PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an electric musical instrument which allows simplification of a structure and is easily played in the same manner as percussion instruments.
SOLUTION: The electric musical instrument comprises a main body part 11 to be held by a player, a detection means 12 provided in the main body part 11, and a sound producer 13 for reproducing prescribed electronic sounds in accordance with an output signal of the detection means 12. The main body part 11 extends along a linear direction and has one end side made into a grip part 15 to be gripped by the player. The detection means 12 includes a first sensor 12A capable of detecting a direction of the main body part 11 to the player and a second sensor 12B capable of detecting an operation of the main body part 11. When the player performs an operation as if he beat a percussion instrument, the operation is detected by the detection means 12 to play the instrument.

JP2006234979

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To set a timbre according to an image displayed when power is turned on.
SOLUTION: An electronic musical instrument is provided, which comprises a display means for sequentially displaying images of two or more musical instruments when power is turned on, an operating element which can be manipulated, and a setting means for setting the timbre according to the musical instrument being displayed at the time of manipulating the operating element during display of the musical instruments

US2003075431

The size of the key switch apparatus, particularly its height, is reduced to allow its use even in keyboard-type electronic musical instruments. By virtue of a key-driven actuator, multiple terminal strips are allowed to contact bus bars 20a-21e installed in more than one stage so as to produce multiple tones simultaneously. In this key switch apparatus, the multiple bus bars 20a-21e are installed, being shifted in location in their respective stages, and multiple terminal strips 24a-25e are also installed in each stage so that they may contact the individual bus bars individually. In addition, the actuator has a terminal-strip engaging means for controlling the movements of the multiple terminal strips 24a-25e.

EP1480197

The system comprises: an air-fed organ case (4) and comprising orifices (5) which communicate with a chamber underlying the musical pipes (3), whose foot is engaged in a hole provided in said chamber, sliders (6) that control the flow of air through each orifice (5), while at least one slider (6) is actuated with the aid of a respective key (7), first position sensor means (14), arranged to sense the travel of each key (7), second position sensor means (12), arranged to sense the travel of each slider (6), and electrical / electronic circuit means (25, 26, 27, 49), which establish a correspondence between the displacements of the first position sensor means (14) and those of the second position sensor means (12) and, with the intermediary operation of respective actuator means (11) move at least a corresponding slider (6). According to the invention, said actuator means (11; 68) comprise a movable member (21, 23) which is driven to perform reciprocating movements proportionately to the movements of the respective key (7) and controls, directly and in correspondingly proportional fashion, the movement of at least a respective slider (6) both in its opening travel and in the closing travel with respect to the corresponding orifice (5).
 

US2002117043

A music tone identification method with related apparatus, notation, and instruments for past, present, and future musical notes. Each tone note body, character, picture, song word, song letter, or song syllable has unique identification comprised of color, shape, shading, and lines. A song comprising the tone notes has a colored bar at beginning and at end to indicate its key. Each of twelve musical tones within a level of scale is sung by a vocalized alphabetical tone name. Each rigid vibrator has its tone identified by means of a unique colored sticker or coating for sight ahd sound recognition. Each tone of a musical instrument may have its corresponding playing surface identified by an identification colored sticker decal or coating. Each tone of an electronic oscillator, generator, and tuner that is received or generated is identified by illuminated opto electronic display, sticker decal, or coating comprising the identification method. A process of operating a computer software graphics program comprises musical character notation by means of the unique identification method. Dance steps comprise position, color, and shading of footprints corresponding to the music tone identification method to identify tone notes for dance steps.

Ear training is learning to differentiate between different sounds. This is a great skill to acquire as a budding musician. It will make reading piano sheet music easier as you will be able to tell by ear whether your playing is right or wrong. Even if you are not a great singer, this is a skill that can be developed. Music notes can do one of 3 things. They can stay the same, go up or go down. If the notes stay the same, their pitch will be the same.

Tip 1 – Play a note on the piano, around Middle C. Sing it back. Now play the note above it and sing it back. Now play both notes one after the other and sing them back. Vary this exercise with 2 notes and then 3 notes. Play them and then sing them back. Look at your first bar of piano sheet music. Look at the direction that the notes move in. Do they go up, down or stay the same?

Tip 2 – Before playing the notes on the piano try singing this pattern, even if it is very approximate. This gets you used to looking at the direction the notes move in and what sound they will produce. Now look at the rhythm of the piece. How many beats are there in a bar? If there are 4 beats in a bar, use this to count yourself in “1, 2, 3, 4″ in the following exercise.

Tip 3 – Clap through the rhythm of the 1st bar of music at a steady speed. This is training your musical ear to listen to the rhythm only. Clap at a steady speed and always count yourself in.

Over the years I have been a piano teacher I have had many people call or write me and ask me something like this:

“I play by ear, or by chords, but lots of music doesn’t have chord symbols written in — how do I know what chord to play when?”

