WO1984000633A1

WO1984000633A1 - Apparatus for teaching musical instruments

Info

Publication number: WO1984000633A1
Application number: PCT/US1983/001172
Authority: WO
Inventors: John P Morgando
Original assignee: John P Morgando
Priority date: 1982-08-02
Filing date: 1983-08-01
Publication date: 1984-02-16
Also published as: GB8408139D0; GB2137800A; EP0116602A1

Abstract

Teacher and student console keyboard units incorporating interchageable modular panels which can be shipped and stored unassembled, including identical side wall members (50), a central wall member (58), and a keybed (56). The basic unit can be adapted to form a teacher control console for use in simultaneous group teaching of musical instruction by use of an extended cover (68) which provides a support platform for two picture projectors (36) and a tape playback unit (20), and also a storage cabinet insertable in between the side wall members and under the keybed. Both teacher and student console units have room for control/display board located above the keybed and facing a person seated at the console, and also for circuitry components located in a back access housing behind the central wall member.

Description

APPARATUS FOR TEACHING MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS

The invention relates generally to audio-visual programmed teaching of musical instruments, and more specifically to modular construction techniques for teacher and student consoles used in group teaching.

Programmed teaching has provided a way for maintain¬ ing high standards of teaching while at the same time enabling students to progress rapidly in the course of learning a new skill such as playing a musical instru¬ ment. However, the prior art student and teacher consoles have failed to incorporate modular construction techniques which are applicable to both units, and which allow full implementation and servicing of the electronic sound circuit boards used for the latest teaching systems. Examples of such unsatisfactory prior art designs are shown in U.S. Patent nos. 3,482,480; 3,584,53Q; 3,695,138; and 3,895,555.

The most uptodate system of electronic circuitry used in the field of group musical instruction with which I am familiar is disclosed in U.S. patent applica¬ tion serial No. 346,363 which is entitled "Modular Circuit Design For Audiovisual Music Instruction System, and it was this system as well as the system which is disclosed in my previously issued U.S. Patent no. 4,331,061 which created the need for an improved design of teachere console to house the various circuit components which would have its principal parts interchangeable with the student consoles.

SUBSTITUTE St

_ OMPI Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an improved teacher console which will enable an instructor to remain seated at his own keyboard while at the same time selectively listening to an individual student's musical performance without hearing other students, collectively monitor each student's programmed quiz results, periodically stop the programmed teaching course in order to braodcast oral instructions to certain of the students, and to activate certain student light strips by the instructor playing the master keyboard at the teacher's console. In addition, it is an object of the present invention to enable the teacher to follow along and view all features of the programmed teaching course concurrently with the students, including pictorial illustrations and diagrams projected by a film projector unit and visual indicia of musical notations and concepts displayed as in printed course materials supplied to each student.

A further object is to provide a multitrack tape which carries the prerecorded audio portion of the program lesson on one channel, and which carries coded information in digital form on the second channel for purposes of activating the student light strips in prearranged note combinations, advancing and dissolving back and forth between two sets of slide pictures, and confirming visually the correct or incorrect status of student answers to periodic quiz questions.

A specific object of the prsent invention is to provide apparatus in the form of an improved musical instrument teaching system for the simultaneous instruction of a plurality of students comprising a plurality of student stations (each having his own keyboard and keyboard display indicating by means of lights which keys on the keyboard he is to play at that point of the lesson) , ascreen for providing preprogrammed visual instructional material to the students, and a sound transducer for providing preprogrammed audio material instructional material to said students, all under the control of a teacher's console having an automatic and a manual mode of operation. In the automatic mode, a preprogrammed sequence of control data determines for any given moment of time (1) what visual instructional material is visible on said screen, (2) what audio instructional material is audible through said transducer, and (3) what combina¬ tion of display lights are activated at said student stations. In the manual mode, a teacher seated at said teacher's console may (1) select the particular visual material, if any to be shown on said screen, (2) determine the combination of display lights, if any to be illuminated at each of said student stations, and (3) communicate orally with all of said students individually in in pre-eslected groups.

