WO2002009087A1

WO2002009087A1 - Musical instrument and musical notation therefor

Info

Publication number: WO2002009087A1
Application number: PCT/GB2001/003352
Authority: WO
Inventors: Ashley John Renham
Original assignee: Ashley John Renham
Priority date: 2000-07-26
Filing date: 2001-07-26
Publication date: 2002-01-31
Also published as: GB2353395A; GB0018185D0; AU2001276465A1

Abstract

A standard musical instrument, such as a piano, has the keys of the accidental notes coloured such that the same note in each octave is the same colour (ie the key C sharp/D flat is the same colour in all octaves). Such a musical instrument can be played in conjuntion with a standard musical notation in which all the accidental notes are coloured so as to correspond with the equivalent keys of the musical instrument. Thus, for example, all instances of C sharp and D flat are coloured the same as the above mentioned key.

Description

Musical Instrument and Musical Notation Therefor

The present invention relates to a musical instrument and a musical notation therefor, and relates particularly, but not exclusively, to a keyboard instrument and accompanying musical notation.

A standard musical octave consists of 12 notes. The ratio of the pitch (ie frequency) of any one note to its nearest higher neighbour is always the same, that is a ratio of 1 : 12 2. As a result of these even ratios this is known as even temperament .

Of these 12 notes 7 form the major scale of C which is the most easily seen on a piano keyboard. Figure 1 shows an example of a standard piano keyboard, on which the notes of the major scale of C, the "white keys", are numbered 1-7, and are referred to by the letters C, D, E, F, G, A and B respectively. The remaining 5 notes, numbered 8-12, are known as accidental notes and are the "black keys" on a standard piano keyboard.

The accidental notes in an octave are described by the use of a modifying term (sharp or flat) along with the name of a non- accidental note to which they are adjacent. For example, the note indicated at 9 in Figure 1 is known as D sharp, that is the next note of higher frequency to the non-accidental note D (indicated at 2) . This note is also referred to as E flat, that is the next note of lower frequency to the non-accidental note E (indicated at 3 ) . This dual identity can be somewhat confusing since the one note is referred to by two different names .

In a standard musical notation the notes of the C major scale are indicated by the location of a marker (a dot or a circle) on or between the lines of a stave. The accidental notes, as with their naming, are indicated by modification of the non- accidental notes by use of symbols representing sharp and flat. Figure 2 shows an example of such a stave and the notes indicated at 20 and 21 are for A flat and G sharp respectively, which are the same note (indicated at 11 on Figure 1) .

Figure 2 also shows two sharp symbols 22 and 23 at the beginning of the stave. This notation is used to indicate that any note falling on the particular marked line or space between two lines of that stave, or any note a multiple of octaves higher or lower than that note, should always be played, in this case, as a sharp. It is therefore necessary for the person playing the music to remember that these two particular notes should always be played as sharps, as there is no indication immediately adjacent the note in question.

In the event that a note on the line or space of sharp indicators 22 and 23 is not to be played as a sharp, it is necessary to insert a further symbol indicating that the note is to be played as a "natural" note, ie that it is to be played as a non-accidental note. An example of this is shown at 24 on Figure 2.

As a result of the complexity of the naming and notation used to indicate accidental and non-accidental notes reading and playing music from the above described stave and on a standard keyboard is a complex process. Thus a considerable amount of practice may be required in order to competently play a new piece of music especially from those who are new to playing and reading music.

Preferred embodiments of the present invention seek to overcome the above described disadvantages of the prior art.

According to an aspect of the present invention there is provided a musical instrument comprising means for playing at least one octave of notes comprising accidental and non- accidental notes, wherein said accidental notes are marked such that each accidental note can be distinguished from each other accidental note within the corresponding octave .

By providing a musical instrument on which the accidental notes within an octave are marked such that they can be distinguished from each other, the advantage is provided that the same accidental note is given a single form of identification or name rather than the existing dual identity where for instance F sharp and G flat are in fact the same note.

In a preferred embodiment said marking of the accidental notes corresponds to similar marking on a musical notation.

By linking the marking of a musical instrument with the marking of a musical notation the advantage is provided that the notation becomes significantly easier to read and to convert into a musical note being played on the instrument in question. As a result, the time required to learn a new piece of music is significantly reduced. Furthermore both the notification and the instrument are only cosmetically altered and as a result the instrument can still be played and the music notation can still be read by persons not wishing to use the marking system. Alternatively the notation can still be^'played on an instrument without the corresponding markings, and notation without the markings can still be played on an instrument with the markings, although the above described advantages are of course lost .

In a preferred embodiment said marking of said accidental notes is by means of different colours.

By colouring, for instance the black keys on a piano keyboard, and similarly colouring the accidental notes on a musical notation the advantage is provided that this is a simple and clear method of identifying accidental notes. The further advantage is provided that in order to copy the music using the coloured notation it is necessary to use a coloured photocopier. Colour photocopies are significantly more expensive than black and white copies which is likely to reduce the incidents of copyright infringement .

In a preferred embodiment said instrument is a stringed instrument .

In another preferred embodiment said instrument is a keyboard instrument .

