JP2006195091A - Performance lesson terminal - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To transmit audio data of the sound quality required on the side of a teacher evaluating the performance of a musical instrument as the smallest amount of the data from a terminal on the side of a student. <P>SOLUTION: A lessen terminal 10 for the teacher memorizes subject data 20a having an accompaniment track (h), a music track i, sound quality assignment track (j), and sound recording track (k) to a hard disk 20. If the sound quality assignment data by each of the respective performance sections is recorded in the sound quality assignment track of the certain subject data 20a and is then transmitted to a terminal 30 for the student, the subject data 20a recording the audio data encoded by the bit rate assigned by the sound quality assignment data in the sound recording track (k) is coming to be replied. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a technique for supporting performance lessons using a network.

Music learning systems using the terminals of teachers who teach musical instruments and the terminals of students who receive guidance from the teachers are becoming popular. Educational activities using this system are generally performed according to the following procedure. First, assignment data is sent from the teacher's terminal to the student's terminal containing the recording track for recording the audio data of the performance music to be assigned and the accompaniment track in which the audio data of the accompaniment is recorded in advance. To do. An example of the processing procedure for audio data provided with a plurality of tracks of this type is disclosed in Patent Document 1, for example. The student who has received the assignment data performs a performance piece assigned as an assignment to the student according to the reproduced sound of the audio data recorded on the accompaniment track of the assignment data. When the performance is completed, assignment data in which audio data indicating the performance content of the student is recorded on the recording track is returned from the student terminal to the teacher terminal. The teacher who receives the reply of the assignment data evaluates the skill of the student by reproducing the audio data recorded on the recording track of the assignment data and listening carefully.
Here, in view of the storage capacity of the storage media included in each terminal and the traffic capability of the data transmission path interposed between the terminals, it is desirable to reduce the amount of audio data exchanged as problem data as much as possible. On the other hand, in view of the original purpose of the music learning system in which a teacher evaluates the skill of performance of a remote student, it is desirable that the quality of audio data exchanged is as high as possible.

Patent Documents 2 and 3 recognize a description that can be a starting point for solving such conflicting requests. In these documents, there is a technique for improving the use efficiency of a storage medium by dynamically switching the priority order of audio data to be recorded and the bit rate at the time of encoding in accordance with the remaining capacity of the storage medium for storing the audio data. There is disclosure. Also, in Patent Document 4, data for specifying frequency characteristics is recorded in a track different from the one for recording audio data among a plurality of tracks of the signal recording tape, and when the audio data is reproduced, the other track is recorded. There is a disclosure of a technique for dynamically switching frequency characteristics in accordance with the stored contents.
JP-A-2002-373481 JP 11-176096 A JP-A-11-196372 JP-A-6-139698

By the way, many teachers who teach musical instrument performance tend to evaluate the skill of the entire performance piece, relying solely on the result of carefully listening to the performance of a specific performance section of the performance piece that they imposed as a task. There is. Some of the performances have high performance sections that many students will miss and other sections, and if they are able to perform well, they are generally accurate. This is because an evaluation can be made. Therefore, from the teacher's point of view, for the performance sections that need to be carefully listened to, the student's performance must be recorded with high sound quality, but the other performance sections are not necessarily recorded with high sound quality. There is no need to be.
The present invention has been devised under such a background, and audio data of sound quality required by the teacher who evaluates the performance of the musical instrument is transmitted from the terminal on the student side as small as possible. The purpose is to provide such a system.

  A performance lesson terminal which is a preferred embodiment of the present invention stores accompaniment data indicating a series of musical sounds to be an accompaniment and performs encoding processing on musical sound signals of the performance music performed in accordance with the accompaniment. Storage means for storing each sound quality designation data for designating each sound quality in association with each performance section of the song, and accompaniment music data stored in the storage means are sequentially read out, and the read accompaniment music data is used as a basis. Output means for outputting the musical sound signals generated in the input, input means for sequentially inputting the musical sound signals of the musical composition, and the musical sound signals input from the input means are sequentially subjected to encoding processing with the specified sound quality. The current performance section is specified based on the reading status of the accompaniment music data by the output means and the encoding means for acquiring the performance music data, and is stored in the storage means in association with the specified performance section. Switching control means for switching sound quality when the encoding means performs encoding processing according to sound quality designation data, and transmission means for transmitting performance music data acquired by the encoding means to a specific external device. Prepare.

