WO1991012607A1

WO1991012607A1 - A user friendly system for playing musical instruments

Info

Publication number: WO1991012607A1
Application number: PCT/AU1991/000055
Authority: WO
Inventors: Bronislaw Jerzy Minko
Original assignee: Bronislaw Jerzy Minko
Priority date: 1990-02-19
Filing date: 1991-02-19
Publication date: 1991-08-22

Abstract

A user friendly system (10, 80) for playing a musical composition (30) with a musical instrument (70). The system (10, 80) has an input device (12), a memory unit (14), a sound controller (16) and a sound generator (17). The input device (12) has operable elements (18, 20 and 22) designed to be actuated by a performer to accept one or more aspects of artistic expression of the musical composition (30), such as, attack, decay, duration and sound volume for notes of the musical composition (30). The memory unit (14) contains data corresponding to one or more technical aspects of the musical composition (30), such as, pitch and voice for notes of the musical composition (30). Two embodiments of the invention are disclosed; one in which a musical instrument incorporates the system (10) or in which the sound generator is a sound synthesiser, and the other in which the system (80) can be retrofitted to a conventional musical instrument.

Description

TITLE A USER FRIENDLY SYSTEM FOR PLAYING MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS

DESCRIPTION The present invention relates to a user friendly system for playing a musical instrument. More particularly, the present invention relates to a user friendly system for playing musical instruments, the system being capable of being programmed with the pitches and the voices and the like of the notes of a musical composition and capable of being played, by a performer, to provide artistic expression, including attack, decay, duration and sound volume, for combination with the pitches and the voices to produce the musical notes of the musical piece.

The present invention will hereinafter be described with particular reference to musical instruments having keyboards, although it is to be understood that it is of general applicability. For example, the invention is also applicable to multi-key wind instruments, stringed instruments or percussion instruments ©r the like.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The process of playing a musical instrument can be divided into two aspects, namely, technical and artistic. The most demanding part of the technical aspect is the process of reading the musical notes, interpreting them, deciding where the notes are located on the musical instrument, deciding which fingers/feet to use to effect playing of the notes, positioning the performers fingers/feet to effect playing of the notes and then proceeding to the next notes to be played. The decision process may also include selecting in which voice to play the note in i.e. piano, harpsichord, clarinet or the like. To master the technical aspect of musical performance one desirably must have an excellent musical memory, very good reflexes and manual coordination, a good musical ear and good music reading ability. To achieve this requires years of dedicated practice and training and only a small percentage of artistically gifted students master the technical aspects of musical performance and thus achieve good results. Mastering the technical aspects requires the performer to be able to effect playing of the correct notes on the instrument with the correct hand/foot and in the correct sequence.

The artistic aspect of the musical performance requires the performer to decide the way in which to play each note of the musical composition. For example, the performer must decide how loud or soft to play the note, how long to play the note, when to start and stop playing the note in relation to other notes to be played in the musical composition, the tempo of the musical composition and the attack and decay of the notes (for example staccato) . The artistic aspect represents the performer's own expression of the musical composition. Thus, for example, two performers may each play the same musical composition identically with respect to the technical aspects but provide a different expression of the musical composition by their choice of the timing of notes as they are played.

It is known to attempt to reduce the technical difficulties of playing a musical composition by, for example, prerecording information corresponding to the musical notes to be played an electronic organ, for example Yamaha's CLAVINOVA keyboard. The CLAVINOVA has a plurality of LEDs, one located proximate each key of the keyboard. During playing the LED's illuminate in sequence to indicate which keys to play next - once the keys corresponding to the presently lit LED's have been played. Thus, in the CLAVINOVA the process of reading the notes of the musical composition and the process of finding the respective keys for the notes has been reduced into a single process of locating the correct keys as indicated by the LED's. A disadvantage of this type of system is that the LED's indicate only one step ahead, thus it is difficult to follow the activation of the LED's as the instrument is played, especially in compositions having fast tempo. Or put another way, the technical aspect of reading the music and locating the correct keys has been replaced with the technical aspect of trying to rapidly follow the activation of the LED's. Another disadvantage is that the technical aspect of determining the correct fingering for playing the instrument remains, and is complicated since the performer is not readily forewarned as to the succeeding chords to be played unless he attempts to both read the musical composition and look for illumination of the LEDs. Further, the performer now finds it more difficult to include the artistic aspects of expression into the performance since he/she must watch where his/her hands are playing and where they should be playing next instead of concentrating on reading the musical composition.

It is therefore desirable to provide a system for playing a musical instrument, the system having a memory means for storing information corresponding to technical aspects of a musical composition so that the performer need only read and perform the artistic aspects of the musical composition in order to be able to play the" musical instrument.

