soft network of fine wire or of other soft transparent electrically conductive film, 59 is a metal hoop fastening the hammer head 55 to the base 63, 64 is a connecting part with threads, 65 is chrome-plated tapering part of the shank, 69 is the strengthening ring, 70 is the switch for the bulb, 71 is the cells, 73 is the cell compartment with compressive spring, 74 is the back cover, to be opened when changing the cells, 75 is a metal ring to hang the hammer when putting it away, or to hang other musical devices, such as bells, on it during dancing.
Fig. 9 is a sketch showing the bottom view of the dancing shoe, where the dark areas 77 & 78 are conductive rubber electrodes stuck to the sole of the shoe.
Fig. 10 is diagram of the sound/light signal separation circuit for the 61 keys of the floor keyboard of the dancing-music instrument, where Key₁, Key₂, Key₃, ...Key₆₁ are the keys of the tones C₁, C₁#, D₁, ...c⁶, on each of which the areas W, R, G, R are color sensitive regions. In the figure, the working of the different keys are based on the same prinicple. For example, when a performer treads on Key₆₁, the high level at the terminal Kʹ (connected to the interface of the electronic organ key circuit) will extend to the color sensitive area, with the sound signal passing through one or several of the diodes D617, D618, D619, D610, feeding back to the electronic organ circuit from terminal K, to produce the tone corresponding to the Key₆₁, and with the light signal passing through one or several of the diodes D611, D612, D613, D614, D615 and D616 and reaching the corresponding wire in the color bus of R, G and B, to the color signal to the light switching/driving circuit, so as to produce the relevant color light on the stage in accord with the performance.
Fig. 11 is the color signal processing circuit and the light driving circuit for lights inside and outside the instrument, in which NAND gates N₁₁, N₁₂ and C₁₁ constitute a pulse backedge trigger circuit, N₁₃, N₁₄ C₁₂ and P₁ constitute a pulse widening and width adjusting circuit, R₁₃ and C₁₃ constitute a surge absorber circuit to perevent the thyristor Tr₁ from overvoltage, R₁₄ is current-limiting resistor, which protects the gate electrode of the thyristor. The diode D₆₂₀ is used to absorb the reversed phase votage of the coil of relay Re₁, so as to protect the triode T₁. R₁₂ is the coupling resistor, and the function of the relay Re₁ is electrical isolation. The color pulses from wire R of the bus pass through N₁₁ to be reshaped and have their phase inversed, and then, in one branch of the circuit, have their back edge triggered and widened, and sent to NAND N₁₅, while in another branch, they are directly sent to NAND N₁₅. The two negative pulses will have their widths added and then the phase inversed and coupled with output transistor T₁ through the current-limiting resistor R₁₂ to move relay Re₁. When the contactor of Re₁ closes, Tr₁ is triggered and turned on, and phase A voltage of the three-phase power source will be applied to the red lamps L_R1, L_R2 ...L_Rn, to have red light emitted. The green and blue lights are lit up similarly.
In addition, when a performer steps on the floor keys, there will inevitably be color pulse signals from the floor sent to one or two or all of R, G, B bus, and strong lights from the powerful color lights outside of the instrument will beam on dancing-musical instrument, while at the same time the lamps inside the instrument will be off since the thyristor has been turned on and accordingly no output is induced at the color source isolation transformer 32 of Fig. 1. On the other hand, when the performer is not on the floor keyboard, there will be no color pulse signals in the G. R, B bus and the thyristor will not be turned on, and a small current will pass through the lights both inside and outside the instrument, which are connected in series. But since the rated power of the lights outside the instrument is much greater than that inside & the resistance of the former much smaller, lamps outside will be faint, and those inside very bright, illuminating the instrument in technicolor.
Besides, P₁, P₂ and P₃ are synchronous triplex potentiometer, as shown in Fig 11, used to adjust the time of overlap between the different colos lights during their alternation in response to the alternation of the musical tones. Adjusting P₁, P₂ and P₃, one can get different effects of color alternation and the miraculous artistic effects of a variety of color mixings.
In Fig. 11, A_∼, B_∼, & C_∼ are three-phase AC input terminals, while O is the zero terminal.
Moreover, it is to be noted that on the premise that the essential ideas of this invention be adhered to, one may make various modifications during an embodiment of the invention, e.g., the overall shape of the floor keyboard may be circular, a circle or an arc, and the wall keyboard may be dispensed with completely when one uses a carpet type keyboard on which to do exercise or conduct other kind of performances.
The floor and wall keyboards of this invention can be made of translucent plastic materials, while the electrodes made of transparent or translucent conductive materials so that colorful lights from inside of the instrument can be seen from behind the keyboard.
Another embodiment of this invention consists in an elastic/soft keybard 80 made of conductive rubber as shown in Fig. 12. This figure is a sketch of the cross-section of the keyboard, where 81 is a key of soft material such as common insulating rubber, 83 rubber insulating support between two keys, 85 a pair of conductive rubber electrodes on the lower key-plate, 84 conductive rubber electrode on the inner wall of the upper key-plate, to connect conductive rubber plates 85, and 86 cable leading out from the pair of conductive rubber electrodes. When the foot or feet of the performer steps on the key, the force appliced is in the downward direction as shown by the arrow 87, and the electrode 84 is depressed to touch and connect the pair of electrodes 85, and a 'turn on' signal is sent out through cable 86. On reaching the electronic organ circuit 25, the signal will trigger the sound generator. The exclusive use of soft, flexible structure extends the life of the instrument and enables the keyboard to be wound up into a roll, which is convenient for transportation.