  In this aspect, the storage means stores note data indicating the score of the musical performance, display means, and display control means for displaying the score on the display means based on the note data read from the storage means. Further, it may be provided.

  The accompaniment music data, the sound quality designation data, and the note data are received as a set from the specific device, and the accompaniment music data, the sound quality designation data, and the note data received by the reception means are stored in the memory. Storage control means for storing in the means may be further provided.

  According to the present invention, audio data having a sound quality required by a teacher who evaluates performance of a musical instrument can be transmitted from a student's terminal as data having a small data amount.

(Embodiment of the Invention)
An embodiment of the present invention will be described.
FIG. 1 is an overall configuration diagram of a performance lesson system according to the present embodiment. As shown in the figure, this system includes a teacher lesson terminal 10 and a student lesson terminal 30. These two terminals exchange various data via one or a plurality of server devices installed on the network.

  FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a hardware configuration of the teacher lesson terminal 10. The terminal 10 includes a CPU 11 that performs various controls, a RAM 12 that provides a work area to the CPU 11, a ROM 13 that stores an IPL (initial program loader), a musical sound input interface 14 that inputs musical sound signals from an electronic musical instrument 50, and musical sound signals to a speaker 60. Are provided with a network interface 16, a computer display 17, a keyboard 18, a mouse 19, a hard disk 20, and the like. The hard disk 20 stores a plurality of assignment data 20a each corresponding to an assignment performance piece and a teacher lesson support program 20b. The assignment performance music means a performance music prepared in advance so that the student who is the owner of the student lesson terminal 30 performs as an assignment.

  FIG. 3 is a data structure diagram of the task data 20 a stored in the hard disk 20. As shown in the figure, the assignment data 20a is composed of a header part and a data part. In the header section, the title of the performance piece is recorded. The data section can record various data separately into four tracks: accompaniment track h, musical score track i, sound quality designation track j, and recording track k. To further explain each of these four tracks, first, the accompaniment track h is prerecorded with MIDI data indicating a series of musical sounds to be played back as an accompaniment when the student plays a performance piece. In the musical score track i, note data indicating the content of the musical score of the task performance piece is recorded in advance.

In the sound quality designation track j, sound quality designation data is recorded according to a predetermined input operation from a teacher who is the owner of the terminal 10. The sound quality designation data means data for designating the sound quality level when the musical tone signal of the task performance piece performed by the student is converted into audio data at the student lesson terminal 30. As will be described in detail in the operation description section, the task data 20a read from the hard disk 20 is transmitted to the student lesson terminal 30 after recording the sound quality designation data on the sound quality designation track j. ing.
Audio data obtained from the student's performance sound is recorded on the recording track k. As will be described in detail in the operation description section, the assignment data 20a received from the teacher lesson terminal 10 by the student lesson terminal 30 is the audio data obtained by encoding the musical sound signal into the recording track k. It is to be returned to the teacher lesson terminal 10 after recording.

  The teacher lesson support program 20b is a unique program in which an algorithm for operating the computer apparatus as the teacher lesson terminal 10 is described. The CPU 11 that executes the teacher lesson support program 20b while using the RAM 12 as a work area has a function of displaying various screens for prompting the writing of data on the sound quality designation track j on the computer display 17, and decoding audio data. A function of outputting the tone signal obtained in this way to the speaker 60 via the tone output interface 15 is provided.

  FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating a hardware configuration of the student lesson terminal 30. Similar to the teacher lesson terminal 10, the terminal 30 includes a CPU 31, a RAM 32, a ROM 33, a musical tone input interface 34, a musical tone output interface 35, a network interface 36, a computer display 37, a keyboard 38, a mouse 39, and a hard disk 40. . The hard disk 40 stores a student lesson support program 40b.