It is also desirable to provide such a system for playing a musical instrument, the system having an input device for activation by a performer whereby the input device can be actuated by a performer for playing the next note in a sequence of notes of a musical composition without regard to the sequence in which the input device is actuated for playing of successive notes. For example, where the input device is a keyboard it can be actuated to play notes in a predetermined sequence and the order of effecting the playing of the notes is independent of the sequence of key closures on the keyboard. Hence, the technical aspect of the fingering used in playing the keyboard is removed.

It is also desirable that such a system be capable of being retrofitted to an existing musical instrument so that a performer may effect play of the existing musical instrument by actuating the input device of the system. Accordingly, the performer need not be concerned with the technical aspect of reading the pitches and the voices of the notes, determining the location of the keys,- or the like, of the musical instrument, nor the fingering required to play the keys.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide a user friendly system for playing musical instruments, the system being capable of use in performing a musical composition without regard to the technical aspect of which of the performers fingers and/or hands to use.

In accordance with one aspect of the present invention there is provided a user friendly system for playing a musical instrument for performing a musical composition, the system characterised in that it comprises: an input device having a plurality of operable elements for actuation by a performer for playing the musical composition, any one of the operable elements being capable of actuation by the performer for generating an expression signal, wherein the expression signal represents an artistic aspect of performing the musical composition, and wherein actuation of said any one of the operable elements also generates a control signal,* a memory means controllable by said control signal from the input device, the memory means being capable of storing data representing a technical aspect of performing the musical composition, wherein the control signal controls retrieval of said data from the memory means; and, a sound controlling means for controlling production of sound in accordance with the data retrieved from the memory means and an expression signal generated in response to said any one of the operable elements when actuated, whereby, in use, technical aspects and artistic aspects of the musical composition can be combined.

In accordance with another aspect of the present invention there is provided a method of operating a user friendly system for playing a musical instrument for performing a musical composition, the system having an input device having a plurality of operable elements, a memory means and a sound controlling means, the method characterised in that it comprises the steps of: maintaining data in the memory means, the data corresponding to a technical aspect of performing the musical composition with the musical instrument; generating control signals upon actuation of the operable elements of the input device for controlling retrieval of the data from the memory means; generating expression signals upon actuation of the operable elements for use by the sound controlling means, the expression signals corresponding to an artistic aspect of the musical composition, wherein the control signals and the expression signals are substantially simultaneously generated by actuation of the same operable element of the input device; retrieving the data f om the memory means persuant to the control signals; controlling production of audible sounds with the sound controlling means in accordance with the data in the memory means and responsive to the control signals and the expression signals from the input device, whereby, in use, technical aspects and artistic aspects of the musical composition can be combined for playing the musical instrument.

In the system for playing a musical instrument, of the present invention, a musical composition is encoded and stored into a memory means. The encoding involves individually encoding a part, such as, for example, the right hand part (treble) , and where appropriate the left hand part (bass) and foot part (bass) for the musical composition. Each part is encoded into separate groups of data cells. Each data cell contains information corresponding to the technical aspects of each note or groups of notes (each hereinafter referred to collectively as chords) to be played simultaneously in that part of the musical composition. Typically, the information includes the pitch of the note or notes, the voices in which the note or notes are to be played and the like. The data cells do not include information on the duration of the note or notes, however, the data cells are accessible sequentially so as to allow for replay of the data cells from the group of data cells.

The system for playing a musical instrument has an input device typically comprising a plurality of keyboards. Preferably, the keyboards each have a number of keys corresponding to the number of limbs or appendages of the performer to be used in playing the keyboard. For example, it is preferred that there be a left hand keyboard having five keys, each key disposed for operation by one of each of the five fingers of the performer. A right hand keyboard is similarly preferred. Where a foot keyboard is used it is preferred that it have two keys, one for operation by each of the performer's feet. Accordingly, once the performer has stationed his or her fingers and feet above the relevant keys of the keyboards the performer no longer has to be concerned about the technical aspect of locating the correct keys among a large number of keys distributed across a keyboard or the like, such as, for example, as in performing a musical composition on a piano. Also, the performer need no longer be concerned with which fingers or feet to use to actuate the keys since there is a one to one correspondence of keys to fingers and feet. Each key is capable of retrieving information from the memory means corresponding to the next data cell in the sequence of data cells in the group of data cells corresponding to the keyboard containing the said key. Hence, the performer need not look at the location of his/her fingers or hands in relation to the keys.

