WO1981001625A1

WO1981001625A1 - Device and process for visualizing automatically the position of the fingers on the instrument to learn rapidly the cords and harmonies composing the accompaniments of melodies

Info

Publication number: WO1981001625A1
Application number: PCT/FR1980/000166
Authority: WO
Inventors: P Lanzi; M Miege
Original assignee: P Lanzi; M Miege
Priority date: 1979-11-27
Filing date: 1980-11-26
Publication date: 1981-06-11
Also published as: IT1130538B; FR2470419B1; EP0040616A1; FR2470419A1; BE886289A; IT8068808A0

Abstract

The device comprises a cord programmer selector (1) coupled with a representation of a portion of the instrument (5) on which appears automatically the position of the fingers (27) to reproduce the selected cord on said cord selector (1) The visualization of the position of the fingers on the portion of the instrument (5) and on the musical stave (6) is automatically effected after selecting the cord on the keyboard (2) of the programmer selector (1) by light keys (27) at the representation of the instrument (5) and by light keys (28) at the musical slave (6) The device allows to study cords and harmonies.

Description

Device and method for automatically visualizing the position of the fingers on the instrument to quickly learn chords and harmonies composing the accompaniments of melodies. The subject of the invention is a device and its method for automatically visualizing the position of the fingers in order to quickly learn chords and harmonies composing the accompaniments of melodies, said device acts as a visual chord selector. Currently, to learn chords, you have to refer to printed manuals where the majority of chords are represented. The student accesses by turning the pages of his book the chord he is looking for, the chord is represented by the notes arranged on a musical staff and by the position of the fingers represented on a part of the instrument studied:

- either in the case of a keyboard instrument, an organ or a piano = a two-octave keyboard.

- or in the case of a stringed accompaniment instrument, of the guitar or banjo type: a neck of eight to twenty five keys.

The pupil must gradually learn by heart all the chords, with a manual. It does not display the chords it reproduces. It is tedious with each new agreement to handle a manual. The current study of chords is long and discourages many students.

The device according to the invention avoids all these drawbacks. This device makes it possible to select a chord and to automatically obtain, in addition to its reproduction, a visualization at the level of a musical staff, the position of the fingers corresponding to said chord represented on the part of the instrument studied and possibly in addition to the position of the fingers, which fingers are to be placed in this way. Said selected chord being able to be recorded on memory, can be played at different rhythms, erased, added to other chords also recorded by the pupil, this one can completely record the accompaniment of the melody then reproduce it by accelerating, slowing down or repeating the passages he desires.

Said device can be connected to a television, which allows more complete visualizations. The device can be combined with a comparator which signals to the student that the chord played is false or fair. Similarly, the device according to the invention can receive cassettes, discs or memories prerecorded by professionals that the student uses to work.

The attached drawings given by way of indicative and non-limiting example will allow the invention to be easily understood. They represent a preferred embodiment according to the invention.

Figures 1 and 2 are views showing the main elements of the device shown schematically. Respectively, these figures represent the device in action in figure 1 for a major DO, perfect chord and in figure 2, a minor DO, perfect chord, to study this chord on a guitar.

Figure 3 is a view of the device shown in Figures 1 and 2, but adapted to the study of the piano or organ. Said device is shown in action for a flat ER 7.

(minor) (RE b, MI, LA b, SI).

Figure L is a block diagram of the electronic diagram of the various elements constituting the device and their function. Figure 5 is a schematic view of the various electronic elements of the storage.

Figure 6 is a schematic view of the various electronic elements of the keyboard input, mixing and storage.

Figure 7 is a schematic view of the various electronic elements of the display at the output.

Figure 8 is. a schematic view of an alternative embodiment of FIG. 7.

The device is made up of two parts, a control part Z and a display part W. The device comprises a tuning selector 1 which can be more or less complete than that shown. Said selector 1 is composed of a keyboard 2 with at least two inputs which vertically pori the names of the twelve sounds 3 of the range (notes and their five alterations) and horizontally the names of the main chords 4 ° perfect chord, 5 °, 6 °, 7 ° -, 7 °, 7 °, 9º and possibly on more complete models but not shown on these figures 11 °, 13 °.

In combination with the chord selector 1, the device includes a reproduction of part of the instrument 5 in the case of FIGS. 1 and 2, the instrument is a guitar whose neck has nine keys.