A more specific object is to provide an improved console design for use with a teaching system having the aforementioned characteristics wherein the teacher and student consoles are substantially identical in cabinet construction, except that the teacher unit includes an elongated platform lid extending rearwardly beyond the normal cabinet boundary in order to carry picture projection means and a tape playback unit. A related object is to provide for the teacher console an insertable storage shelf unit located under the keyboard and accessi¬ ble from the front for holding slide trays and prerecorded lesson material.

Another important object is to provide a simplified modular cabinet construction including a pair of identical side wall members, a central wall member or so-called kickboard, and a horizontal keybed which together from a back-access housing for mounting the various electronic and mechanical components required to activate the teaching system. A related object is to provide a clear space above the keyboard and below a cabinet lid for mounting a control/display board in front of a person seated at the console.

Additional objects, purposes, and advantages of the invention will be evident to those skilled in the art in view of the preferred embodiment of the inven¬ tion illustrated in the accompanying drawing and described in detail hereinafter.

In the drawings:

Figure 1 is a block diagram of the pre-programmed portion of the invention showing the use of a two-track tape playback unit;

Figure 2 is a communication diagram showing the programmed teaching inputs to an invidual student learning station, as well as the monitoring and supplemental contracts by an instructor;

Figure 3 is a perspective view of a presently preferred embodiment of a student console unit having earphones and bench, as seen from the front;

Figure 4 is a front perspective view of a presently preferred embodiment of a teacher console unit ready to begin a lesson with the unused picture slide trays and casette tray in the storage unit;

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OMPI Figure 5 is a rear perspective view of the embodi¬ ment of Fig. 4 with the rear housing shelves partially cut away, and with none of the circuitry components mounted; and

Figure 6 is a plan view of an exemplary classroom setup using the teacher and student consoles of the present invention.

Detailed Description of the Illustrated Embodiment

In the early stages of development, the structure and appearance of the teacher console was rather different from the student console. In particular, the teacher console was rather oversized due in part to the many and varied operational functions which were to be performed at the teacher console so that an instructor would not have to physically leave the bench in order to conduct an entire group lesson. In contrast, standard electronic piano cabinets were initially used to house the student consoles, and the various structural deficiencies which did not lend themselves to the uniqued teaching features of applicant's system were ignored.

In the course of time, and as a result of trial and error, it was deemed necessary to design a custom, cabinet wwhich would be structurally simple and reliable while allowing full accessible space for the installation of a control/display board above the keyboard, while providing an enlarged rear access housing for various circuit board components and wiring junctions between related components on each console as well as between saparate teacher and student consoles.

Also, because the adaptability of the systems to differently sized rooms made it impossible to determine in advance how many student stations would be hooked up to each master teacher console, it became very desirable to have as many structural components as possible be interchangeable between teacher and student consoles. Also, a modular construction was found preferable in order to minimize shipment and storage space before the full installation of a system.

Finally, after careful and thorough experimental field testing, the height and width of both the teacher and student consoles have been found to preferably be the same, that it, approximately 36 inches and 39 inches, respectively. Even the depth of the main cabinet worked successfully for both consoles at approximately 19 inches. The main cabinet modifications which were found to be still necessary were the enlarged lid platform overhanging the back to carry the projectors and tape player, and the frontprotruding storage cabinet for holding the unused slide and tape cassette trays. Also, the top- mounted music rack was preferably used on the teacher console, in contrast to the absence of any music rack or other visual impediment on the student unit. Also, an improved cassette holder replaced a cumbersome drawer.

Referring generally to the operation, the illustra¬ ted embodiment shows the use of programmed audiovisual uinputs simultaneously to individual musical instrument learning centers which typically include the instrument- related light strip adjacent the keyboard, a student quiz panel, a printed lesson manual, and a viewiong screen located at the student learning center or placed in a central position to be viewed collectively by all the students. Additionally, each student learning center includes a set of earphones to be worn during the course of the lesson. In some teaching room configurations,

"BUR-E a loudspeaker may be used instead of the earphones.

