WO2002080138A1

WO2002080138A1 - Musical instrument

Info

Publication number: WO2002080138A1
Application number: PCT/GB2002/001571
Authority: WO
Inventors: Ron Ballard
Original assignee: Ron Ballard
Priority date: 2001-04-02
Filing date: 2002-04-02
Publication date: 2002-10-10
Also published as: GB0108238D0

Abstract

The present invention relates to a musical instrument (1) comprising a touch sensitive area (2) associated with a particular musical note or sound, the area being touch sensitive in x, y and z axis, the x and y axis being in the plane of the area, and the z axis being at substantially right angles to the plane of the area; wherein a note or sound is producible by touch within the area and whereby said not or sound thus produced can be modulated by movement of said touch in the x, y and/or z axis.

Description

Musical Instrument

The present invention relates to a musical instrument, in particular .a musical instrument incorporating a keyboard.

There are many different kinds of musical instruments. Each type of musical instrument has particular characteristics which make it suitable for certain musical uses. These characteristics include, amongst many others:

• The nature of the sound it produces. This is also known as "timbre" or "tone colour". Technically, timbre is characterised by the wave form of the sound which the instrument produces. • Range of pitch (range of frequency of sound waves) .

• Range of volume (amplitude of sound waves) .

• Number of notes that can be played simultaneously (polyphony) .

• Sound "envelope" - also known as ASDR for Attack, Sustain, Decay, Release.

• The ability (or not) to apply "vibrato".

A musical instrument consists of a sound production system (vibrating string, vibrating column of air, electronic tone generator, etc.) and an input mechanism or means. The input means is the system by which the musician determines what notes are played and with what characteristics. On a piano, for example, the keyboard and the pedals provide the normal input means; on a saxophone the keys and the mouthpiece are the input means. The musician may use fingers, lips_Λ feet, breath control, and sometimes other parts of the body to control the input means. The wide range of musical instruments in existence today provides a rich variety of sounds. However, conventional musical instruments all have some limitations on the range of musical effects they can produce, for example, the "glissando" is one feature which is natural to a few instruments and lacking in others. Glissando is a smooth transition from one pitch to another. This is very easy on some instruments (trombone, violin family, human voice) , difficult on others (saxophone, trumpet, normal fretted guitar) , and impossible on others (piano, organ, xylophone) .

The ability to vary timbre is another feature which is natural to some musical instruments and lacking in others. The human voice is probably the richest musical instrument in this category, followed closely by the saxophone which is capable of varying tone colour from a sweet, flute-like sound, to a course rasping noise. Some instruments allow many tone colours, but the transition between them is a step function, rather than a smooth change. The church organ and most electronic instruments are in this category. Some instruments, such as the piano and the xylophone have almost no ability to vary tone colour.

As a final example, different instruments have different limits on the number of notes which they can play at one time. Some instruments can play only one note at a time (flute, saxophone, trumpet) , the violin family can play two notes at once (three in exceptional circumstances) , the guitar can generally play six, and the piano can play as many as the musician (or musicians) can hold down at one time. The maximum number of notes which can be played at the same time is known as the "polyphony" of the instrument. Over the years musicians have required more and more sophisticated instruments to obtain the sound that they want. In this connection, it is now possible through the use of electronic keyboard instruments to produce many different sounds with one instrument. These different sounds are produced by operating additional controls (e.g. wheels, touch- sensitive ribbons, and switches) to modify the notes played. However, when these additional controls are operated, the effects generally apply to all or a block of notes played thereafter until the additional control is deactivated.

In addition, as will be appreciated, the musician only has two hands and therefore it is difficult to press keys down with both hands and operate a complex series of wheels, touch sensitive ribbons and switches. Accordingly, before playing a piece of music live, a musician will often programme a series of commands into the electronic keyboard which will allow him/her to give the desired performance. This, of course, limits the amount of improvisation which can occur during a performance.

An object of the present invention is to overcome the limitations of known musical instruments.