To retrieve information from the next data cell in the sequence of data cells in the group the performer may actuate any one of the keys of the keyboard corresponding to the said group of data cells, provided the key is not already in an actuated state. For example, the actuation of any one of the keys of the left hand keyboard will retrieve the information from the next data cell in the sequence for the left hand part. Accordingly, the performer is not required to make any decisions concerning the technical aspect of which key of the keyboards to press in order to play the next note or - 7 -

chord in the musical composition. Also, the performer may use any finger to actuate the keys of the keyboard to retrieve the required information, provided the finger is not already actuating a key of the keyboard. Thus, the performer need only make decisions concerning when and how to press the keys, for retrieval of the data cells, and for how long to maintain pressing of said keys to maintain performance of the note or chord corresponding to the data cells. In making these decisions the performer can be guided either by reading the musical composition in conventional manner, or by recalling the musical composition from his or her memory. Accordingly, the performer is not required to locate and play the keys represented in the musical composition, but need merely play any one of the keys of the relevant keyboard for the desired time and with the desired expression. Since expression of the technical aspects retrieved by a given key is controlled by the said key the performer may vary the expression of the musical composition by varying the tempo of the actuation of the keys for example between larghissimo and prestissimo, and the speed and force at which his or her fingers or feet actuate the keys and the like. The performer may provide further artistic aspects for the expression of the musical composition by the way that he or she depresses the keys and for the duration of said actuation. For example, the artistic aspect may include attack, decay, sound intensity, sound duration and the like.

It is envisaged that the keyboards could have more than five keys but are still operable without looking at the location of the operator's fingers upon the keyboards since any key can retrieve the next data cell from the required group of data cells.

The system typically has a sound generating means which is embodied either in an electronically controllable sound producing apparatus (such as a sound synthesiser) for directly generating sound according to the data cells, or a plurality of actuators capable of controlling play of a conventional musical instrument, for indirectly generating sound according to the data cells. The sound producing apparatus could be of conventional form and the actuators could typically be electrically operated solenoids arranged to actuate pitch and/or voice determining elements of the musical instrument. In summary, the system provides control of the sound generating means for the performance of a musical composition by a performer. The combined effect of the actuation of the input device and the retrieval of the data cells is the provision of the artistic aspects and the technical aspects, respectively, for the performance of the musical composition in its entire form. Hence, the performer can perform the entire musical composition by provision of the artistic aspects of the musical composition only, and substantially without regard to the technical aspects and especially without regard to which keys cause playing of particular notes and which of the keys of the respective keyboards are actuated with which fingers/feet and without regard to the order in which the keys are actuated.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Two embodiments, being examples only, of the present invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

Figure 1 is a block diagram of a system for playing a musical instrument; Figures 2a and 2b are schematic plan views of an input device of the system of Figure 1, showing a left and a right keyboard and a foot keyboard in relation to a performer's hands and feet;

Figures 3a to 3d are flow diagrams of operation of the system particularly in respect of musical instruments having keyboards, the Figures 3a to 3d respectively corresponding to a key of the left hand keyboard, the right hand keyboard and two keys of the foot keyboard;

Figure 4 is a musical composition for performance by the system of Figure 1;

Figures 5a, 5b and 5c represent data broken down into groups of data cells, respectively for right hand (treble) , left hand (bass) and foot (bass) parts of the musical composition of Figure 4; and,

Figure 6 is a schematic side view of a system for playing a musical instrument according to another embodiment, shown coupled to a musical recorder.

DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

In Figure 1 there is shown a user friendly system 10 for playing a musical instrument, the system 10 comprising an input device 12, a memory unit 14, a sound controller 16 and a sound generator 17.

The input device 12 comprises a left hand keyboard 18 a right hand keyboard 20 and a foot keyboard 22. The left hand keyboard 18 has five keys 18a to 18e each actuatable by a finger of the left hand of a performer as shown in Figure 2a. The right hand keyboard 20 similarly has five keys 20a to 20e (see also Figure 2a) . The foot keyboard 22 has a left foot key 22a and a right foot key 22b each actuatable by a left foot and a right foot respectively of the performer as shown in Figure 2b.

The input device 12 is operatively coupled to the memory unit 14. The memory unit 14 has a plurality of data cells formed into groups being a left hand group 24 and right hand group 26 and a foot group 28 of the data cells. The left hand group 24 corresponds to data cells for the left hand part of a musical composition, the right hand group 26 for the right hand part and the foot group 28 for the foot part. Typically, the memory unit 14 includes a reader 29a capable of reading a storage media unit 29b, such as, for example, a floppy disc reader, and three detectors 29c, 29d and 29e for detecting actuation of the keys of the respective keyboards 18, 20 and 22. The reader 29a loads data into the data cells of the respective groups of data cells 24, 26 and 28 for use in performing a chosen musical composition. In Figure 4 there is shown a musical composition 30 having a right hand part 32, a left hand part 34 and a foot part 36. Each part 32, 34 and 36 is formed of a plurality of notes arranged in chords and designated with differing durations and voices. The right hand part 32 has three chords. The first chord is a single note to be played in a voice known as organ. The second chord has two notes, one to be played in brass, organ and choir voices and the other note to be played in piano and harpsichord voices. The third chord has seven notes, the lower four notes to be played in organ voice and the upper three notes to be in choir voice. The duration for each of the chords is also shown. The left hand part 34 and the foot part 36 provide similar information.