“Our hymn book doesn’t tell which chords to use — how can I know what to play?”

“I read music but don’t have a clue what chords are being used. How can I know what they are?”

What do you do if you want to play a song using chords instead of the written sheet music notes, but the song doesn’t have any chord symbols printed — symbols such as Cm7, G13, B+, D dim7, etc.?

There’s a logic behind every note written in music, & you can learn to understand that logic, and therefore understand music. If you can read music to some degree but don’t “see through” the written music — don’t understand what you are seeing — it is now very possible that you can put on your “chord glasses” that good “chord detectives” wear to see through all that mass of black printed notes on a white page of sheet music to quickly understand what chords are being used and the “family logic” behind it all.

The “family logic” is this: In every key there are certain chords which are organic to that key –”family members”, so to speak. For example, in the key of F the 3 most used chords are F, Bb and C. In the key of G the most used chords are G, C, and D. In the key of Eb the most used chords are Eb, Ab, and Bb. Do you see a pattern here?

Chords are based on scales, and the chords which are used the most in any key are built on the 1st degree of the scale, the 4th degree of the scale, and the 5th degree of the scale. They are identified by using the Roman numerals I, IV, and V.

So the most used chords in any key are the I chord, the IV chord, and the V chord. They are the primary chords, and they are all major. They occur way more than other chords. The next most used chords are the ii chord, the iv chord, and the iii chord — all minor chords.

Just knowing these simple facts gives a musician a giant advantage when learning or playing a song. If he or she knows the most likely chords that are going to occur in a song, based on the key of the song, then they can scrape together other evidence quickly to build an air-tight case that they know the chords of that song.

For example, let’s take two musicians about to play from a piece of sheet music. Both read music, but only one knows chords and music theory. The first musician looks at the notes and sees a Bb in the bass clef as the first note, a Eb in the bass clef in the second measure, a Bb in the 3rd measure, an F in the fourth measure, and so on. He can play what he sees, but nothing else, because he doesn’t grasp the fact that the first few measure have given away the fact that the primary chords have been outlined.

The second musician looks at the same music, but with “X-ray eyes”. He sees through the same notes into the chord structure behind the scenes.

The first musician is tied to the written music and limited to the notes printed on the sheet music, while the second musician has the best of both worlds: he can read the music and play it as it is written, but he can also add chords and fills and come out with a much bigger, more interesting arrangement than the first musician.

The benefits of becoming a chord detective are many:

It allows a musician to immediately identify what key a song is in… It allows a musician to know POSITIVELY which chords are most likely to occur in each song… It allows a musician to look at the first measure and the last measure and immediately know the harmonic form of any song…

Plus:

It works in any key — major or minor… It works with any kind of hymn or gospel song… It works by releasing a musician from being “tied to the written music”… It works by allowing a musician to add chords of his or her own…

The bottom line is this: knowing chords and music theory allows a “chord detective” to develop “see through eyes” that immediately perceive the structure of a song and then allow that musician to use both the written score and any fillers or improvisations he or she desires to add to a song.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Saxtuba_range.svg

The Staff

The staff is a very generic term, and would be used in a musical environment such as a music teacher and pupil. A more accurate term would be musical staff. Of course even this to a non-musical person could mean a companies workforce or staff that sing every day (get it, staff that are musical). Just to confuse things even more the staff is also known as a stave or a musical stave. Depending on where in the world you learn music will determine which word you use, but they are both correct. (All this for five horizontal lines.)

Make sense of the staff

The staff on it own is quite unremarkable as you can probably imagine, just five lines, but it can be like a canvas for great works of art or simple melodies. To start creating music on these lines we first need to add a clef, which for a single musical staff is normally a treble clef, a time signature so we know how many beats to the bar the music will have. Then we need to add bar lines, which in turn create bars, and within those bars we will add musical notes and suddenly our five horizontal lines have turned in to a music composition, albeit simple, but music never the less.

The Grand Staff

This is a bit more complex than the staff and includes two sets of five lines connected together with a symbol known as a brace and also includes a treble clef on the top set of lines and a bass cleff on the bottom set of lines. Both clefs are always written on the left hand side of the Grand Staff. Again, time signature and bar lines will be added to the Grand Staff and finally musical notes added to the top set of lines, now known as the treble clef and the bottom set now called the bass clef.

From this simple canvas or manuscript as it is called, music is written for electronic keyboard and piano. The electronic keyboard normally uses the staff (one set of five lines) using the treble clef and you will often see chord symbols above it to indicate which chord should be played with the left hand. The piano will normally use a Grand Staff. The treble clef is used for the right hand and the bass clef used for the left hand.

To get a better understanding of the staff and the Grand Staff look at a piece of sheet music and you can see what has been added to those simple five horizontal lines.