According to the present invention there is provided a musical instrument input means comprising a touch sensitive area associated with a particular musical note or sound, the area being touch sensitive in x, y and z directions, the x and y directions being in the plane of the area, and the z direction being at substantially right angles to the plane of the area; wherein a note or sound is producible by touch within the area and whereby said note or sound thus produced can be modulated by movement of said touch in the x, y and/or z directions. The above input means will allow the characteristics of a note or sound to be changed by movement of, for example, a finger within said touch sensitive area.

The touch sensitive area can be provided in the form of any suitable touch sensitive device, such as a pad, tablet, mat, screen or keyboard known to those in the art which can be controlled by, for example, a computer device.

Preferably the touch sensitive area is provided in the form of a piano-like key.

The keyboard is one of the most popular musical instruments but it has one of the most restrictive production system for notes. Having the touch sensitive area in the form of a piano-like key allows piano or keyboard players to use the musical instrument without requiring significant retraining.

Alternatively the area can be any desired shape, for example, a circle or square denoting, for example, a drum or another percussion instrument.

Conveniently the amplitude of the note or sound can be altered by movement of said touch in the z direction.

In this way, as with a piano, the amount of pressure that is applied to the relevant area will alter the amplitude/volume of the note produced (i.e a light touch will produce a ^ypiano' note and a harder touch will produce a ^orte' note) .

In preferred embodiments movement of said touch in the x axis direction modulates the pitch of the note or sound. In this connection, if at least two touch sensitive areas are placed side by side, each being associated with a particular note, then by sliding the user's finger from one touch sensitive area towards the adjacent touch sensitive area, a glissando will be produced. In this respect, a semitone, which is the smallest difference in tone between two notes on a piano keyboard, is typically about 15mm wide. However, each discrete touch sensitive area can be made sensitive to at least 100 different positions within this range using current technology. This enables changes in pitch to be played which are smaller than most people can detect, and therefore a smooth, seamless transition from one pitch to another will occur. Thus the ^Λperfect' glissando, and other effects such as scoops, bends, and pitch vibrato can be played. In this connection, where the touch sensitive area takes the form of a substantially flat member, the physical act of sliding a finger from one note' to another can be readily achieved. This is in contrast with, for example a piano, where in order to produce a note a key has to be depressed, thereby creating a step with an adjacent key.

Preferably movement of said touch in the y direction modulates the timbre or tone colour of the note or sound.

Accordingly, by sliding the user's finger in the y direction the tone colour or timbre of the note will gradually change.

In addition, the input means of the present invention can be programmed such that touching the touch sensitive area at one point along the y axis will produce a different tone of note or sound from when the area is touched at a different point along the y axis.

Alternatively, in a preferred mode when the touch sensitive area is touched through movement in the z direction, the same tone of note is produced independent of the position in the y direction and the tone will only alter when movement is detected from this initial point.

Conveniently, movement in the x and y directions can alternatively be programmed to produce or change any effect or characteristic of the note or sound, for example echo, reverb, chorus, volume. Such programming could conveniently be achieved using a computer and a system of menus.

In this way the user can obtain the characteristics that he/she requires for a set performance and then alter the characteristics associated with the x, y and z directions for further performances. This is very important in the modern age when musicians must be versatile. Furthermore, means such as a switch for altering the characteristics associated with the x, y and/or z directions can be provided on the musical instrument such that the characteristics of the x, y and/or z directions can be altered during a performance.

According to a further embodiment of the present invention there is provided a musical instrument comprising a plurality of input devices hereinbefore described.

As will be appreciated, an advantage of the musical instrument of the present invention is that the sound of a single note can be changed without having to change the characteristics of the other notes being played at the same time. In addition, the user's fingers are still in contact with the notes while the characteristics of said notes are being changed. Accordingly, if required, two hands can be playing notes at all times. Preferably, the input means are arranged side by side to form a keyboard in the x direction.

In this connection, the musical instrument of the present invention could act in different modes, ie in a conventional keyboard mode, a "fretless" instrument mode or an "intelligent" programmable mode.

When used in a conventional keyboard mode, touching a touch sensitive area would result in the note being played precisely. This program would make it impossible to play a note out of tune, and would therefore be suitable for novice players or for music which required no pitch bending or glissando.