In the context of the present invention the parts 32, 34 and 36 correspond to the groups 26, 24 and 28 of data cells. As shown in Figures 5a to 5c the parts 32, 34 and 36 are broken down into respective data cells 32a to 32g, 34a to 34d and 36a and 36b. The breakdown of the parts into the data cells is effected on a chord by chord basis so that the performer can control the duration and timing of each chord independently. The breakdown may be extended to within a chord so as to allow artistic aspects for expression of different notes of the chord to be performed differently by different fingers or feet of the performer. For example, the right hand part 32 of the musical composition of Figure 4 may be broken down into the data cells 32a and 32b for the first two chords and 32c to 32g for the remaining chord. It is envisaged that suitable markers be provided in relation to the notes of the third chord to indicate which data cell 32c to 32g the notes belong to and thus which key 20a to 20e controls playing of the respective data cells 32c to 32g. For example, vertical brackets could be used to indicate to the player which notes belong to which data cell. Typically, where a chord has a plurality of data cells the keys control the data cells according to a rising sequence of the notes. Thus, for the third chord of the right hand part 32 the performer's thumb would control playing of the lowest note, (data cell 32c) , the index finger to the next higher note (middle "C" data cell 32d) , the middle finger to the next higher note (data cell 32e) , the ring finger to the next higher note (data cell 32f) and the little finger to the remaining three notes (data cell 32g) .

Each data cell has with it a designation of the pitch of the note or notes to be played, the v ce or voices in which the note or notes are to^'be βlayed and the like. For example, data cell 32a contains the musical pitch G and the voice organ, and the data cell 32b contains the musical pitch G with the voices brass, organ and choir and the musical pitch C with the voices piano and harpsichord. The input device 12 and the memory unit 14 are operatively connected to the sound" controller 16. The sound controller 16 is capable of receiving the information from the data cells from the memory^' unit 14 to control production of audible frequency sound according to the musical composition 30 by the sound generator 17. In the, present embodiment, the sound generator 17 has an electronically controllable sound producing apparatus, such as, for example, a music synthesiser for producing the audible frequency sound. The sound controller 16 is capable of detecting actuation of the keys of the input device 12 for controlling the expression of the audible sounds produced according to the data cells. The sound controller 16 is responsive to the duration of actuation of the keys so as to directly control the duration of the playing of the pitches and voices and the like according to the data cells. Typically, the sound controller 16 is controllable by the duration of actuation of the keys. The sound controller 16 is also responsive to the rate at which the keys are actuated and deactuated and the force with which the keys are actuated so as to express the attack, decay and sound intensity for the notes according to the musical composition 30. For the purpose of creating electrical signals to control the sound controller 16 it is envisaged that the keys each include an accelerometer for measuring the rate of actuation and deactuation of the key and a strain gauge for measurement of the force of actuation, forγexample, as is known in electronic pianos. The accelerometers and the strain gauges produce electrical signals indicative of the attack, decay and sound intensity to be expressed by the sound generator when playing the notes according to the data cells.

The system 10 of the present embodiment can conveniently be embodied in a computer having an audio synthesiser. A keyboard of the computer may be used to provide the left hand keyboard 18 and the right hand keyboard 20 of the input device 12.

In Table 1 there is shown a computer program written in Basic computer programming language to demonstrate the effectiveness of the user friendly system 10 applied to the musical instrument in the present embodiment.

