EP0958568A1 - Procede et systeme permettant de representer visuellement de la musique - Google Patents

Procede et systeme permettant de representer visuellement de la musique

Info

Publication number
EP0958568A1
EP0958568A1 EP97928765A EP97928765A EP0958568A1 EP 0958568 A1 EP0958568 A1 EP 0958568A1 EP 97928765 A EP97928765 A EP 97928765A EP 97928765 A EP97928765 A EP 97928765A EP 0958568 A1 EP0958568 A1 EP 0958568A1
Authority
EP
European Patent Office
Prior art keywords
song
elements
constiment
time
reproduction
Prior art date
Legal status (The legal status is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the status listed.)
Withdrawn
Application number
EP97928765A
Other languages
German (de)
English (en)
Other versions
EP0958568A4 (fr
Inventor
Raymond H. Stoll
Garin L. Heibert
Current Assignee (The listed assignees may be inaccurate. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation or warranty as to the accuracy of the list.)
Seedy Software Inc
Original Assignee
Seedy Software Inc
Priority date (The priority date is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the date listed.)
Filing date
Publication date
Application filed by Seedy Software Inc filed Critical Seedy Software Inc
Publication of EP0958568A1 publication Critical patent/EP0958568A1/fr
Publication of EP0958568A4 publication Critical patent/EP0958568A4/fr
Withdrawn legal-status Critical Current

Links

Classifications

    • G—PHYSICS
    • G09—EDUCATION; CRYPTOGRAPHY; DISPLAY; ADVERTISING; SEALS
    • G09B—EDUCATIONAL OR DEMONSTRATION APPLIANCES; APPLIANCES FOR TEACHING, OR COMMUNICATING WITH, THE BLIND, DEAF OR MUTE; MODELS; PLANETARIA; GLOBES; MAPS; DIAGRAMS
    • G09B15/00—Teaching music
    • G09B15/001—Boards or like means for providing an indication of chords
    • G09B15/002—Electrically operated systems
    • G09B15/003—Electrically operated systems with indication of the keys or strings to be played on instruments
    • G—PHYSICS
    • G09—EDUCATION; CRYPTOGRAPHY; DISPLAY; ADVERTISING; SEALS
    • G09B—EDUCATIONAL OR DEMONSTRATION APPLIANCES; APPLIANCES FOR TEACHING, OR COMMUNICATING WITH, THE BLIND, DEAF OR MUTE; MODELS; PLANETARIA; GLOBES; MAPS; DIAGRAMS
    • G09B15/00—Teaching music
    • G09B15/02—Boards or like means for providing an indication of notes
    • G09B15/023—Electrically operated