The various inputs from the programmed part of the teaching system include a prerecorded audio input to the earphones, a series of prearranged note combinations to the light strip, periodic questions and confirmation of correct or incorrect answers to the student quiz panel, and preferably two series of slides which are alternately projected in sequence on the screen in accord¬ ance with predetermined dissolve time periods as one picture phases in and another phases out.

The non-programmed communication inputs to each student include their own musical performance, the activa¬ tion of the student light strip by the teacher's keyboards, and the teacher's broadcast of oral instructions.

The teacher monitoring features of the present method and apparatus include selective listening of individual student's musical performances, and collective monitoring of all student quiz panels to determine those giving incorrect answers. Additonally, the printed lesson materials include visual indicia of musical notations and concepts correlated with the audiovisual programmed materials, and the instructor has a follow-along set of such student materials. Follow-along instructor monitor¬ ing of the pictorial illustrations and diagrams projected on the screen is also provided.

This unique combination of programmed and indivi¬ dualized teaching is designed for any musical instrument where single tones are played as in woodwind instruments and the like and is especially well suited for multiple tone instruments such as guitars, pianos and organs.

« - im ry?: O Pl The apparatus for the audio-visual programming of the presently preferred embodiment includes a magnetic tape stereo playback unit preferably having two or more chan¬ nels, a digital information decoder unit, a dissolve unit, student instrument light strips, two slide projec¬ tors, a projection screen, student quiz panels and a master control console for activating and controlling the operation of the aforesaid components. The teaching program software includes two sets of slide pictures, a precorded two-track tape, and printed lesson materials, all correlated and coordinated with one another. By providing an instructor with high quality programmed lesson materials designed for use in this system, the instructor is able to supplement the programmed instruc¬ tion with individual monitoring and inputs to the students within a timespan that is believed to be shorter than any known method of teaching music instruction.

Referring mopre specifically to the block diagram and diagramatic representations as shown in Fig.l, the two channel (e.g. "stereo") magnetic tape playback unit 20 provides two separate output signals. The first output is the preprogrammed audio instruction and this is played back to the students via individual headsets or speakers or else by means of a public address system. The second output channel contains encoded command date in digital format which is decoded by a digital information decoder 22. Both channels of tape playback unit are controlled by the instructor. It would also be possible to include high speed forward and reverse tape controls which could also automatically cause the slide trays to move forward or backward correspondingly. --. α_

A musical instrument light strip 26 is provided for each student instrument and may be made of small low-voltage lamps or alternatively other visible indica¬ tors such as light emitting doides (LED's). The decoder unit will upon command activate singly or in various combinations the lights on each strip. The light strips can be varied in length and number of lights depending on the musical instrument which is being taught, and are used to display to that student the proper notes and/or fingering for that particular instrument.

The digital information decoder 22 also sends control dignals to a visual program control device, identified here as a dissolve unit 28. This dissolve unit is capable of a "quickcut" change whereby the screen image is alternated from one projector to another very quickly. It is also capable of delayed dissolving from one jector to another by slowly lowering the projecting lumens on one projector while raising the lumens on another. The effect of such a conventional technique is to lap a picture on another while changing images. The dissolve durations prefereably range from two seconds to fifteen seconds for maximum flexibility. Alternatively, a standard small and relatively inexpensive commercial audiovisual unit may be contolled directly by the decoder.