The student lesson support program 40b is a unique program in which an algorithm for operating the computer device as the student lesson terminal 30 is described. The CPU 31 that executes the teacher lesson support program 20b while using the RAM 32 as a work area is given the following four characteristic functions.
a Accompaniment sound reproduction function This is a function for acquiring a musical sound signal of an accompaniment sound from MIDI data recorded in the accompaniment track h of the assignment data 20a and outputting the musical sound signal from the musical sound output interface 35.
b Score Display Function This is a function for displaying on the computer display 37 a performance sound score screen generated based on the note data recorded on the score track i of the assignment data 20a.
c. Performance Sound Encoding Function This is a method for performing the encoding process at a specified bit rate on the musical sound signal of the performance sound input from the musical sound input interface 34 to obtain audio data, and using the audio data as task data This is a function for recording on the recording track 20a.
d Bit rate switching control function This is a function for switching the bit rate when the musical sound signal is encoded according to the sound quality designation data recorded in the sound quality designation track j of the assignment data 20a.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be described. The operation of this embodiment can be divided into an assignment transmission process and an assignment reply process.
FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the task transmission process. This process is started when the teacher who owns the teacher lesson terminal 10 performs an operation for instructing activation of the teacher lesson support program 20b using the mouse 19.

When the teacher lesson support program 20b is activated, the CPU 11 of the teacher lesson terminal 10 displays on the computer display 17 an assignment selection screen generated based on each assignment data 20a stored in the hard disk 20 (S100). .
FIG. 6 is an assignment selection screen. In the upper part of this screen, a character string with the content “Please select a task song to be performed by the student from the list below” is displayed. Below that, the names of the task performance songs recorded in the header portion of each task data 20a are displayed as a list.

The teacher who refers to this screen selects the assignment performance music to be used for this lesson from among the names of the music displayed in the list. Specifically, after the mouse pointer is moved to any one song name on the list, the left button of the mouse 19 is clicked.
When the song title of the assignment musical piece is selected, the CPU 11 reads out assignment data 20a of the assignment musical piece from the hard disk 20 to the RAM 12 (S110).

The CPU 11 causes the computer display 17 to display a tone quality designation score screen generated based on the note data recorded in the score track i of the assignment data 20a read in step 110 (S120).
FIG. 7 is a musical score designating music score screen. At the top of this screen, “The score of the performance song for this assignment is as follows. Please specify the sound quality level for each performance section when recording the performance sound on the student's terminal.” The content string is displayed. In the middle of the screen, a score corresponding to a series of note data recorded on the score track i of the assignment data 20a is displayed. A scroll bar SB for scrolling the displayed score in the left-right direction is displayed at the bottom of the screen.

The teacher who refers to this screen sequentially divides the task performance tune displayed as a musical score into each section including a group of musical sounds to be recorded with the same sound quality (hereinafter, each section is simply referred to as “performance section”). ”), An operation for designating the sound quality level is performed for each performance section.
Here, a specific procedure for designating the sound quality level will be described with reference to FIG. First, the mouse cursor MC is moved to the position to be the beginning of the performance section, the left button of the mouse 19 is dragged (state A in FIG. 8), and the dragged mouse cursor MC is moved to the position to be the end of the performance section. (State B in FIG. 8). Then, a sound quality designation bar QB is formed in the display area below the stave where the time axis is the same as that between the start and end, and buttons labeled "high", "medium", and "low" are arranged vertically. The subwindow SW appears. When the mouse cursor MC is moved to any one of the three buttons constituting the sub window SW and right-clicked (state C in FIG. 8), characters indicating the sound quality level corresponding to the selected button are displayed on the sound quality designation bar QB. Entered in.

  The teacher designates the sound quality level over the entire performance section of the performance piece by repeating the series of operations while scrolling the score horizontally. At this time, the teacher may divide the performance section for each group of musical notes having the same performance difficulty level. In addition, it is desirable to designate the sound quality level of a performance section with a high difficulty level as “high” while designating the sound quality level of a performance section with a low difficulty level as “low”. For example, if there is a phrase with a high degree of difficulty such that an eighth note is continuous over a plurality of bars on the score, the sound quality level is set after dividing the group of notes into one performance section. Set “High”.