Definitions

  • Sheet music can be purchased in music stores, and some record stores. While there are thousands of titles available, they are all pre-printed in multi-sheet or book form.
  • sheet music and books are printed on paper, they are expensive, environmentally unfriendly, cumbersome, and in most cases, require the ability to "read” music to learn the song.
  • the paper-based book is also limited to the single dimension of "reading, " and as such is not interactive. There is no direct connection to the song, and in many cases the sheet music is not scored in the same musical key as the song, requiring complicated key transposing, if the learning musician wants to play along with the song.
  • the present invention is directed to a software program which includes a novel software engine to generate a music book in a data format.
  • This software allows the user to "see” the song played on a personal computer or CD ROM player, while it synchronizes and plays the original artist's composition from an audio CD.
  • the software program which can be a data module such as a small diskette, provides the user with the lyrics, guitar/piano chord changes, and guitar/piano chord fingering charts of specifically programmed songs. These sequences are presented on the screen and through the sound card of any personal computer or CD ROM player.
  • the program provides the ability to play along in synchronization with the artist's original audio CD.
  • the user can actually see and hear the song as it develops.
  • the user simply inserts the audio CD in the player, and the software plays the song and scrolls a visual program on the screen.
  • the user can fast search forward or backward, stop, mute, show chord fingering, lyrics, intros, endings, or any combination of the above.
  • the software program is a module developed to provide the above listed capabilities on a song-by-song basis.
  • a learning musician can purchase an album (in the normal audio CD format), and actually have the software included on the CD. This virtually eliminates the need to go to a different store for the learning tools, and is in fact cheaper than the existing alternative.
  • Figure 1 is a general block diagram of a system in accordance with the present invention for displaying information about a song
  • Figure 2A and 2B are illustrations of a song file data format
  • Figure 3 is a signal graph showing the onset of noise at the beginning of a song to detect a synchronization start time
  • Figure 4 is an illustration of a window in which song elements are displayed
  • Figure 5 is an illustration of an option window from which a user can select a graphic display of a chord
  • Figure 6A and 6B are illustrations of a finger chart and tablature chart for a chord; and Figure 7 is a display of the Settings menu for transposing the key of a song.
  • the present invention comprises, in general, a system via which information is displayed that instructs, or otherwise assists, a musician to play a particular song on an instrument while listening to a pre-recorded version of that song.
  • information is displayed that instructs, or otherwise assists, a musician to play a particular song on an instrument while listening to a pre-recorded version of that song.
  • specific reference is made to an example in which a person is learning to play a guitar while listening to a compact disc (CD). It will be appreciated, however, that the practical applications of the invention are not limited to this particular instrument or mode of playing a song.
  • FIG. 1 illustrates the basic elements of a system which incorporates the principles of the present invention.
  • a song which is recorded on a CD 10 is reproduced through an audio CD playback component of a personal computer 12.
  • the audio playback component can be of any suitable conventional type, and generally includes a read head 14 which reads digital data recorded on the CD, and an audio synthesizer 16 which converts the digital data into an audio signal.
  • the audio signal is fed to one or more speakers 18 connected to the computer, to reproduce the song.
  • a song file 20 Associated with the song being reproduced is a song file 20.
  • the song file contains preprogrammed data which describes musical components of the song.
  • the song file can be distributed to the consumer in a number of different ways. For example, it can be recorded on the CD 10, along with the song itself. Alternatively, it can be separately provided, for example on a diskette, or downloaded from a network and stored on a hard disk drive, or other mass storage device, of the computer.
  • Each song has its own unique song file 20 which describes the notes, chords and lyrics (if any) which make up the song.
  • the CD 10 relates to an album which contains a number of songs, the consumer is provided with a plurality of song files, each of which is associated with one of the songs on the album.
  • the data stored in the song file is read by a program 22 which is executing on the computer 12, and causes the chords and lyrics to be displayed on a monitor 24 associated with the computer, by means of its display controller 26.
  • the display of the chords and lyrics, in accordance with the data in the song file 20, is synchronized with the playback of the song from the CD 10.
  • a synchronization signal is obtained from the audio signal that is read from the CD 10, and used to control the display of the information.
  • a song can be represented on a computer by dividing it into two parts - a single "song header” followed by one or more "song elements” as illustrated in Figure 2A.
  • a song header contains the following general information about the song which does not change through time:
  • SongName The song's name expressed as an ASCII string. Strings are represented by a two-byte integer containing the number of characters in the string, and then that number of bytes - containing the string information itself.
  • CDID An ID code for the audio CD which this song can be played from and synchronized with. Track The track number on the CD to be synchronized with.
  • NumElem The number of elements (part/chord/lyric combinations) which make up the song.
  • the song also has one or more "song elements, " made up of the following information:
  • Part A string containing a part reference in a song is part A string containing a part reference in a song.
  • Chord A string containing a chord reference in a song.
  • Lyric A string containing a lyric reference in a song.
  • the song file exists in the memory of a computer - RAM, magnetic, or optical.
  • the file is a binary concatenation of a single song header and one or more song elements, as illustrated in Figure 2B.
  • the number of elements is stored in the header under the descriptor NumElem.
  • the data in a song file is manually determined, and entered by a person as he or she listens to the song of interest. More specifically, as the programmer listens to the song, he or she records each of the words, or lyrics, in the song.
  • Each new lyric forms a separate element.
  • the new chord is recorded in association with an associated lyric, if the lyric is spoken at the time of the chord change.
  • the new chord forms its own element.
  • an associated time value is recorded for each element.