TABLE 1

90'DETECT OPERATION OF THE KEYBOARD

100 X$=INPUT$(1) 150'DEFINE 5 KEYS OF QWERTY KEYBOARD FOR PERFORMANCE OF MUSICAL

COMPOSITION

200 IF X$="Z" GOTO 1000 ELSE 300

300 IF X$="X" GOTO 1000 ELSE 400

400 IF X$="C" GOTO 1000 ELSE 500 500 IF X$="V" GOTO 1000 ELSE 600

600 IF X$="B" GOTO 1000 ELSE 100

990'READ IN DATA CELLS SEQUENTIALLY

1000 READ N$

1001'DETECT FINISH 1002 IF N$="R" THEN 2000

1010 IF N$="A" THEN 1015 ELSE 1020

1014'CONCERT A PITCH

1015 LET P=440

1017 GOTO 1800 1020 IF N$="B" THEN 1025 ELSE 1030

1025 LET P=493.88

1027 GOTO 1800

1030 IF N$="C" THEN 1035 ELSE 1040

1035 LET P=523.25 1037 GOTO 1800

1040 IF N$="D" THEN 1045 ELSE 1050

1045 LET P=587.33

1047 GOTO 1800

1050 ID N$="E" THEN 1055 ELSE 1060 1055 LET P=659.26

1057 GOTO 1800

1060 IF N$="F" THEN 1065 ELSE 1070

1065 LET P=698.46

1067 GOTO 1800 1070 IF N$="G" THEN 1075 ELSE 1080

1075 LET P=783.99

1077 GOTO 1800 1080 IF N$="I" THEN 1085 1085 LET P=880

1798'PLAY EACH NOTE FOR 5 TIME UNITS 1800 SOUND P,5 1900 GOTO 100

1997'GOD SAVE THE QUEEN - MUSICAL COMPOSITION

1999 DATA C,C,D,B,C,D,E,E,F,E,D,C,D,C,B,C,D,E,F,G,G,G,G,F,E,

F,F,F,F,E,D,E,F,E,D,C,E,F,G,I,F,E,D,C,R

2000 END The program of Table 1 is a simplified form of the system 10 in which line 100 detects operation of the keyboard of the computer and lines 200 to 600 detect five adjacent keys of a QWERTY keyboard for performance of a musical composition defined by data in line 1999. At line 1000 the data is read sequentially. The data is in the form of nine letters, being, R, A, B, C, D, E, F, G and I. The letter R denotes the end of the data and results in termination of playing of the musical composition. The remaining letters correspond to musical pitches. For example, letter A corresponds to concert A having a pitch of 440 hertz. In line 1800 the computer is controlled to sound a note, the pitch of the note being set by the relevant letter from the data in line 1999. The note is played for a duration of five time units acάόrding to the instruction of line 1800. It is to be noted that the performance of the musical composition encoded in data line 1999 is independent of which of the keys Z, X, C, V or B that is used and independent of the sequence of activation of the keys and is independent of which finger is used, so as to simplify the fingering technique and the performer need not be concerned with which note to play. The above proves that the user friendly system 10 works effectively by eliminating the technical aspects of performing the musical composition.

A more complicated version of the program of Table 1 can be written to utilise the left hand and right hand keyboards 18 and 20 of the musical instrument 10. Also, the sound instruction of line 1800 can be modified so as to allow for control over the duration of the notes.

In use, the system 10 operates in accordance with the flow diagrams of Figures 3a to 3d. Each of the flow diagrams is identical except that they relate to different ones of the keyboards 18, 20 and 22 and refer to different groups of data cells 24, 26 and 28 respectively. Thus, the operation of the musical instrument 10 shall be discussed with particular reference to the flow diagram of Figure 3b and actuation of key 20a of the right hand keyboard 20 for the musical composition of Figure 4.

The flow diagram consists of operational step blocks 40 to 50. At block 40 activation of the key 20a may take place on the keyboard 20. At block 42 the memory unit 14 checks to detect whether the key 20a has been actuated. In the event of no actuation the block 40 loops back and checks the key 20a again. In the event of actuation operation progresses to block 44 at which the next available data cell for the right hand group 26 of data cells is retrieved from the right hand group 26 of data cells. The data cell so retrieved is made available to the block 46 whereat the sound controller 16 determines the pitch and voice and the like for the note or notes to be played. Simultaneously, under control of the block 46 the sound controller 16 receives artistic expression information from the key 20a. The artistic expression information includes duration, attack, decay and sound volume for the notes. Under control of block 46 then the signal progresses to the sound generator 17 to produce audible sound. At block 48 the sound controller 16 continues to monitor actuation of the key 20a and continues to block 50 in the event that actuation of the key 20a ceases. Control then passes back to the block 40.

It is to be noted that each flow diagram for each key of one of the keyboards 18, 20 or 22 controls retrieval of and operates in relation to the same data cells of the respective groups 24, 26, 28 of data cells in the memory unit 14, particularly as shown by the direction arrows in Figure 1. For example, the flow diagrams for the keys 18a to 18e of the left hand keyboard 18 represent the logic of the procedure of retrieval of and operate in relation to the same data cell of the left hand group 24 of data cells. - 15 -