When a character indicating the sound quality level is input into the sound quality designation bar QB corresponding to a certain performance section, the CPU 11 identifies the data area corresponding to the performance section from the sound quality designation track j of the assignment data 20a and identifies it. Sound quality designation data indicating the input sound quality level is recorded in the data area (S130).
When the recording of the sound quality designation data for all performance sections of the assignment performance music is completed on the sound quality designation track j of the assignment data 20a, the CPU 11 transmits the assignment data 20a to the student lesson terminal 30 (S140).
The CPU 11 of the student lesson terminal 30 that has received the assignment data 20a stores the assignment data 20a in a predetermined area of the hard disk 20 (S150).
Thus, the task transmission process ends.

  FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing the task reply process. This process is started when the student who has received the assignment data 20 a and who has the student lesson terminal 30 performs an operation for instructing activation of the student lesson support program 40 b using the mouse 39.

When the teacher lesson support program 20b is activated, the CPU 31 of the teacher lesson terminal 10 reads the assignment data 20a stored in the hard disk 40 into the RAM 32 (S200).
Subsequently, the CPU 31 forms a bit rate table in the RAM 32 based on a set value stored in advance in a predetermined area of the hard disk 40 (S210).

  FIG. 10 is a bit rate table. This table associates the sound quality level indicated by the sound quality designation data with the bit rate for encoding the musical sound signal. According to this table, “high” sound quality designation data has a bit rate of 128 kbps (bits per second), “medium” sound quality designation data has a bit rate of 64 kbps, and “low” sound quality designation data has a bit rate of 24 kbps. It can be seen that each is associated with a rate.

The CPU 31 displays on the computer display 37 a performance music score screen generated based on the note data recorded on the score track i of the assignment data 20a read to the RAM 32 in step 200 (S220).
In the performance music score screen, the score corresponding to a series of note data recorded on the score track i of the assignment data 20a is displayed as in the middle of the sound quality designation score screen of FIG. A scroll bar is displayed for scrolling the scored sheet in the left-right direction. The student who refers to this screen grasps the contents of the task performance piece to be performed by scrolling the score in the horizontal direction, and then instructs the start of the performance using the mouse 39.

When the start of performance is instructed, the CPU 31 sequentially reads MIDI data from the accompaniment track h of the assignment data 20a on the RAM 32, and starts reproducing the accompaniment sound based on the read audio data (S230). Specifically, waveform data corresponding to the MIDI data read from the accompaniment track h is extracted from a sound source memory (not shown), and a musical sound signal obtained from the extracted waveform data is sequentially output from the musical sound output interface 35. Then, the accompaniment sound according to the output musical sound signal is emitted from the speaker 60.
When the accompaniment sound starts to be played, the performer sequentially plays the performance sound indicated by the notes on the score on the musical score screen with his / her electronic musical instrument 50 in accordance with the rhythm of the accompaniment sound. Then, the musical tone signal of the played musical performance is input from the electronic musical instrument 50 through the musical tone input interface 34.

When the musical sound signal of the performance sound is input, the CPU 31 of the student lesson terminal 30 identifies the performance section corresponding to the currently reproduced accompaniment sound, and records it on the sound quality designation track j in association with the identified performance section. The sound quality designation data being read is read (S240). The performance section in this step is specified based on the data read status from the assignment data 20a. That is, the CPU 31 specifies a data area having the same time axis as the MIDI data referenced from the accompaniment track h most recently from the sound quality designation track j, and reads out the sound quality designation data recorded in the data area.
The CPU 31 applies the encoding process at the bit rate stored in the bit rate table in association with the sound quality designation data read in step 240 to obtain the audio data of the performance sound (S250). .

The CPU 31 records the audio data of the performance sound acquired in step 250 on the recording track k of the assignment data 20a (S260).
By repeating the processing of step 240 to step 260 every time a musical tone signal is input, audio data of different bit rates is sequentially recorded on the recording track k of the assignment data 20a according to the transition of the performance section. Will be.