In combination with the chord selector 1, a musical staff 6 makes it possible to view the position of the notes composing the chosen chord, with any alterations. Next to and in combination with musical staff 6, two buttons 7 and 8 allow you to choose either the G key or the A key (for piano and organ).

Two buttons 9 and 10 allow you to choose the tone of the selected chord, major 9 or minor 10, the button pressed remains locked until the next voluntary change of tone. Four buttons 11, 12, 13 and K allow to memorize one to four times the chosen chord and this as many times as the melody requests it, that is to say that button 11 records a quarter of measure, the button 12 ^′ records two quarters of measurement, the button 13 records three quarters of measurement and the button 14 a measurement of four quarters. The length of the memorized accompaniment depends of course on the storage capacity of the device, for example sixty four measurements.

A button 15 deletes the last recorded chord.

A button 16 for starting allows the reproduction of the recording.

A repeat button 17 allows you to take two to three measurements back to repeat a difficult passage several times.

A 1S button allows total erasure.

A built-in metronome 19 at variable speed allows the visualization of the chords composing the memorized harmony and this at a rhythm which allows learning, the visualization of the rhythm is done by the flashing of the lamps 27 which indicate the position of the fingers on the instrument . Keys 3 and 4 remain lit to allow playback. A sound top 20 can be added if necessary.

A button 21 for on-off of the device.

Erase bar 22 switches off the displayed chord on the board fixedly and memorize a silence.

Buttons 23, 24, 25, 26 allow to know the position of the fingers according to several variants or in the case of the piano or the organ (figure 3), the chords reversed. The operation of the device is as follows:

The device is placed on or next to the instrument, it is put into working order by button 21.

The pupil touches on the chord selector 1 the location T corresponding to the sought chord, the said location can possibly light up at the intersection of note 3 and chord 4 which must light up, for example DO Major, perfect chord. The corresponding lamps automatically light up at 27 and 23, both on the musical staff 6 and on the reproduction of a part of the instrument 5. It is therefore sufficient for the pupil to place his fingers on the instrument at the place indicated to obtain the desired agreement.

If the chord lit is Major or Minor, simply touch the Minor 10 button or the Major 9 button to make the change. It is also possible, by calling a new chord, to automatically see the fingering change to be made.

The metronome 19 is arranged at the chosen tempo, the chord lights flash, marking the chosen rhythm, an auditory tone can also be combined. Once a chord is chosen and selected on the chord selector 1, it is possible to save it in memory by buttons 11, 12, 13 and 14, as many times as the student wishes, then l the next chord is chosen and so on until the complete accompaniment of the melody is recorded. Then the button 16 of reproduction is actuated and the pupil can follow with the hand the progress of the agreements. It is possible to stop, slow down or speed up and start three to four measures back to repeat difficult passages.

In Figure 2 the minor tone has been chosen. According to a variant, the keys are subdivided into M and m corresponding to the Major or minor tone. There are therefore no longer buttons 9 and 10.

In Figure 3, the representation of instrument 5 is two octaves of an organ or a piano, the notes 28 and the position of the fingers 27 appear in the same way when the T key is pressed.

In Figures 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8, the various electronic elements are described by way of example as well as their arrangement and their function.

Signaling can be incorporated into the lamps 27 representing the position of the fingers on the instrument studied 5, to simultaneously indicate which fingers are to be placed. The device of the invention will now be described with reference to FIG. 4.

An oscillator 88 at its output, connected by line 29 to an input of a device for detecting and recognizing input keys and buttons 30 will be described in more detail in FIG. 5. The other input of the device comes from the input keyboard

1 by line 31.

The output line 34 of the device 30 goes on the one hand to the input 35 of a switch 50 and on the other hand to the given input 41 of a random access memory 40. Said random access memory having its output connected to the pad 42 of switch 50 by line 43. A prerecorded external memory 45 is also connected to switch 50 by line 44 at pad 49.

The random access memory 40 and the external memory 45 receive via line 48 the digital data of the address of a memory word sought from a write-read device, memory address generator 46, said device being controlled by line 44 coming from a metronome oscillator 47.

The switch 50 has its output which supplies the wire 51, on the one hand the input of an input selection display device 33 which itself supplies the input keyboard 1 with the wire 32 and on the other hand, the entry of a ROM memory of the chords 36.

The output wires 37 of said read-only memory 36 supply on the one hand a display device 33 (studied instrument 5 and musical range 6) and on the other hand a possible sound generator 39.

