GB2426924A

GB2426924A - Portable music stand mounted board

Info

Publication number: GB2426924A
Application number: GB0602911A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Peter Spence
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2005-06-08
Filing date: 2006-02-14
Publication date: 2006-12-13
Also published as: GB0602911D0; GB0511632D0

Abstract

A portable, strong, lightweight board 4, designed to overcome the limited form and function of the traditional music stand design, making the performance, practice and teaching of music easier and in addition saving time. The desk is mounted by virtue of its design into the right-angled bend already formed in the traditional music stand design 1. The device which itself incorporates a right-angled bend 2 mounts securely onto the music stand and in addition the preformed right-angled bend of the device forms a tray to hold music manuscripts, additional books, pens, pencils, erasers and associated equipment and requires no additional fasteners to remain securely in place. The device can easily be folded away, to one third of its assembled size for storage or carrying Folding is enabled by preformed vertical creases (6) in the board and cuts (7) in the tray. The device can accommodate five page wide scores and has spine bars (5) to increase rigidity. The device can be used as a desk and can be made of card or similar material.

Description

Portable and storable music stand mounted board This invention relates to

a device for adding to and enhancing significantly the functions and usefulness of a music stand. When teaching or practicing musicians are frustrated by the traditional music stand's design and also waste valuable time and effort. The device aids the relaxed atmosphere necessary for concentration and expression. It specifically addresses the problems of practicality, ease of use, limited function and time saving.

The main problem with the traditional music stand design is its limited size and inherent inability to store all the equipment associated with modern day professional music teaching and music practice. Instead of trying to modify the tried and tested music stand design the device addresses the problem of the limited function of the traditional music stand design whereby the device is simply placed on the music stand and can after use be easily removed, folded to one third of it's assembled, unfolded size and then stored or carried from A to B. When reading music, whether practising, teaching or performing, a musician using a traditional music stand is presented with a long-serving device which is realistically only capable of holding the two open pages of an A4 size music book and little else. To overcome this problem, musicians often copy and sequentially tape or glue together pages from a music composition. This means that the thus fastened pages often reach four or five pages in length and hang off in haphazard fashion either side of the traditional music stand.

The traditional music stand design has two adjustable arms', which extend the total width of the stand by about ten inches. To further increase the length of these arms musicians often fasten two 1 ft long rulers to either arm, they then place a musical score over the entire apparatus. As there is no rigidity to a music stand modified in such a way the music sheets are prone to fall off the stand or curl at the edges. Furthermore when teaching, a music teacher often needs to use other music books for reference and in addition pens, pencils, rulers, erasers and other equipment which will not fit on the current traditional music stand design and which the user has to leave the stand for and fetch.

To overcome the problems associated with the traditional music stand design the present invention proposes that a lightweight, portable and storable (by virtue of it's folding design) music stand mounted board 90cm wide (approx), 30cm (approx) manufactured in card or similar, woods, cardboards, polystyrenes, compressed papers, corks, laminates or plastics and with a pre- formed/creased storage tray 4cm deep (approx) manufactured at a right angle to the main surface area of the device and with two vertical equidistant pre-formed/creases to enable folding is placed in the right angled-bend formed in the traditional music stand design where the sheets of music currently sit, the device functions as a lightweight portable and storable aid to practice, the right angled-bend of the device forms a tray where the user places pens, pencils, erasers and other associated equipment, the device remains stable and rigid on the traditional music stand design by virtue of its design, weight, the force of gravity and the two commercially available spine bars supplied with the device (necessary to restore lost rigidity at the focus of the right-angled tray's cuts) and which are placed in position by the user over the cuts in the tray there to enable folding but which compromise the rigidity of the board.

The device can accommodate five page wide scores (A4 paper size), additional books, pens, pencils, erasers, correction fluid, spectacles etc. and can stand securely and rigidly in place without the need for additional fasteners. In a practice or teaching session musicians are often working on more than one piece of music the device can accommodate many separate pieces of music again saving the need to fetch other musical documents to the music stand and so waste time, most items the musician needs for a practice or teaching session are now contained within the device.