When the reproduction of the accompaniment sound is completed, the CPU 31 of the student lesson terminal 30 transmits the assignment data 20a storing the audio data of the performance sound to the teacher lesson terminal 10 (S270).
The CPU 11 of the teacher lesson terminal 10 that has received the assignment data 20a stores the assignment data 20a in a predetermined area of the hard disk 20 (S280).

When the assignment data 20 a returned from the student lesson terminal 30 is stored in the hard disk 20, the teacher uses the mouse 19 to perform an operation to instruct the reproduction of the performance sound.
When an operation for instructing the reproduction of the performance sound is performed, the CPU 11 of the teacher lesson terminal 10 reads the assignment data 20a stored in the hard disk 20 into the RAM 12 (S290).

  Next, the CPU 11 sequentially reads out audio data recorded on the recording track k of the assignment data 20a on the RAM 12, and outputs a musical tone signal obtained by subjecting the read audio data to a predetermined decoding process from the musical tone output interface 15. Output (S300). Then, a performance sound corresponding to the output musical sound signal is emitted from the speaker 60. As described above, audio data with different bit rates is recorded on the recording track k according to the transition of the performance section. Therefore, the sound quality of the performance sound emitted from the speaker 60 by executing this step sequentially changes every time the performance section transitions. As a result, in the performance section where the teacher set the sound quality level as “High”, the performance sound of higher sound quality is emitted compared to the performance section set as “Low” or “Medium”. become.

  In the present embodiment described above, the task data 20a having four tracks of the accompaniment track h, the score track i, the sound quality designation track j, and the recording track k is stored in the hard disk 20 of the teacher lesson terminal 10 for each performance song. Is remembered. Then, when the teacher selects any assignment data 20a, records the sound quality designation data for each performance section in the sound quality designation track j, and transmits it to the student lesson terminal 30, the student lesson terminal 30 Audio data encoded at an individual bit rate for each performance section is recorded on the recording track k and then returned. In this way, since the teacher can specify in advance the sound quality level when the student's performance is converted to audio data, the musical sound signal at the performance location that the teacher needs to listen carefully is high-quality audio data. On the other hand, performance points that are not necessary can be converted into audio data with low sound quality. That is, it is possible to return the task data 20a having sound quality sufficient to make a sufficient evaluation regarding the performance of the student from the student lesson terminal 30 to the teacher lesson terminal 10 while suppressing the amount of data as a whole.

(Other embodiments)
This embodiment can be modified in various ways.
In the above embodiment, when the task data 20a in a state where the sound quality designation data is recorded on the sound quality designation track is transmitted from the teacher lesson terminal 10 to the student lesson terminal 30, the task data in which the audio data is recorded on the recording track k. 20a is returned from the lesson terminal 30 for students to the lesson terminal 10 for teachers. On the other hand, only the audio data of the performance sound to be recorded on the recording track k may be returned from the student lesson terminal 30.

  Further, the assignment data 20a in a state where the sound quality designation data is recorded on the sound quality designation track does not need to be transmitted to the student lesson terminal 30 via the network, and the teacher records the sound quality designation data on the teacher lesson terminal 10. The completed assignment data 20a is stored in a storage medium such as a CD-RW and distributed to students, and the assignment data 20a stored in the storage medium is read into the student lesson terminal 30 and stored in the hard disk 40. You may make it make it.

  In the above-described embodiment, a series of musical sounds to be an accompaniment is recorded as MIDI data on the accompaniment track h of the assignment data 20a. On the other hand, a series of musical sounds to be an accompaniment may be recorded as audio data instead of MIDI data, and a musical tone signal of accompaniment sounds may be obtained by performing a predetermined decoding process during reproduction.

  In the above embodiment, the teacher lesson terminal 10 records the sound quality designation data for designating any one of the sound quality levels of “high”, “medium”, and “low” on the sound quality designation track j of the assignment data 20a. The student lesson terminal 30 transmits the bit rate value corresponding to the sound quality designation data recorded in the sound quality designation track j of the received assignment data 20a to the received lesson terminal 30 in its own RAM 32. Was supposed to get from. In contrast, the teacher lesson terminal 10 may record the bit rate value itself in the sound quality designation track j instead of the sound quality level. According to such a modification, it is not necessary to provide the bit rate table in the RAM 32 on the student lesson terminal 30 side.