It is necessary; as in most teaching endeavors, to test the student at various intervals in his course of study. Testing is accomplished in the following manner: all questions are multiple choice presented in video (slides or pictures), in audio (tape), and at various times with both audio and video. Each student has a student quiz panel 30 (Fig. 3) mounted at his learning stations equipped with three buttons which are labeled

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^**v - WS.13Pt Oυ 1, 2 and 3. When a question is asked, the student has a choice of one out of three answers represented by the three buttons. The student indicates his choice or answer by pushing the appropriate button. If a student has chosen the right answer, as preprogrammed on the encoded digital command data channel, the indicator light on his panel and the corresponding monitor light

32 on the instructor's control panel (Fig. 4) will show

"correct". If a wrong answer is chosen, an indicator light will show "incorrect" on his panel and also on the instructor's console panel. Preferably, these "correct" and "incorrect" lights are green and red LED's respective- ly.

Two projectors 36 are preferably used which prefer¬ ably are equipped with universal slide holders having eighty or more compartments. When a signal to "show" is given from the digital information decoder through the dissolve unit to one of the projectors, the lamp in the projector comes on and the picture on the slide in the slide tray is projected on the screen. The lamp may come up slowly, so as to fade-up the picture on the screen or it may come up full intensity, depending on the command sent from the digital information decoder through the dissolve unit to the projector. When a signal is received by the dissolve unit from the digital information decoder to change from one projector to the other, the projector which has completed showing a picture will advance to the next slide with its lamp out of "dark" and the alternate projector is then on "show" and this picture appears on the screen. This happens automatically unless a specific signal is sent to prevent the advance of the slide tray or holder. In the event of this signal, the lamp goes "dark" but the slides do not advance.

When a group of students are being given the programmed instruction simultaneously, they are listening to the audio portion of the programmed lesson material preferably on individual headsets 38, which are plugged into their learning station or instrument; however, individual speakers or even a public address system may be employed. The teacher is able to commmunicate with any one or several or all of the students by means of a microphone on a headset 40 which is plugged into a convential jack on the teacher's master control console 24.

The teacher master control console 24 is the controlling station for all of the apparatus. A teacher may choose from time to time to monitor or listen to any of the students at their learning station. This is done by the teacher plugging the headset 40 into a headphone jack and selecting the appropriate one of the switches 44 that is connnected to any particular student instrument or learning station. In this manner, 'the teacher can listen to a student's musical performance without interrupting the programmed lesson.

The teacher may choose to "pause" the apparatus at given times and reinforce the instruction by indica¬ ting what keys or notes the student should be playing. This is done by means of hold switch, and a teacher's keyboard 42 (a piano type of keyboard is chosen for illustration inasmuch as all of the notes of the chromatic scale can be played on a piano keyboard). This keyboard is mounted on the teacher's console and is wired through the digital information decoder and into each of the light strips 26 at each student's learning station or instrument. A series of switches are placed above the

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teacher's keyboard and by either opening one to a specific station or opening several of the switches to the learning stations. With the aid of such a system, it is possible for a music instructor too relay infor ationtion to a student or a group of students in such a clear and concise manner through audio instruction, visual pictures and corresponding light indicators related to the musical instrument being taught, that instruction time for the student is greatly reduced, complete understanding by the student is enhanced and it is possible to efficiently instruct a larger number of students at one time than is possible by any other instruction method presently known. This is shown diagramatically in Fig. 2. Referring specifically to that figure, it may be seen that each student is exposed to "collective preprogrammed instruc¬ tion" comprising prerecorded audio instructional material (which he hears through his earphones) predesignated note combinations (which are made visible by the lights trip above his student station keyboard) and by visual instruc¬ tional material in the form of slide pictures (which he sees projected on a central screen) , there also being keyed to the visual and audio lesson materials a series of quiz questions (which may themselves be presented as sudio or visual or both) for which each student must select the correct one of three possible answers on his individual quiz panel and then (since the "correct" answers have been preprogrammed) he receives automatically positive or negative reinforcement in the form of a correct of incor¬ rect quiz answer light on his panel. In addition, of course, he hears himself play and can compare his playing with what has been prerecorded.