  • the time value indicates the length of time which has elapsed from a specific point at the beginning of the song.
  • the determination of the instant in time which forms the synchronization point for all display of elements is made with reference to noise levels in the audio signal.
  • the magnitude of the audio signal 28 is below a threshold noise level. At this time, there is no audible sound to be heard.
  • the signal level begins to rise to a point where it crosses the threshold. This point, at which the signal level crosses the threshold, is designated as time to, and forms the synchronization point that is used to determine when each element is to be emphasized.
  • the threshold level is set so that the level of the signal is of sufficient magnitude to be reliably detected, but still below the level at which audible sound can be heard by the human ear.
  • a timer is started, to count elapsed time. During the programming of a song file, this elapsed time is recorded in the
  • a song is displayed by "painting" the screen of the monitor 24, based on the current time within the performance of a song.
  • the songware program 22 queries the elapsed time counter to determine the current position in the performance of the song.
  • the program determines which line of elements is to be displayed first. This is done by scanning the song data for a time which matches or exceeds the current performance time. While scanning, the computer keeps track of the position of two "beginning-of-line" markers. Referring to Figure 4, once the scan is complete, the computer can start painting the screen by displaying the Song Name and Song Key at the top (centered), and then the song elements starting with the first beginning-of-line marker. In the example of Figure 4, the first display line contains six elements.
  • the number of elements in any line can be determined at the time the song file is created. An arrow is placed to the left of the second "beginning-of-line" marker to show the current line position. In this example, the current line contains the next four song elements. The computer continues displaying lines of song elements until there is no longer room for additional lines on the screen.
  • a song file can be displayed by having the computer cycle through the following steps: 1) evaluate the current time relative to when the performance was begun
  • step #1 if there has not been a change in the marker positions since the last evaluation, go back to step #1
  • the computer display By cycling through the above steps, the computer display always shows the current position in the performance, marked with an arrow.
  • the particular element that is most closely related to the current time of performance is emphasized. For example, all of the elements might normally by displayed on the screen using a certain color, such as black.
  • the time value associated with a given element matches the performance time, i.e. the elapsed time from the synchronization point, the data displayed for that element is changed to a different color, such as red.
  • the display of that element is maintained in the other color, until the time of performance matches the next successive element in the line.
  • the lyric string is comprised of the particular word spoken by the singer at the associated time.
  • the chord string is normally displayed as a letter, or series of letters, which correspond to the known chords on the instrument. For example, if the first chord in a song is D-minor, the first element would be displayed as "Dd”. If the second chord is F-major, the element at which this chord change occurs would display "F", along with any corresponding lyric that is sung at the same time.
  • the information necessary to instruct the user is displayed upon entry of a suitable command.
  • the user calls up this information by positioning a cursor over the display of the chord of interest, and clicking a mouse button. For example, if the first chord in the song is displayed as "Dd", and the user is unsure how to play that chord, by clicking the mouse button while the cursor is positioned over the chord value, a first window is displayed, as illustrated in Figure 5.
  • This first window provides the user with the option of obtaining information in one of two formats, labeled "Chords” and “Tablature. " If the user selects the "Chord” option, a further window is displayed which illustrates the correct fingering diagram for playing that chord on the guitar, as depicted in Figure 6A.
  • a tablature diagram consist of a number of horizonal lines which correspond to the strings of the guitar, e.g. six in the illustrated example. For each string that is to be fingered by the player, a number is displayed which indicates the particular fret at which the player's finger should be positioned for that string.
  • the song element information that is stored in the song file includes four fields that relate to the tablature information. The first field, "NumTabElements" , indicates the number of tablature elements for the given song element, i.e. the number of strings that need to be fingered.
  • each tablature element there is an associated X coordinate, Y coordinate, and "TabElem" string, comprising the number of the fret that is to be fingered.
  • X coordinate Y coordinate
  • Y coordinate Y coordinate
  • "TabElem” string comprising the number of the fret that is to be fingered.
  • Another operation which is often difficult for beginning musicians is the transposition of a song from one key to another. For example, a song may be written in the key of D, but the user may desire to play it in the key of C, to more easily sing along with it.
  • the songware window includes a menu command labeled "Settings", which allows the user to change the key for a song.
  • the present invention comprises a system by which various types of data relating to the constituent elements of a song are displayed to a user, in synchronism with the playback of the song itself, to thereby enhance the user's ability to play the song on a musical instrument.
  • various options can be provided to the user, to further facilitate the learning process.
  • the user can employ fast-forward and reverse functions, to enable him to repeat and search for particularly difficult parts.
  • the user can choose to mute the actual playback from the CD, for example to more clearly hear the notes as they are being played on the instrument.
  • the user can choose to have only certain components of each element displayed, e.g. chords only or lyrics only.
  • the preceding description of one embodiment of the invention has been made in the context of a song which is prerecorded on a compact disk. It will be appreciated, of course, that this is not the only medium via which a user can obtain a song. Another medium which is gaining increasing popularity is the downloading of audio files over networks, e.g. the internet.
  • the invention is equally applicable to songs which are provided to the user in this manner.
  • the song header might include a different field in place of the "CDID" field described above.
  • the field might comprise a variable link string that is the internet location for an audio stream, expressed as a uniform resource locator (URL).
  • URL uniform resource locator