  In the above embodiment, the teacher refers to the score screen for sound quality designation displayed on the computer display 17 of the lesson terminal 10 for teachers, and the content of the sound quality designation data to be recorded on the sound quality designation track j of the assignment data 20a. Each performance section was input one by one. On the other hand, the contents of the sound quality designation track j may be automatically set. The following can be considered as an aspect of this modification. The first is an aspect of automatically specifying a section where students can easily make mistakes, such as phrases with many notes, from the recorded contents of the accompaniment track h and the score track i of the assignment data 20a. In this aspect, a characteristic performance portion of the task musical piece may be extracted using a known rust detection method, and the extraction result may be used for setting the sound quality designation track j. Second, a special server device is provided between the teacher lesson terminal 10 and the student lesson terminal 30 to analyze the contents of the returned assignment data 20a and totalize the results. This is a mode in which the setting of the track j is substituted. When the same assignment data 20a is transmitted to the lesson terminals 30 for students of a plurality of students, most students often make mistakes in playing the same performance section. Therefore, in this embodiment, the server device that has received the assignment data 20a of a certain performance piece from the teacher lesson terminal 10 automatically sets the sound quality designation track j by using the analysis result stored in itself. May be.

  The above embodiment is premised on the scene of a music lesson, but for example, a similar mechanism can be incorporated in an English lesson. In this modification, a text track is provided in the assignment data 20a in place of the score data, while words and phrases that are difficult to pronounce are registered in the database in advance, and the portion including the words and phrases registered in the database is the text track. If it appears in the, the pronunciation of the part is encoded at a high bit rate.

It is a whole block diagram of a performance lesson system. It is a hardware block diagram of the lesson terminal for teachers. It is a data structure figure of subject data. It is a hardware block diagram of the lesson terminal for students. It is a flowchart which shows assignment transmission processing. It is an assignment selection screen. It is a score screen for sound quality specification. It is a figure which shows the designation | designated procedure of sound quality. It is a flowchart which shows an assignment reply process. It is a bit rate table.

Explanation of symbols

11, 31 ... CPU, 12, 32 ... RAM, 13, 33 ... ROM, 14, 44 ... Musical sound input interface, 15, 35 ... Musical sound output interface, 16, 36 ... Network interface, 17, 37 ... Computer display, 18, 38 ... Keyboard, 19, 39 ... Mouse, 20,40 ... Hard disk, 30 ... Student lesson terminal, 50 ... Electronic musical instrument, 60 ... Speaker

Claims (3)

Accompaniment data indicating a series of musical sounds to be an accompaniment is stored, and each sound quality designation data for designating sound quality at the time of performing an encoding process on a musical sound signal of a musical piece played along with the accompaniment Storage means for storing in association with each performance section of the song;
Output means for sequentially reading the accompaniment music data stored in the storage means, and outputting a musical sound signal generated based on the read accompaniment music data;
Input means for sequentially inputting musical tone signals of the performance song;
Encoding means for sequentially obtaining a musical tone signal input from the input means and performing encoding processing with a specified sound quality to obtain performance music data;
Based on the reading status of the accompaniment music data by the output means, the current performance section is specified, and the encoding means encodes according to the sound quality designation data stored in the storage means in association with the specified performance section. Switching control means for switching the sound quality when applying the processing,
A performance lesson terminal comprising: transmission means for transmitting performance music data acquired by the encoding means to a specific external device. In the performance lesson terminal according to claim 1,
The storage means
Storing note data indicating the score of the performance song;
Display means;
A performance lesson terminal further comprising: display control means for displaying a score on the display means based on the note data read from the storage means. In the performance lesson terminal according to claim 2,
Receiving means for receiving the accompaniment music data, the sound quality designation data, and the note data as a set from the specific device;
A performance lesson terminal further comprising storage control means for storing accompaniment music data, sound quality designation data, and note data received by the receiving means in the storage means.

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