Furthermore, and most importantly, the student is also exposed to "individual teaching by a live instructor." The instructor is able to communicate orally directly with the student (individually or as a group) and visually be means of the keyboard on the teacher's console which drives the lights on the light strips 26 at the student stations. Furthermore, the teacher is able to listen selectively to the individual performances and, by means of the quiz monitor lights on the instructor's console, is able to monitor whether or not the students are properly comprehending the prepro¬ grammed lesson material.

Of course, it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art thaqt the improved console design of the present application is not limited to the specific group teaching system which is disclosed herein, but is adapt¬ able to any teaching system in which a student sitting at a separate learning console participated in musical instruction program conducted by an instructor located at a separate master console. Moreover, it is believed that the unique modular construction features have advan¬ tages in a single console unit, per se, where simple reliable construction is necessary and desirable for a cabinet having a separate backaccess housing for the operational circuitry components of the keyboard unit. Referring specifically to Figs. 3-5, the illustrated embodiment includes a pair of identical side walls 50 each having an upper arm portion and lower leg portion 54,52, respectively which define a leg slot which saves material while providing comfortable knee room for a person seated at the console. A keybed member is connected between the two arm portions to carry the

- instrument keyboard and provide structural stability. The keybed rest down on a top edge of a central wall or kickboard 58 which is uprightly positioned between the inside surfaces of opposing side walls to form a front- access leg compartment 62 and a back access housing 60. Where added strenth is needed, for holding electrical components and to give strength, a rear extension of the keybed forms an upper housing shelf and a separate lower shelf defines a floor for the housing (both shown in cutaway in Fig. 5) .

The aforementioned components constitue interchange¬ able modular components and can be kept disassembled until the relative number of teacher and student consoles has been determined. At that time, they are then as¬ sembled by conventional fastening techniques, such as tongue and groove joings supplemented by glued, nails, screws, stringers, and/or the like.

A student console cap panel 64 is preferable free of any protrusion such as a music rack or the like to provide a clear visual view line with the screen. In contrast, the teacher cap panel 667 is enlarged sufficiently to carry the requisite slide projection means and tape player partially supported by a rear overhand portion 68. Also, a music rack, preferable nonperforated to shield the teacher from the projection motor/fan, is mounted on top of the cap panel on the teacher console on the teacherside of the projectors.

a- < -aa---^* I I ϋ I L. - ..—-- • An important addition to the basic console structure is a storage insert for the teacher unit lcated under the keybed and in the illustrated embodiment including two stacks of open shelves for storing the unused slide lesson materials and a central compartment or shelf 76 for receiving the unused preprogrammed cassette rack 78.

The storage insert 70 is designed to structurally and visually blend with the console cabinet, and has a sufficient number of storage shelves 72 for conventional slide trays such as 74. Also included for convenience are a pair of retractable work boards 80 located under the horizontal panel 82 forming the top of the insert. In the preferred embodiment, the modular panels are made of 3/4 inch thick particle board (also called chip core board) which carries a hard plastic veneer or laminate for protection. Some of the structural members, and particularly the internal shelves in the rear housing can be less sturdy, such as 1/2 inch thick.

A matching bench is also of modular construction and includes a seat 92, identical side leg panels 94 and matching front and rear support arches 96 inter¬ connecting the seat and side legs. The bench has no fron or back of protruding foot impediments and is suitable for both the teacher and student consoles.

All of the aforementioned structural features combine to form an improved modular cabinet construction which allows for insertion and mounting of applicant's display/control boards in the space between the keyboard and the cap panels, or the display/control panels of any other similar system, while at the same time providing a convenient platform for the picture and tape projection

OMPI and playback units immediately adjacent to the circuit board housing, thereby minimizing the length needed for electrical connections with switches, power supplies, etc.

Referring now to Figure 6, it may be seen that in a collective teaching situation in accordance with the present invention, the teacher's console 24 is preferably utilized with a number of individual student's stations 12. In the classroom layout shown in the Figure, actually ten such student stations are used with one teacher's console, five on the left of the teacher's console and five on the right. Such a spatial distribu¬ tion of the student stations has the advantage of placing the teacher in closer proximity to all of the students and at the same time allowing all of the students a clear line of sight to the screen 14 upon which, as has been previous¬ ly discussed, are projected slides containing preprogramm¬ ed visual instruction materials by means of a left projector 36L and a right projector 36R, which are con¬ tained within the teacher's console 24 and are under the control of a tape player 20 also contained in the teacher's console, as has been discussed in more detail previously.