Landscapes

  • Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
  • Multimedia (AREA)
  • Business, Economics & Management (AREA)
  • Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
  • Educational Administration (AREA)
  • Educational Technology (AREA)
  • General Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
  • Theoretical Computer Science (AREA)
  • Electrophonic Musical Instruments (AREA)

Abstract

L'invention concerne un système qui affiche des données décrivant les éléments constitutifs d'une chanson et qui facilite l'apprentissage pour un musicien qui désire apprendre à jouer la chanson sur un instrument. Les éléments constitutifs de base de la chanson sont ses accords ou notes, et les paroles éventuelles. Chacun de ces éléments de la chanson est identifié et enregistré dans un fichier (20) en même temps que le moment correspondant à l'apparition de ces éléments pendant l'exécution de ladite chanson. Pendant l'écoute de la chanson, les éléments présents dans le fichier (20) sont corrélés au moment de leur exécution et affichés de manière synchrone sur l'écran (18, 24) à l'attention du musicien. D'autres caractéristiques permettent au musicien d'appeler des affichages graphiques de représentations de la position des doigts appropriées ou de la tablature pour chaque accord, ou encore de transposer la chanson d'un ton dans un autre.
EP97928765A 1996-06-07 1997-06-06 Procede et systeme permettant de representer visuellement de la musique Withdrawn EP0958568A4 (fr)

Applications Claiming Priority (3)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
US1895596P 1996-06-07 1996-06-07
US18955P 1996-06-07
PCT/US1997/009402 WO1997046991A1 (fr) 1996-06-07 1997-06-06 Procede et systeme permettant de representer visuellement de la musique

Publications (2)

Publication Number Publication Date
EP0958568A1 true EP0958568A1 (fr) 1999-11-24
EP0958568A4 EP0958568A4 (fr) 2000-07-05

Family

ID=21790616

Family Applications (1)

Application Number Title Priority Date Filing Date
EP97928765A Withdrawn EP0958568A4 (fr) 1996-06-07 1997-06-06 Procede et systeme permettant de representer visuellement de la musique

Country Status (3)

Country Link
EP (1) EP0958568A4 (fr)
AU (1) AU3293797A (fr)
WO (1) WO1997046991A1 (fr)

Families Citing this family (5)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
RU2136342C1 (ru) * 1998-12-09 1999-09-10 Григорьев Сергей Валерьевич Игра со звуками, преимущественно музыкальными, и устройство для ее осуществления
US6201174B1 (en) 1998-12-11 2001-03-13 Sunhawk.Com Corporation Method and system for improved tablature notation in digital music scores
FR2825825B1 (fr) * 2001-06-11 2003-11-14 Serge Audigane Procede d'aide a la composition ou au jeu musical, instrument et dispositif pour la mise en oeuvre du procede
US7601904B2 (en) 2005-08-03 2009-10-13 Richard Dreyfuss Interactive tool and appertaining method for creating a graphical music display
CN111639226A (zh) * 2020-05-13 2020-09-08 腾讯音乐娱乐科技（深圳）有限公司 一种歌词显示方法、装置及设备

Citations (1)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US5270475A (en) * 1991-03-04 1993-12-14 Lyrrus, Inc. Electronic music system

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Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US4615024A (en) * 1982-03-19 1986-09-30 Casio Computer Co., Ltd. Electronic apparatus with magnetic recording and reproducing device
US4926734A (en) * 1986-02-10 1990-05-22 Rickey James C Graphic/tactile musical keyboard and nomographic music notation
US5495786A (en) * 1992-11-30 1996-03-05 Goldstar Co., Ltd. Method and apparatus for controlling scale practice of electronic musical instrument
US5393926A (en) * 1993-06-07 1995-02-28 Ahead, Inc. Virtual music system
JP3527763B2 (ja) * 1993-09-21 2004-05-17 パイオニア株式会社 調性制御装置
US5533903A (en) * 1994-06-06 1996-07-09 Kennedy; Stephen E. Method and system for music training

Patent Citations (1)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US5270475A (en) * 1991-03-04 1993-12-14 Lyrrus, Inc. Electronic music system

Non-Patent Citations (1)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Title
See also references of WO9746991A1 *

Also Published As

Publication number Publication date
AU3293797A (en) 1998-01-05
EP0958568A4 (fr) 2000-07-05
WO1997046991A1 (fr) 1997-12-11

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