GB2092816A

GB2092816A - Electronic Chord Indicator

Info

Publication number: GB2092816A
Application number: GB8102983A
Authority: GB
Original assignee: SIMON FRANCIS PATRICK
Current assignee: SIMON FRANCIS PATRICK
Priority date: 1981-01-30
Filing date: 1981-01-30
Publication date: 1982-08-18

Abstract

For teaching musical instruments such as guitars, an electronic device is in the form of a rectangular box (10) the upper surface (12) of which has two sections is designed to represent a guitar. One section (14) is opaque except for narrow strips (18) representing the strings of the instrument. The second section (16) is provided with two banks of push buttons (24 and 26), a clear button (28) and a switch (30). Lines of light emitting diodes (22) are provided under the strips (18) to simulate fingering positions. By operating appropriate buttons, notes or chords in any selected key can be displayed in the correct positions so that the correct fingering position can be taught. Alternatively the diodes (22) may be embedded in the neck of an actual instrument or in the keys or representations of keys of other kinds of instruments. A memory may be provided which stores a sequence of chords, the appropriate groups of diodes being illuminated one after another. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION An Electronic Device for Teaching Musical Instruments The present invention relates to an electronic device for teaching musical instruments, and in particular musical instruments of the stringed type provided with long fretted necks, for example the guitar.

The classical guitar is a stringed instrument of the lute class having a long fretted neck and six strings plucked with the right hand and stopped at the frets with the left hand. It hays a compass of over three octaves and its six strings (three of silk wound with silver wire and three of catgut) are tuned to E, A, D, G, B and E from the lowest to the highest pitches respectively.

Unlike the stringed instruments of the violin family, the guitar is played by twitching the fingers of the right hand across the strings, the fingers of the left hand being positioned on one or more of the strings as the appropriate frets in order to obtain the desired chords. The frets are spaced so that the invervals therebetween are exactly one semitone.

Each of the basic major and minor chords has a definite finger pattern. For example, take the basic chord of A major and using all but the lowest pitched sixth string E, then the notes A,E, A, C sharp and E can be producad by leaving the fifth and first strings open, and placing fingers of the left hand on the second fret of the second, third and fourth strings. The same finger pattern will occur for the basic chord of B flat major but moving the fingers up one fret (the open positions of the fifth and first strings counting as fret 0 for the chord of A major). Thus the notes B flat, F, B flat, D and F can be produced by placing fingers of the left hand on the first fret of the fifth and first strings and on the third fret of the second, third and fourth strings.

The different fingering patterns for all the numercus types of chord used in guitar playing are very difficult to memorize and it is accordingly an object of the present invention to provide a device which can either be used separately for practice purposes for teaching and practice or can actually be built into a guitar for the purpose of teaching or practice.

According to the present invention there is provided an electronic device for teaching musical instruments, said device including a housing provided with a plurality of selectable manually operable buttons or keys, and means for displaying a selectable note or a plurality of notes forming a chord either on a simulated playing area of the instrument being taught or in the acutal fingering positions on the instrument itself, according to which buttons have been actuated.

In one preferred form the electronic device is applicable to the teaching of musical instruments of the stringed type provided with a long fretted neck.

Preferably the display means are light emitting diodes.

In the first case the diodes are arranged on a fact of the housing to simulate fingering positions.

In the second case the diodes are arranged within the material forming the neck of the instrument to indicate the exact fingering positions.

Preferably, a first bank of buttons or keys selects the desired musical key and the second bank the desired chord to be simulated.

The electronic device may also include programmable memory means for simulating scales and actual pieces to be played.

The present invention will now be described in greater detail by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein: Figure 1 is a diagrammatic perspective view of one preferred form of electronic device for teaching the guitar; and Figure 2 is a diagrammatic perspective view of an alternative form of electronic device in which the light emitting diodes are built into a guitar.

Referring first to Figure 1, the electronic device is arranged on and within a rectangular box 10, one dimension of which is intended to represent the fretted neck of the guitar. The upper face 12 of the box 10 is divided into two sections 14 and 1 6. The first section 14 is opaque except for six narrow parallel strips 1 8a-1 8f which are equispaced and extend in the long dimension of the box 10. A series of six equispaced lines 20a are etched on the upper surface of the section 14, the first one 20a being used to indicate that a string is "open", whilst the lines 20b to 20f respectively indicate the first five frets of the guitar.Mounted underneath the surface of the upper face 12 are lines of light emitting diodes 22a to 22f, these lines being arranged in registration with the narrow translucent strips 1 8a to 18f, the six light emitting diodes of each line thus representing the "open" and first five fret positions of a respective string on the guitar. The positions of the 36 light emitting diodes 22 are shown dotted on the diagrammatic drawing.