The operation of the method implemented by the device illustrated in Figures 1 and 4 will now be described. It will be assumed that the student chooses a chord by pressing the T key, the buttons 9 and 25 being activated, the switch 50 being in the recording position, namely: line 34 connected to line 51, the detection device 30 code l information given by the T key and the buttons 9 and 25 numerically on line 34. This information makes it possible, on the one hand to illuminate the T key by the device 33 thus showing the chosen chord and on the other hand to select the chord in memory 36 at the corresponding address. The corresponding word is then transmitted to the display system 38 which illuminates the lamps 27 of the instrument and the lamps 2S of the musical range.

The elements composing the device of the invention will now be described more precisely. The elements are referenced the references of the series 74 TTL logic well known "to those skilled in the art, any other logic can, of course, be used.

FIG. 5 more particularly describes the devices 30 and 33 associated with the keyboard 2.

Oscillator 83 attacks a divider counter by 12 7492 which itself attacks a divider counter by 16 7493. A demultiplexer 74154 (a) with 12 of its 16 outputs and a multiplexer 74150 with its J_6 inputs form a network of 192 points of crossing. A T key is associated with each crossing point so that when said key is pressed one of the outputs of 74154 is connected to an input of 74150. The 74154 is attacked by the output of 7492 and the 74150 is attacked by the output of 7493. The content of counters 7492 and 7493 is stored in a type D register 7474 tooth the clock input is the output of multiplexer 74150.

The output of register 7474 supplemented by the ir.fermaticn of keys 23, 24, 25, 26 is connected to input D of switch 50 74153.

The other inputs A.B.C and output E of the 74153 are connected to the devices described in Figures 6 and 7.

The display device 33 is constructed as follows: - A demultiplexer 74154 (b) with 12 of its 16 outputs the transistor emitters Tr _Q to Tr., Form a network of 192 crossing points. Each crossing point is associated a lamp L. The said lamps are associated with the keys T of the device 30.

The bases of the transistors Tr _Q to Tr ._- are attacked by the 16 outputs of a 74154 demultiplexer (c). The inputs of the two demultiplexers 74154 (b) and (c) are attacked by the bus 51 coming from the switch 50.

The operation of the devices 30 and 33 is described below.

Suppose that the student presses the T key corresponding to the FA 7 ° agreement, the output o_ of the demultiplexer 74154 (a) is connected to input 4 of the multiplexer 74150 and when the counter 7493 will display the value 4 and the counter 7492 the value 6, the output of the multiplexer will be energized, which will memorize the values of the counters in register 7474. This numerical value will be transmitted to the demultiplexers 74154 (b) and (c) via lines 34 and 51 and switch 50. The demultiplexer (b) will have its output 6_ low; the demultiplexer (c) having its low output 4 will make the transistor Tr. conductive and the corresponding lamp L having the voltage V applied to its terminals will light up. The memory write-read device 46 will now be described in more detail with reference to FIG. 6. A binary adder 7483 has its output connected to the input D of a register 74174 called accumulator. Said register has its output connected to input B of the adder. Input A of 1! Addιt îonneur receives the binary words +1, -1, -2, -3, -4 from buttons 15 and 17. The clock input of the accumulator comes from either a circuit OR 60 receiving the tops of the metronome 47, either of the buttons 15 and 17, or of a shift register 74165, said register being loaded in parallel by buttons 11, 12, 13 and 14. The operation of the device 46 is described below below.

The student who has chosen his chord wishes to record it and this during 3/4 of measurement. It must therefore be saved three times, to do this, press button 13 which loads into register 74105 the binary word '00010101' (button 11 loads the word '00000001', button 12 loads the word '00000101 ', button 14 loads the word' 01010101 ').

The clock 48 then shifts this word and by the OR circuit 60, three pulses are sent to register 74174, which will see its content incremented by one. At each pulse, the word representing the chord sought three times in memory 40 will thus have been written. FIG. 7 describes a way of making the display device 38. Each output of the chord read-only memory 36 attacks the base a transistor Tr n in the collector of which there is on the one hand the corresponding lamp 28 of the scope 6 and on the other hand, the corresponding lamp 27 of the instrument studied 5. The ROM of the chords 36 can be replaced in particular by a logic network programmed PLA or by wired logic. An alternative embodiment will be described below.