Although an exemplary embodiment of the invention has been disclosed for illustrative purposes, it will be understood that various changes, modifications and substitutions may be incorporated in such embodiment without departing from the invention as defined by the claims hereinafter.

Claims

I claim as my invention:

1. An improved console unit designed for use as a keyboard station for group teaching of musical instruction, including: a pair of substantially identical side wall members each constituting a separate upstanding unitary panel having a forwardly extending leg portion in supporting relationship with an underlying floor; a keybed connected between said side wall members, with said side wall members including forwardly extending arm means for carrying said keybed in a suspended position therebetween; and a central wall member extending longitudinally between said pair of side wall members to interconnect them and extending downwardly from said keybed toward underlying floor to form a front access leg compartment for a person seated at the console unit and a back access housing for holding circuitry components which maked the console unit operational.

2. The invention of claim 1 which further includes cover means extending longitudinally between said pair of side wall members to interconnect them at their top edges, said cover means forming the top boundary of said back access housing and being displaced above and rearwardly from the front portion of said keybed to leave room for a control/display board located above said keybed and facing a person seated at the console unit.

3. The invention of claim 2 wherein said cover means extends rearwardly beyond said back access housing to form a support platform means on a teacher console unit for holding picture projection means thereon for

_OMPI ^" projecting a video portion of musical instruction on a screen viewable from each student console.

4. The invention of claim 3 which further includes a music rack mounted on said cover means, said music rack including shield means for protecting a person seated at the console unit from any cooling fan in a picture projection means.

5. The invention of claim 3 wherein said cover means extends longitudinally a sufficient distance to form a support platform for two separate picture projection means.

6. The invention of claim 3 wherein said cover means extends longitudinally a sufficient distance to form a support platform for said picture projection means and also for a tape playback unit used in providing a portion of the musical instruction.

7. The invention of claim 1 which further includes a storage unit insertable under said keybed in the front access leg compartment including shelf means for storing the programmed teaching materials required for use by a person at a teacher console unit.

8. The invention of claim 7 wherein said storage unit includes at least one group of vertically spaced storage shelves for holding instructional picture means not being projected by the picture projection means.

9. The invention of claim 7 wherein said storage unit includes a pair of vertical shelves for holding instructional picture means not being projected and further including storage means for holding prerecorded lesson tapes not being played back.

10. The invention of claim 7 wherein said storage unit includes retractable work board means.

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11. The invention of claim 7 wherein said storage unit includes a pair of side storage members sufficiently spaced apart to define a leg compartment therebetween.

12. The invention of claim 1 wherein both teacher console units and student console units include interchangeable side wall members, keybeds and central wall members, thereby making it unnecessary to maintain a separate inventory of teacher and student cabinet components.

13. The invention of claim 1 wherein each of said side wall members, keybed, and central wall members constitute separately made modular units which can be stored and shipped in unassembled form.

14. The invention of claim 1 further including a bench member sized to fit inside of the front access leg compartment when the console unit is not in use.

15. The invention of claim 14 wherein said bench member includes a pair of interchangeable side ledg components.

16. Theinvention of claim 14 wherein said bench member includes a pair of interchangeable front and back longitudinal support arch means.

17. The invention of claim 14 wherein said bench member includes a seat, two identical side legs, and two identical front and back arch means for interconnec¬ tion with said seat and said side legs.

18. The invention of claim 1 wherein said keybed extends rearwardly past said central wall member to form an upper support shelf means in the back access housing.

19. The invention of claim 1 which further includes lower support shelf means in the back access housing for interconnecting said central wall means with said side wall members.