The second section 1 6 of the upper face 12 of the rectangular box 10 is provided with a first bank of manually operable push-buttons 24, a second bank of push-buttons 26, a single push button 28 and a two-way switch 30. The push button 28 is larger than all the other push-buttons and when operated will clear anything previously set by means of the push-buttons in the first and second banks. The first bank of push-buttons 24 contains two lines of six push-buttons marked with the key signatures A, B flat, B, C, C sharp (D flat), D, E flat, E, F, F, sharp, G and A flat (G sharp) The second bank of push-buttons 26 contains three lines of eight push-buttons marked to indicate the different chord structures which can be selected for playing.For example, the push buttons 26 may represent the following chords: major, major sixth, major seventh, major ninth, minor, minor sixth, minor seventh, minor (sharpened) seventh, minor ninth, diminished, augmented, as well as numerous other combinations of fifths, sevenths, ninths elevenths and thirteenths.

The actual electronics which enable the appropriate light emitting diodes 22 to be illuminated when one of push-buttons from each of the two banks is pressed consists of simple logic circuits which are mounted on printed circuit boards housed within the box 10.

To operate the device, the user may practise his fingering positions for chords by placing the switch 30 in its first position and selecting the appropriate push-buttons and then placing the appropriate fingers of his or her left hand on the frets which are lit by those light emitting diodes which are energized. For example, if the user wished to know what the fingering position was for a major seventh in the key of B flat, he or she would press the push-button marked "B flat" in the first bank 24 and then push-button marked "major seventh" in the second bank 26.The following light emitting diodes would be energized: line 22a-none- line 22b--secondd-B flat line 22c-fourth-F line 22d-third-A line 22e-fourth-D line 22f-second-F.

The user would then place his or her fingers on the appropriate fret positions as indicated by those lit diodes. To extinguish the light emitting diodes, the push-button 28 is pressed. The process can then be repeated for another chord in the same or a different key.

If the switch 30 is placed in its second position, then the device will sequentially run through the fingering positions for a complete scale in any selected key when the selected push-button 24 is depressed.

The above described electronic device can be made of a convenient size to represent as near as possible the fretted neck of a guitar so that the user can practice his or her chords and scales without actually using the guitar.

In the second embodiment shown in Figure 2, the light emitting diodes can actually be built into a guitar for practice purposes so that not only can the user place his or her fingers in the correct positions according to which diodes are lit, he or she can actually sound the chord on the guitar.

In this embodiment the lines of light emitting diodes 22a to 22f are let into the wood-work of the neck 32 of the guitar. The box 10 can in this case be made much smaller since it need contain only the banks of push-buttons 24 and 26 together with the "clear" push-button 28 and the switch 30. A long cable 34 connects the box 10 to the neck 32 of the guitar by means of a removable plug and socket connection 36. The box 10 can conveniently be placed on a table next to where the guitar player is sitting so that he or she can readily select the appropriate keys and chords to be practised.

The invention is equally applicable to other stringed instruments provided with a long fretted neck. In particular it is applicable to baroque instruments of the guitar family including the lute and mandolin.

In a somewhat modified form it would also be applicable to instruments which do not possess the actual frets such as stringed instruments of the violin family where the position of miniature light emitting diodes could indicate the exact fingering positions for such instruments as the violin, viola, cello and double bass.

In a modification of the second embodiment, some of the push-buttons of the second bank 26 could be used so that the plate could practise specific pieces which have been pre-programmed into a memory housed within the box 10. In this case not only could the player select the key in which the piece is to be played, an additional knob provided on the box 10 could select one of a number of speeds at which the piece would appear in optical form of the neck of the instrument being played.

Finally, the electronic device can be suitably adapted to teach keyboard instruments, such as the piano, harpsichord or organ as well as wind instruments, such as the clarinet, oboe, flute or bassoon. In the case of the first embodiment the top of the box could be made to simulate the appropriate fingering positions for these instruments. In the case of the second embodiment the light emitting diodes would be built into the keys of a keyboard instrument or located opposite the valves and levers of a wind instrument.

Claims

1. An electronic device for teaching musical instruments, said device including a housing provided with a plurality of selectable manually operable buttons or keys, and means for displaying a selectable note or a plurality of notes forming a chord either on a simulated playing area of the instrument being taught or in the actual fingering positions on the instrument itself, according to which buttons have been actuated.

2. An electronic device according to Claim 1, wherein it is applicable to the teaching of musical instruments of the stringed type provided with a long fretted neck.

3. An electronic device according to Claim 1 or 2, wherein the display means are light emitting diodes.

4. An electronic device according to Claim 3, wherein the diodes are arranged on a face of the housing to simulate fingering positions.

5. An electronic device according to Claim 3, wherein the diodes are arranged within the material forming the neck of the instrument to indicate the exact fingering positions.

6. An electronic device according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein a first bank of buttons or keys selects the desired musical key and a second bank the desired chord to be simulated.

7. An electronic device according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein it includes programmable memory means for simulating scales and actual pieces to be played.

8. An electronic device for teaching musical instruments constructed substantially as herein described with reference to and as illustrated in the accompanying drawings.