In an advanced machine, RAM. can become very large. Indeed, suppose that we want to code seven reverse chord positions (three bits) and thirty different chords (five bits) for each of the twelve tones (four bits), that makes twelve address bits and twenty four outputs for a keyboard with two octaves, that makes a memory of 4096 words of twenty four bits. Taking into account, on the one hand that each chord in a tone corresponds to a translation compared to the previous tone and on the other hand that the reversed chords are obtained by moving the notes of an octave (example: chord of perfect DO DO, MI, SOL gives MI, SOL, DO and SOL, DO, MI), the ROM can be reduced to thirty two words of twelve bits. This is illustrated by the diagram in FIG. 8 which will be described below.

The twelve-bit address bus 51 is divided according to its three components: position 52, chord 53, tone 54.

At the initial time t ₀ , the shift register 56 is loaded with the word from the memory 55 corresponding to the chosen DO chord whose address is available on the bus carrying the chord information 53. The content of 56 is then shifted in the serial converter parallel to its outputs 57, said converter having been set to zero at time t ₀ . The counter 58 counts the activated notes until the comparator 59 is greater than or equal to the number of positions whose chord is to be returned (address 52). As long as the comparison is false, the register 56 is looped back on itself by the door 60 and the input of the serial-parallel converter 57 is blocked by the door 61.

At t ₀ , the down-counter 62 is loaded to the value 24 (number of keys displayed on the instrument). When its value is identical to that of the address bus 54, the comparator 63 will close the door 64, which makes it possible to light the lamps 27 and 28 to which a bit 1 corresponds in the serial-parallel converter 57. The clock is then stopped shift registers and we're ready to start a new cycle.

Claims

CLAIMS 1. Device for automatically visualizing the position of the fingers to learn chords and harmonies accompanying melodies and this, independently of all relationships with the instrument studied, thus allowing study on a musical instrument with keyboard or strings of the known and current type, characterized by the fact that it is composed of two parts, a control part (Z) which acts as a chord programmer selector (1) and a display part (W) which comprises a partial reproduction of the instrument (5) on which the position of the fingers (27) automatically appears to reproduce the selected acc on said chord programmer selector (1).

2. Device for automatically visualizing the position of the fingers to learn chords and harmonies accompanying melodies, characterized in that it is composed only of a control part (Z) which acts as a selector program chord mater (1) which is connected to the corresponding suitable and special instrument which reproduces the chord selected by said chord programmer selector (1) and possibly, if said special instrument includes a display part (W), displays the position of the fingers.

3. Device for automatically visualizing the position of the fingers for learning chords and harmonies accompanying melodies and this, independently of all relations with the instrument studied, according to claim 1, characterized in that the display part (W) includes a display of the position of the fingers on the representation of a portion of the instrument (5) and a display of the notes (28) corresponding to the chosen chord, this visualization is carried out automatically after the selection of the chord by the student on the keyboard (2) of the programmer selector (1).

4. Device for automatically visualizing the position of the mustgs for learning chords and harmonies accompanying melodies, regardless of any relationship with the instrument studied, according to any one of claims 1, 2 or 3, characterized by the fact that the chord selector (1) is composed of a keyboard (2) with at least two inputs which carries vertically (or horizontally) the names of the twelve sounds (3) of the scale (seven notes and their five alterations) and horizontally (or vertically) the names of the main chords (4) such as perfect chord, 5 °, 6 °, 7º -, 7 °, 7 ° +, 9 °, selecting the selected key (T) and one of the selected tone buttons (9,10) automatically turns on the lamps representing the notes (28) on the musical staff ( 6), the lamps (27) representing the position of the fingers on the studied instrument (5) and the lamps (sound 3 and chord 4) corresponding to the chosen chord.

5. Device for automatically viewing the position of the fingers according to any one of claims 1, 2, 3 or 4, characterized in that the keys of the keyboard (2) of the chord selector (1) representing the main chords ( 4) are subdivided into at least two parts (M and m) corresponding to the major or minor tone.

6. Device for automatically viewing the position of the fingers according to any one of claims 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5 characterized in that the lamps (27) representing the position of the fingers on the instrument under study (5) can indicate in addition to the position, by an incorporated signaling, which fingers are to be placed according to the position indicated by the lamps (27).

7. Device for automatically viewing the position of the fingers, according to any one of claims 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 or 6, characterized in that lurumewx buttons (23, 24, 25, 2b) allow to know the position of the fingers according to several variants or in the case of the piano or the organ of the reversed chords.