An example of this device will now be illustrated by referring to the accompanying drawings.

In figure 1, the device is shown separate from the music stand manufactured in the preferred material of card chosen for lightweight, ability to fold easily without breaking or tearing, it's durability and for aesthetic reasons. The device is manufactured when it is cut and formed from card sheet and measures (90cm) wide by (30cm) high when viewed as assembled. The right- angled bend forming the accessory tray 1 is at the point of manufacture creased and later folded or unfolded for use by the user. The two vertical creases 6 are similarly formed and creased and give the device its capacity for folding and hence easy storage and portability. The cuts in the tray 7 enable the device to be folded (without them it couldn't be folded flat for storage or carrying). The folded device measures one third of the assembled device's size i.e. 30cm x 30cm. The measurements were arrived at empirically but are not absolutely critical to the function of the device. The card is 500 microns thick although this is not critical and thus the device is extremely light, strong, rigid and portable. The device's rigidity is enhanced at 5 with the fixing of the spine bars (supplied with the device) by the user to the leading edge of the tray encapsulating the device's cuts and thus negating the inevitable weakness created by the cuts. The depth of the tray' 1 formed by the right angle in the device is (4cm) and is there to accommodate the users pens, pencils, erasers, rulers, spectacles, extra books and assorted equipment of the user's choice.

In figure 2, a traditional music stand is shown to illustrate its proportions compared to the device. The length of the top of the traditional music stand without the device at 1 is only wide enough to accommodate one A4 book (two pages across of A4 music manuscript paper). With the arms 2 extended the total width is only increased enough to allow three sheets of music to be sequentially joined together with crucially no stability for the paper so that a user can write on it.

In figure 3, the device is shown placed on the music stand and in transparency, the device sits' in the right-angled bend of the music stand 1 by virtue of the fact that the same right-angled bend is echoed in the device at 2. The extended arms of the music stand 3 lend additional support to the device without the need for any extra fasteners. The device has much greater storage capacity than the traditional music stand design and hence its potential to hold all the items previously described is demonstrated.

In figure 4, the functional potential spoken of in the immediately preceding paragraph is demonstrated. The device is shown placed on the music stand with a music manuscript, music book, writing implements, rulers and an eraser etc. placed on the device. The width of the music manuscript paper displayed is four sequentially joined pages of A4 music paper; they are easily accommodated by the device, It can in fact hold five sequentially joined pages with hardly any overlap over the extreme edges of the device.

In figure 5, the commercially available spine bar is shown, this lends rigidity at the points the cuts are made in the tray to facilitate folding, they are supplied with the device and easily fitted by the user.

In figure 6, the device is shown folded to one third of it's assembled size to enable storage or carriage.

Claims

Claims 1. A lightweight, portable music stand mounted board 90cm wide

(approx), 30cm high (approx) manufactured in card or similar, woods, cardboards, polystyrenes, compressed papers, corks laminates or plastics and with a pre-formed storage tray 4cm deep (approx) manufactured at a right angle to the main surface area of the device and with vertical creases to enable folding storage and portability is placed in the right angled-bend formed in the traditional music stand design where the sheets of music currently sit, the right angled-bend of the device forms a tray where the user places pens, pencils, erasers and other associated equipment, the device remains stable on the traditional music stand design by virtue of its design, lightweight, the force of gravity and the spine bars supplied with the device
2. A portable music stand mounted desk according to claim 1 that can stand securely and rigidly in place on a music stand.
3. A portable music stand mounted desk according to claim 1 that can accommodate five page wide scores.
4. A portable music stand mounted desk according to claim 1 that can be folded and carried from A to B.
5. A portable music stand mounted desk according to claim 1 that can be easily stored in a convenient manner.
6. A portable music stand mounted desk according to claim 1 that in a practice or teaching session saves time by virtue of the fact that the device can accommodate many separate pieces of music so sparing the user from having to fetch other musical documents to the music stand.