Referring to Figures 4 and 5a. to 5c operation of the system 10 in the performance^ of a musical composition may be considered as follows. Firstly, the performer selects the musical composition to be recalled from the memory unit 14. The reader 29a reads the musical composition from the storage media unit 29b and loads the data into the respective groups 26, 24 and 28 of data cells of the memory unit 14. The data cells are thus made available for playing by the sound generator 17 upon actuation of the keys of the input device 12. The first notes of the musical composition 30 require the simultaneous playing of the right hand part 32, the left hand part 34 and the foot part 36 by the retrieval of data cells 32a, 34a and 36a from the memory unit 14. One of the keys 20a to 20e of the right hand keyboard 20 may be actuated in order to retrieve the data cell 32a from the right hand group 26. Similarly, any one of the keys 18a to 18e of the left hand keyboard 18 may be actuated in order to retrieve the data cell 34a of the left hand group 24. Similarly, one of the foot keys 22a or 22b may be actuated to retrieve the data cell 36a from the group 28. Actuation of the keys produces control signals which are sent to the detectors 29c, 29d and 29e and cause retrieval of data from the respective data cells 32a, 34a and 36a and cause the sound generator¹17 to produce audible sound in accordance with the pitch and voice defined in the data cells. Simultaneously, expression signals from the keys are sent to the sound controller 16 for control of artistic aspects of the performance of the musical composition. According to the flow diagrams of Figures 3a to 3d the sound generator 17 will continue to play the pitch and voice and the like defined in the data cells whilst the performer continues to actuate the relevant keys, for example keys 20a, 18a and 22a.

In reading the musical composition 30 the performer determines, in conventional manner, that the first chord of the right hand part 32 must be released and the second chord of the right hand part 32 played before the first chords of the left hand part 34 and the foot part 36 are completed. Accordingly, whilst maintaining actuation of the keys 18a and 22a, the performer deactuates the key 20a to cease playing the first chord of the right hand part 32 and actuates any one of the keys 20a to 20e of the right hand keyboard 20 in order to retrieve the data cell for the second chord of the right hand part 32. As described hereinabove the artistic expression of the chords is accepted by use of the accelerometers and the strain gauges in order to convert such expression into electrical signals (the expression signals) for control of the audible sounds generated by the sound generator 17.

According to the musical composition 30 the performer must next play the third chord of the right hand part 32 simultaneously with the second chord of the foot part 36, whilst the second chord of the left hand part is a continuation of the first chord of the left hand part and both correspond to the data cell 34a. To effect this the performer first deactivates the key 20a to cease playing the second chord of the right hand part 32. In the present example the third chord of the right hand part 32 is split up into data cells 32c to 32g, all of which are intended to be retrieved simultaneously. The data cells 32c to 32f are intended to be played by fingers one to four of the right hand of the performer (see Figure 2a) and the fifth finger is intended to be used to retrieve the data cell 32g (referred to in the specification as "rising assignment" for fingering in multi cell chords only) . The performer is thus able to effect different artistic expression into each of the five data cells constituting the third chord of the right hand part 32. Simultaneously, the performer actuates the key 22b of the keyboard 22 in order to retrieve the data cell 36b corresponding to the second chord of the foot part 36. It is to be noted that the first chord of the foot part 36 is to continue to be played whilst the second chord is played.

The next chord to be played is the third chord in the left hand part 34 once the performer has completed playing the second chord of that part. This third chord is continued to be played until the completion of playing of the lower four notes of the third chord of the right hand part 32 and the second chord of the foot part 36.

Once the performer has determined that the lower four notes of the third chord of the right hand part 32 have been played for their allotted time, according to the musical composition 30, the performer deactuates the keys 20a to 20d of the right hand keyboard 20. The performer also ceases actuation of the previously actuated key 22b of the foot keyboard 22 once he determines that the second chord of the foot part 36 has played for^* its allotted time. The performer continues to press the key 20e to play the top three notes of the third chord of the right hand part 32. Simultaneously, with said deactivation the performer actuates one of the keys 18a to 18e to play the fourth chord of the left hand part. Also, the top three notes of the third chord of the right hand part 32 and the first chord of the foot part 36 continue to be played. The performer then ceases playing the fourth chord of the left hand part and then plays the fifth chord of the left hand part 34 according to the times allotted in the musical composition 30. At the end of the bar the remaining notes of the third chord of the right hand part 32, the fifth chord of the left hand part 34 and the first chord of the foot part are deactivated by releasing the respective keys.

In Figure 6 there is shown a musical instrument being a musical recorder 70 having a mouthpiece 72 and a finger board 74 with eight playing holes 76. There is also shown a user friendly system 80 for playing a musical instrument, according to a second embodiment of the present invention. The system 80 in the embodiment is designed fox playing the recorder 70, although it is to be understood that it could be designed for playing other musical instruments, such as, for example, a clarinet.

The system 80 is similar to the system 10 and like numerals denote like parts. The system 80 does not include a sound generator, however, the musical instrument to which the system 80 is attached is equivalent to the sound generator. The system 80 has a sound controller 82 having a plurality of actuators 84. Each actuator 84 is arrangeable for closing off one of the playing holes 76 of the recorder 70. Typically, the actuators 84 are electrically operated solenoids with felt covered heads 86 on the end of a plunger 88. In use, the system 80 operates in the same way as the system 10 except that the sound controller 82 produces sequences of operation of the actuators 84. For example, to play lower "C" on the recorder 70 the sound controller 82 operates to close off all the holes 76. Such control is effected by a single key of the input device 12.