According to another aspect of the present invention there is provided a musical notation comprising notation for at least one octave of notes comprising accidental and non-accidental notes, wherein said accidental notes are marked such that each accidental note can be distinguished from each other accidental note within the corresponding octave .

In a preferred embodiment said marking of the accidental notes corresponds with similar markings on a musical instrument .

In another preferred embodiment said marking of said accidental notes is by means of different colours.

A preferred embodiment of the present invention will now be described, by way of example only and not in any limitative sense, with reference to the accompanying drawings in which: -

Figure 1 shows a schematic view of the keyboard of a prior art keyboard instrument ;

Figure 2 is an example of a prior art musical notation;

Figure 3 is a schematic view of a keyboard instrument embodying the present invention;

Figure 4 is an enlarged section of an example of a musical notation embodying the present invention; and Figure 5 is an enlarged section of another example of a musical notation also embodying the present invention.

Referring to Figure 3 a musical instrument 30 comprises keys for playing octaves of notes 31 and 32. Each octave comprises 12 notes 33-44. Of these 12 notes 5 are accidental notes 40-44 and 7 are non-accidental notes 33-39.

The accidental notes 40-44 are marked by colouring them so that each of the five accidental notes can be distinguished from the others. In the example shown accidental note 40 (C sharp/D flat) is coloured blue, accidental note 41 (D sharp/E flat) is coloured red, accidental note 42 (F sharp/G flat) is coloured purple, accidental note 43 (G sharp/A flat) is coloured green, and accidental note 44 (A sharp/B flat) is coloured grey. The colours which the accidental notes are given are not significant, however, they are repeated for each subsequent octave or partial octave.

Figure 4 shows an example of a standard musical notation 50, comprising five lines 51-55 and spaces therebetween 56-59. Each line 51-55 and space 56-59 denotes a different non- accidental note. In order to indicate an accidental note a modifying symbol is used. This can either occur immediately adjacent a note which is being played or at the beginning of each line of music such as those shown at 60-63.

The notes to be played are indicated at 65-69. Notes located on line 52 are the non-accidental note D, however, by virtue of sharp modifier 63 at the beginning of line 52 note 67 is D sharp. This note is also known as E flat which would be indicated by a note in space 56 with a flat modifier. In the notation of the present invention the note 67 is additionally indicated as an accidental, rather than non-accidental, note. In this example this is done by the colouration of note 67 to the colour red. If the note E flat were to be indicated on this musical stave, as described above, it would also be coloured red. Similarly the sharp modifier 63 is also coloured red.

For the notation to indicate a D sharp one octave below that of note 67, the note is placed in the space immediately below line 55 to indicate D sharp (a sharp modifier is not required since sharp modifier 63 is taken to refer to all Ds in all in octaves) . Similarly to indicate E flat a note is placed on line 55 with a flat modifier to indicate E flat. In both of these circumstances these notes would be coloured red.

Notes 65 and 68 are also accidental notes by virtue of sharp modifiers 60 and 61 respectively and are coloured purple and blue respectively. All of these colorations match the coloured accidental keys 40-44 shown in Figure 3. For example note 67 which is coloured red is played by pressing key 41 on keyboard 30.

Non-accidental notes such as 66 and 69 are denoted in the standard black coloration. In the event that a note such as 67 is not to be modified to an accidental note, a neutralising modifier is shown in front of the note. In this instance the modifier and note are printed in black, an example of this is shown on Figure 5 at 70.

It will be appreciated by persons skilled in the art that the above embodiment was described by way of example only and not in any limitative sense, and that various alterations and modifications could be made without departure from the scope of the appended claims. For example the additional marking which is used could be in the form of numbers, where a number is located on the accidental notes on an instrument and is indicated adjacent, for example above, the musical notation. Furthermore the suitable instruments are not restricted to keyboard instruments, stringed instrument such as a guitar can have the markings either numerical or coloured on or around the frets where the accidental notes are located.

Claims

1. A musical instrument comprising means for playing at least one octave of notes comprising accidental and non- accidental notes, wherein said accidental notes are coloured such that each accidental note can be distinguished from each other accidental note within the corresponding octave.

2. An instrument according to claim 1, wherein said colouring of the accidental notes corresponds to similar colouring on a musical notation.

3. An instrument according to claim 1 or 2, wherein equivalent accidental notes within each octave on said instrument are coloured using the same colour.

4. An instrument according to any of the preceding claims, wherein said instrument is a stringed instrument .

5. An instrument according to any of claims 1 to 3 , wherein said instrument is a keyboard instrument .

6. A musical instrument substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to Figures 3 to 5 of the accompanying drawings .

7. A musical notation for at least one octave of notes comprising accidental and non-accidental notes, wherein said accidental notes are coloured such that each accidental note can be distinguished from each other accidental note within the corresponding octave .

8. A notation according claim 7, wherein said colouring of the accidental notes corresponds with similar colouring on a musical instrument.

9. A notation according to claim 7 or 8 , wherein equivalent accidental notes within each octave on said notation are coloured using the same colour.

10. A musical notation substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to Figures 3 to 5 of the accompanying drawings .

11. A method of playing a musical instrument comprising reading and interpreting a notation according to any one of claims 7 to 10 and playing said notation on an instrument according to any one of claims 1 to 6.