S. Device for automatically displaying the position of the fingers, according to any one of claims 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 or 7, characterized in that it includes a memory which records by means of the selector and programming keyboard. user-operated chord (Z), one or more selected chords, play them at different rhythms, erase them, reproduce a harmony with the display of the notes (23) and the position of the fingers (27) for each chord by means of one or more buttons (11, 12, 13 and 14) which allow one to four times to memorize the chosen chord and this as many times as the melody the request, a button (15) to erase the memory of the last chord, a button (16) to start recording, a button (17) to stop recording or return to back to repeat a difficult passage several times, a button (18) for total erasure and a button for spacing (22).

9. Device for automatically displaying the finger position according to any one of claims 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7 or 8, characterized in that it comprises, in combination, a metronome (19) with variable speed which allows the visualization of the chords composing the memorized melody and this at a rhythm which allows learning by means of the flashing of the lamps corresponding to the chosen chord, a sound top (20) can be combined with the metronome (19).

10. Device for automatically displaying the position of the fingers, according to any one of claims 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6,

7, 8 or 9, characterized by the fact that it includes:

- An oscillator (S8) at its output, connected by the line (29) to an input of a device for detecting and recognizing input keys and buttons (30) described in detail in Figure (5), l other input of the device comes from the input keyboard (1) by the line (31),

- The output line (34) of the device (30) goes on the one hand to the input (35) of a switch (50) and on the other hand to the given input (il) of a random access memory (40), said random access memory having its output connected to the pad (42) of the switch (50) by the line (43), a prerecorded external memory (15) is also connected to the switch (50) by the line (44) to the stud (49),

- The random access memory (40) and the external memory (45) receive by line (48) the digital data of the address of a memory word sought from a write-read device, address generator memory (4ό), said device being controlled by the line (44) coming from a metronome oscillator (47),

- The switch (50) has its output which feeds by the wire (51), on the one hand the input of a display device for the input selection (33) which itself feeds by the wire ( 32) the input keyboard 1 and on the other hand the entry of a read only memory chords (36),

- The output wires (37) of said read-only memory (36) supply on the one hand a display device (38) (studied instrument (5) and musical range (6)) and on the other hand a possible sound generator (39).

11. Device for automatically displaying the position of the fingers, according to any one of claims 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 or 10, characterized in that the address bus (51 ) to twelve bits is divided according to these three components: position ⁽ 52), chord (53), tone (54); at the initial time T _o , the shift register (56) is loaded with the word from the memory (55) corresponding to the chosen DO chord whose address is available on the bus carrying the chord information (53 ).

The content of (56) is then shifted in the serial converter parallel to its outputs (57), said converter having been set to zero at time T _o ; the counter (58) counts the activated notes until the comparator 59 is greater than or equal to the number of positions whose chord is to be returned (address 52). As long as the comparison is false, the loop (56) is looped back on itself by the door (60) and the input of the deserializer (57) is blocked by the door (61); at T _o , the down-counter (62) is loaded at the value twenty four (number of keys displayed on the instrument); When its value is identical to that of the address bus (54), the comparator (63.) will close the door (64), which makes it possible to illuminate the lamps (27) and (28) to which corresponds a bit (1) in the parallel serial converter (57). We then stop the clock of the shift registers and we are ready to start a new cycle.

12. Method for implementing the device according to any one of claims 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 or 11, characterized in that it is necessary to select the chord chosen by pressing the key (T) on the keyboard (2) of the chord programmer selector (1) at the intersection of the note <3) and the chord (4) so that corresponding keys ( 27 and 28) automatically light up at the same time on the keyboard (2i, on the representation of the instrument (5), it suffices to place the fingers on the instrument of known type in the place indicated obtain the desired agreement by pressing the button (9 or 10); we change the tone, by calling a new chord, it is possible to instantly and automatically view the fingering to perform.

13. Method for the implementation of the device according to any one of claims 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 or 12, characterized in that once the chosen tempo. lights of the selected chord flash, marking the chosen rhythm.

14. Method for the implementation of the device according to any one of claims 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11. 12 or 13, characterized in that after having selected a chord, the memory button (11, 12, 13, 14) is pressed as many times as desired, the next chord is selected and so on until the complete recording of accompaniment of the melody by pressing the button (16), you can follow the progress of the chords with your hand, it is possible to stop, slow down or speed up or start three or four measures back to work the difficult chords.

"