Claims

1. An apparatus for use during recreation or sports performances comprising a floor keyboard that enables the performer not only to perform dancing thereon, but also to produce a switching signal relevant to the contact of the performance by touching the keys with foot,hand, other part of the body or a hand hammer, and an electronic organ circuit, motivated by the said switching signals to produce music relevant to the content of the performance.

2. Apparatus according to claim 1, which further comprises a wall keyboard that enables the perforemer to produce a switching signal relevant to the content of the performance by touching the keys with foot, hand, other part of the body or a hand hammer.

3. Apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the said floor keyboard and wall keyboard are composed respectively of a number of immobile rigid keys each of which is composed of at least two fixed electrodes.

4. Apparatus according to claim 3, wherein said fixed electrodes are made by etching and forming stagger pattern on copper-coated plate.

5. Apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said floor keyboard are composed of a number of immobile rigid keys each of which is composed of at least two fixed electrodes.

6. Apparatus according to claim 3, wherein each immobile rigid key of the said floor keyboard comprises a number of fixed electrodes, one of which is the common electrode, while the remaining electrodes are named as 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th signal electrodes for different signals.

7. Apparatus according to claim 6, wherein said fixed electrodes are made by etching and forming stagger pattern on copper-coated plate.

8. Apparatus according to claim 6, further comprising a sound/light signal separating circuit, a light signal processing circuit and a light driving circuit, said sound/ light signal separation circuit separates from the said switching signal the light signal and sends it to said light signal processing circuit while the said processing circuit sends the processed signal to the light driving circuits to produce color light on the scene relevant to the content of the performance.

9. Apparatus according to claim 8, wherein said sound/ light signal separating circuit comprises a number of diode logic circuits of the same structure, each of said diode logic circuit corresponds to one said immobile rigid key, and each of said diode logic circuit comprises three groups of diodes, the positive electrodes of the first group with three diodes being connected to said first signal electrode, its negative electrodes being connected respectively to the bus of red, green and blue signals; the positive electrodes of the second group with three diodes being connected to said second, third, and fourth signal electrodes respectively, its negative electrodes being connected respectively to the bus of red, green and blue signals;
the positive electrodes of the third group with four diodes being connected respectively to said first, second, third and fourth signal electrodes, and its negative electrodes being joined together, to produce the sound signal.

10. Apparatus according to claim 8, wherein said light driving circuit comprises a transformer, the first terminal of the primary being connected to the power source via at least one color lamp of relatively large power, the second terminal of the primary being grounded, both terminals of the primary being connected respectively to the two main electrodes of a bilateral thyristor, the first terminal of the secondary of said transformer being connected to the second terminal thereof through at least one color lamp of lesser power, so that when no control signal reaches the control terminal of the said bilateral thyristor, the lamp of lesser power will be brightly lit, while the lamp of larger power lit only faintly, while in the opposite case of there being a control signal at the control terminal of the thyristor, said large powered lamp will be lit up brightly, but the lamp of lesser power will be completely off.

11. Apparatus according to claim 6, further comprising several long control rods capable of turning or sliding, the said rods being connected to waver and potentiometers to enable the performer to conveniently control the timbre, volume and rhythm of the music.

12. Apparatus according to claim 6, further comprising a means for producing the effect of a decaying oscillating vibrato or a smooth glissando, the said means comprising a slender elastic body with both ends being fixed and a potentiomenter whose adjustible bar is mechanically attached to said elastic body, the first, second and third terminals of the said potentiometer being connected electrically to the main oscilliator's frequency micro-adjustment terminals of the electronic organ circuit to influence the output signal frequency of the main oscillator and produce special sound effects when said elastic body is struck, plucked, pulled or pushed.

13. Apparatus according to claim 2, wherein said floor keyboard is made of translucent plastic material, and comprises a number of rigid immobile keys made of translucent electrodes, there being a number of color lamps under the keyboard.

14. Apparatus according to claim 2, wherein said hand hammer comprises the hammer head, made of translucent material with an electric bulb inside and a conductive material as covering, a shank with wires inside, and a handle with a compartment for cells and a switch to turn the light in the head on and off.

15. Apparatus according to claim 14, comprising dancing shoes with soles and heels made of conductive rubber.

16. Apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said floor keyboard is made of two layers of soft material, on the opposite inner surfaces of which are attached electric contacts made of conductive rubber.

17. Apparatus according to claim 2, wherein said floor keyboard is made of two layers of soft material, on the opposite inner surfaces of which are attached electric contacts made of conductive rubber.