The sound controller 82 can also be designed to operate a finger board of a guitar. In such a case one actuator 84 would be located over each string at each frett of the finger board. Similarly, each actuator 84 could be arranged to play a respective key of an acoustic piano keyboard.

The sound controller 82 is capable of varying the manner in which the actuators 84 are actuated so as to effect artistic expression of the musical composition by the musical instrument. The manner in which the actuators 82 are actuated depends upon the type of musical instrument being played.

It can be seen from the above that by the use of the user friendly system 10, 80 for playing a musical instrument, of the present invention, the performer is able to play the musical composition 30 without regard to the technical aspects of determining the exact notes required, the keyboard location of the notes of the chords to be played and of the voices in which each of the notes are to be played. It can also be seen that since there is no restriction in the actuating sequence of the keyboard keys to be actuated, no particular sequence for the fingers action is required and as a result the required fingering technique is dramatically simplified. The performer is free to apply his artistic expression of the timing, duration, speed and force and the like with which the notes are to be played by the sound generator 17. Accordingly, the system 10, 80 of the present invention allows the performer to more quickly master the playing of a musical composition than would be the case if he had to first learn the technical aspects of playing the musical composition. This has the advantage of reducing the time required for a performer to gain satisfaction from the playing of a musical composition since the performer is able to ex ress the artistic aspects of the musical composition in the way that he wishes whilst being unconcerned as to the difficulties that would otherwise be encountered in determining, locating and playing the relevant keys. Modifications and variations such as would be apparent to a skilled addressee are deemed within the scope of the present invention. For example, the system 10, 80 could have a plurality of input devices 12, each for play by different performers for playing the same musical instrument.

Claims

1. A user friendly system for playing a musical instrument for performing a musical composition, the system characterised in that it comprises: an input device having a plurality of operable elements for actuation by a performer for playing the musical composition, any one of the operable elements being capable of actuation by the performer for generating an expression signal, wherein the expression signal represents an artistic aspect of performing the musical composition, and wherein actuation of said any one of the operable elements also generates a control signal; a memory means controllable by said control signal from the input device, the memory means being capable of storing data representing a technical aspect of performing the musical composition, wherein the control signal controls retrieval of said data from the memory means; and, a sound controlling means for controlling production of sound in accordance with the data retrieved from the memory means and an expression signal generated in response to said any one of the operable elements when actuated, whereby, in use, technical aspects and artistic aspects of the musical composition can be combined.

2. A system according to claim 1, characterised in that the data stored in the memory means is retrievable in a predetermined sequence irrespective of the sequence of actuation of the operable elements.

3. A system according to claim 1, characterised in that a plurality of the operable elements of the input device can be actuated substantially simultaneously for retrieving a corresponding plurality of the data from the memory means, whereby, in use, each of said plurality of the operable elements effects provision of the technical aspect and the artistic aspect of the musical composition for the data in the memory means which correspond to each of said operable elements.

4. A system according to claim 1, characterised in that the technical aspect is the pitch for notes of the musical composition.

5. A system according to claim 4, characterised in that the data also corresponds to a further technical aspect of performing the musical composition, the further technical aspect being voices for the notes, wherein, a plurality of voices may be assigned to the notes.

6. A system according to claim 1, characterised in that the artistic aspect is chdsen from a set including attack, decay, sound volume, timing and duration for notes of the musical composition, wherein, a plurality of artistic aspects may be assigned to the notes.

7. A system according to claim 1, characterised in that it further comprises a sound generating means operatively connected to the sound controlling means, whereby, in use, the sound generating means generates sounds subject to the control of the sound controlling means.

8. A system according to claim 7, characterised in that the sound generating means has an electronically controllable sound producing apparatus.

9. A system according to claim 7, characterised in that the sound generating means is a conventional musical instrument.

10. A system according to claim 7, in which the sound controlling means is characterised in that it is capable of responding to an expression signal representative of the rate of actuation of the operable elements of the input device for controlling attack and decay aspects of sounds generated by the sound generating means.

11. A system according to claim 7, characterised in that the sound controlling means is capable of responding to an expression signal representative of the force with which the operable elements of the input device are actuated for controlling the sound volume of the sounds generated by the sound generating means.

12. A system according to claim 9, characterised in that the sound generating means has a plurality of actuators controllable for operating sound controlling elements of the musical instrument.

13. A system according to claim 1, characterised in that it includes a plurality of input devices each operable by a different performer whereby, in use, all of the performers can play the musical instrument at the same time.

14. A system according to any one of the preceding claims, in which the input device is characterised in that the number of operable elements corresponds to the number of the performer's members to be used in playing the musical instrument, whereby, in use, the performer's members can be located proximate each operable element for actuation of all of the operable elements without movement of the performer's members laterally over the operable elements.