The "fretless" instrument mode would make the musical instrument of the present invention behave like, for example, a fretless guitar, a violin, or a trombone, with each tiny change of position on the x direction generating a different pitch. The centre of each printed note would give the precise pitch for that note, with positions to the left of centre being, for example, flat and positions to the right of centre being, for example, sharp. This mode does allow pitch bending and perfect glissando by movement of the pressure along the x direction.

In the "intelligent" programmable mode, the musical instrument of the present invention would interpret the player's action in a more sophisticated way, which gives benefits of both the conventional keyboard and the fretless modes. When a finger first touches the pad, the note played is the true pitch of the note displayed on the surface. In this connection, as with the conventional keyboard mode, it would not matter whether the finger touches the centre of a note or closer to the edge of a note.

If the player then slides his or her finger to the right or left then the transition to the next note is a smooth glissando, as in fretless mode. This gives the player help in hitting the accurate pitch of any note, and also allows slides, bends, fall-offs and other pitch modification. It does mean that the player has to start on a pre-defined note, so a scoop would have to start a semitone (or more) flat and slide up to the target note, rather than starting a microtone flat.

The musical instrument may stand on its own or be a mat which can be placed over a conventional keyboard, such that pressing the key under the mat results in a note being played but movement of the pressure applied to the key along the x and y directions of the mat will change the characteristics of the note being played by the conventional keyboard.

Discrete touch sensitive note areas of the musical instrument corresponding to conventional note separations may provided. Such note areas may be printed onto the musical instrument/input means or displayed/projected by a computer. The latter methods are preferable in order that the boundaries of the discrete areas can be altered without requiring a new musical instrument/input means.

The musical instrument can have more than one manual, such that traditional organ configurations can be used.

Alternatively, the musical instrument can be sectioned into areas such that a keyboard and at least one percussion instrument are provided on the same screen.

The invention will now be described, by way of illustration only, with reference to the following examples and the accompanying figures.

Figure 1 shows a musical instrument according to the present invention;

Figure 2 shows one possible display on a touch screen;

Figure 3 shows an alternative display on the touch screen;

Figure 4 shows a further alternative display on the touch screen; and

Figure 5 shows a yet further alternative display on the touch screen.

Figure 1 shows a musical instrument 1 comprising an input means 2 which is a touch sensitive screen. The screen 2 has x, y and z axes. The x axis runs along a longitudinal axis of the screen 2 and the y axis runs along the width of the screen 2. The z-axis defines the depth of the screen 2. The screen 2 has a plurality of discrete areas 20 either displayed/projected thereon by a controlling computer device (not shown) or printed thereon.

Examples of possible discrete area displays/projections or prints are shown in Figures 2 to 5. In this connection, Figure 2 shows a piano-like projection with the black and white keys 4 and 5 respectively running the full width of the screen. Figure 3 shows a more traditional form of piano keyboard, with the black keys 4 shorter than the white keys 5.

Activation of the discrete areas 20 shown in Figures 2 and 3 by, for example, touching with a finger, along the x-axis allows a range of notes from low notes to high notes to be played, as on a conventional keyboard. The actual movement in the direction of the z-axis would be minimal, differences in z-axis values would be caused by differences in pressure on the surface - a light touch would give low z-axis values and, therefore, a ^λpiano' note and a heavy touch would give high z-axis values and, therefore, a forte' note.

Figure 4 shows a projection of a three manual device 6, 7 and 8. In this connection, such a device could be played in the same manner as a three manual organ.

As shown in Figure 5 the projections shown on the touch screen need not be a piano-type configuration. In this connection, Figure 5 shows an array representing a drum kit, comprising tom-toms 9 and 10, snare 13 and bass (or kick) 15 drums, and crash 11 and 12, hi-hat 14, and ride 16 cymbals.

In use, the musical instrument 1 lies horizontally in front of the player, in the same way as a conventional (piano-style) keyboard. When the player places a finger on one of the discrete areas 20 in the form of keys 4 and 5 the touch sensitive screen 2 will recognise that a movement in the z- axis has been made and a note will be produced. More than one note can be played at the same time.

The note that is produced will be dependent upon the type of computer program that is being run by the musical instrument. In this connection, if the conventional keyboard or "intelligent" programme mode is being used then the note will be the true note that should be produced by the key. In "fretless" mode the user would have to carefully position pressure at the required point of the key. In this respect, placing pressure at one section of the key will result in a different note being played than if the pressure is applied at a different part of the same key.