15. A system according to any one of claims 1 to 13, characterised in that the input device has a plurality of keyboards, each keyboard being associated with a group of data cells of the memory means, whereby, in use, actuation of any of the operable elements of one of the keyboards controls retrieval of data from the associated group of data cells for allowing separate performance of parts of the musical composition by each keyboard.

16. A system according to claim 15, characterised in that the input device has two keyboards, each keyboard for operation by respective hands of the performer and each keyboard having a plurality of keys, whereby, in use, the performer's fingers may be located proximate the keys for playing thereof.

17. A system according to claim 16, characterised in that the keyboards each have five keys, whereby, in use, the performer's finger may be located proximate the keys for playing thereof without lateral movement to another key.

18. A system according to claim 16, characterised in that the input device also has a foot keyboard having two keys disposed for actuation by the performer's feet.

19. A system according to any one of claims 1 to 13, characterised in that it further comprises: means for distinguishing between data for identifying data to be performed simultaneously, whereby, in use, retrieval of the data is pursuant to a rising assignment of the performer's fingers to the operable elements of the input device.

20. A method of operating a user friendly system for playing a musical instrument for performing a musical composition, the system having an input device having a plurality of operable elements, a memory means and a sound controlling means, the method characterised in that it comprises the steps of: maintaining data in the memory means, the data corresponding to a technical aspect of performing the musical composition with the musical instrument; generating control signals upon actuation of the operable elements of the input device for controlling retrieval of the data from the memory means; generating expression signals upon actuation of the operable elements for use by the sound controlling means, the expression signals corresponding to an artistic aspect of the musical composition, wherein the control signals and the expression signals are substantially simultaneously generated by actuation of the same operable element of the input device; retrieving the data from the memory means persuant to the control signals; controlling production of audible sounds with the sound controlling means in accordance with the data in 'the memory means and responsive to the control signals and the expression signals from the input device, whereby, in use, technical aspects and artistic aspects of the musical composition can be combined for playing the musical instrument.

21. A method according to claim 20, in which the step of retrieving the data from the data means is characterised in that the data is retrieved in a predetermined sequence irrespective of the sequence of actuation of the operable elements.

22. A method according to claim 20, characterised in that it also includes the step of: maintaining the data in groups of data cells, each group corresponding to respective parts of the musical composition, whereby, in use, independent performance of the respective parts can be achieved by operating different parts of the input device and whereby each different part of the input device independently controls retrieval of respective groups of data cells from the memory means.

23. A method according to claim 22, characterised in that it also includes the step of: maintaining in the data cells, in the memory means, information pertaining to a pitch for each note of the musical composition.

24. Amethod according to claim 23, characterised in that it also includes the step of: also maintaining in the data cells information pertaining to a voice for each note of the musical instrument, whereby, in use, a plurality of voices may be assigned to each note.

25. A method according to claim 22, characterised in that it also includes the steps of: sensing the duration of actuation of the operable elements; and, adjusting periods of production of the audible sounds for periods corresponding to the said duration of actuation of the operable elements.

26. A method according to claim 22, characterised in that it also includes the steps of: sensing the rate of actuation of the operable elements for determining the note of attack and decay with which notes of the musical composition are to be played; and, adjusting the rate of attack and decay for production of audible sounds for rates corresponding to the said rate of actuation of the operable elements.

27. A method according to claim 22, characterised in that it also includes the steps of: sensing the force with which the operable elements are actuated for determining the sound volume at which notes of the musical composition are to be played; and, adjusting the sound volume for production of the audible sounds to volumes corresponding to the said force of actuation of the operable elements.

28. Amethod according to claim 20, characterised in that it also comprises the steps of: coupling actuators of a sound generating means connected to the sound controlling means to sound controlling elements of a conventional musical instrument, whereby, the system can be operated to play the conventional musical instrument.

29. Amethod according to claim 20, characterised in that it also comprises the step of: controlling retrieval of the data cells with the input device wherein a plurality of the operable elements of the input device are substantially simultaneously actuated, whereby the control of retrieval of the data cells is pursuant to a rising assignment of the performer's fingers and alternatively the performer's fingers and the feet with respect to the operable elements of the input device.

30. A data storage media for use in the user friendly system of claim 1, the data storage media characterised in that it includes data corresponding to the technical aspect of performing the musical composition.

31. A data storage media according to claim 30, characterised in that the data is arranged into independent groups, each group being independently retrievable under control of respective groups of the operable elements of the input device, wherein, the groups correspond to respective parts of the musical composition.

32. A data storage media according to claim 30 or 31, characterised in that the data corresponds to pitches of notes of the musical composition.

33. A data storage media according to claim 32, characterised in that the data also corresponds to voices for the notes of the musical composition, wherein a plurality of voices may be assigned to each note.