If the keyboard is being used in "fretless" or "intelligent programme" mode the user will then be able to change the characteristics of this note by moving their finger along the y axis (i.e towards or away from their body) or along the x axis (i.e left or right). The musical instrument can use a computer program such that any characteristics of the note or chord can be changed. However, probably most useful would be changes in pitch and timbre. In this connection, a change in pitch could be made by sliding the pressure along the x axis whereas the timbre can be changed by sliding pressure along the y axis.

It will be understood that the embodiment illustrated shows one application of the invention only for the purposes of illustration. In practice the invention may be applied to many different configurations, the detailed embodiments being straightforward for those skilled in the art to implement.

In the present examples a touch screen has been used. However, any touch sensitive device such as a tablet, mat, pad or keyboard could be used.

It would be possible that a mat having the characteristics of the present invention could be placed over a conventional electronic keyboard such that pressure in the z axis caused the key on the conventional keyboard to be depressed resulting in a note being played and the characteristics of the note can be altered by moving the pressure along the mat in the x and/or y axes direction.

The change of characteristics of the notes played are not limited to pitch and timbre and include any effect having a variable component, such as volume, echo, reverb and chorus. Some such effects are natural to musical instruments, and some are available only in electronic systems (such as phase, flange, reverb, delay, detune, arpeggiate, harmonise and transpose) .

For example, ^λreverb' controls whether the music sounds as if it is being played in a small or a large space, with correspondingly more or less sound reflection from the walls. The variable parameters of ^Λreverb' include (among others) how loud the echo is, how quickly it starts after the note is played, and the shape of the decay curve.

Furthermore any such effect having a variable component may be controlled by movement along any one of the three axes, although it is envisaged that this would conveniently be the y axis.

A means, such as a switch, could be provided on the keyboard which would allow the type of modulation of the note/sound caused by movement in one direction to be changed during a performance.

The musical instrument can be programmed such that placing pressure on a single note results in a chord of any number of notes being played. In this connection, the touch screen could be programmed such that a chord is played when the relevant discrete area is touched at a certain point whereas when the same discrete area is touched at another point the true note is played.

A single musical instrument could have discrete areas which act as a keyboard and others which act as percussion instruments .

If the touch sensitive device is not particularly sensitive in the z axis direction then the user could wear a device on their hands which would enhance the sensitivity thereof.

Further whilst it is envisaged that the touch sensitive area is pressure sensitive, other forms of touch sensitive apparatus may be used, for example, electrical or electrostatic sensitive mechanisms. Further, the touch sensitive area may, for example, be formed by a grid of optical beams such that movement within the grid will be detected and processed as before.

Claims

1. A musical instrument input device comprising a touch sensitive area associated with a particular musical note or sound, the area being touch sensitive in x, y and z directions, the x and y directions being in the plane of the area, and the z direction being at substantially right angles to the plane of the area; wherein a note or sound is producible by touch within the area and whereby said note or sound thus produced can be modulated by movement of said touch in the x, y and/or z directions.

2. A device according to claim 1 wherein the touch sensitive area is in the form of a piano-like key.

3. A device according to either claim 1 or 2 wherein the amplitude of the note or sound can be altered by movement of said touch in the z direction.

4. A device according to any preceding claim wherein movement of said touch in the x direction modulates the pitch of the note or sound.

5. A device according to any preceding claim wherein movement of said touch in the y direction modulates the tone colour of the note or sound.

6. A device according to any of claims 1 to 8 wherein movement of said touch in the x and y directions can be programmed to produce or change any of the following effects or characteristics of the note or sound: echo, reverb, chorus, volume .

7. A device according to any preceding claim wherein the touch sensitive area operates by application of pressure.

8. A musical instrument comprising a plurality of input devices as claimed in any of claims 1 to 7.

9. A musical instrument according to claim 8 wherein the input devices are arranged side by side to form a keyboard in the x direction.

10. An input device as hereinbefore described with reference to the examples and/or drawings.

11. A musical instrument as hereinbefore described with reference to the examples and/or drawings.