Keyboard musical instrument displaying depression values of
Contents
1. basis of pedal depression data belonging to the prescribed time length ranging from the present timing to the display timing After completion of step S33 the flow proceeds to step S35 In the action display mode the flow proceeds to step S34 in which the damper position graphs dg are displayed in the area G5 on the basis of damper position data corresponding to the time length between the present timing and the display timing After completion of step S34 the flow proceeds to step S35 In step S35 the line L having a unit length is copied so that all images thereunder are scrolled downwards in the area G4 In step 36 a decision is made as to whether or not event data exist at the display timing that is a prescribed time after the present timing If no event data exists at the display timing the flow directly proceeds to step S45 When event data exist at the display timing the flow proceeds to step 537 in which all event data at the display timing are stored in a display buffer not shown then the flow proceeds to step 538 Steps S38 to 544 are directed to updating one line display operation regarding all event data of the display buffer at the display timing Specifically in step S38 single event data is read out then in steps 539 and 540 a decision is made as to whether or not the read event data is related to a note on event or a note off event In the case of a note on event the flow proceeds to step S41 in which a segment o2. 361 829 B2 FIG pono nc ni U S Patent Apr 22 2008 Sheet 4 of 6 US 7 361 829 B2 FIG 4 MAIN ROUTINE S1 SETUP OPERATION SETUP PROCESS 3 START RECORDING 7 NO START RECORDING INTERRUPT PROCESS 55 STOP RECORDING vo STOP RECORDING INTERRUPT PROGESS GREATE PERFORMANGE DATA OF PRESCRIBED FORMAT BASED ON DATA OF PERFORMANCE RECORDING BUFFER AND STORE THEM IN MEMORY 58 510 STOP AUTOMATIC PERFORMANCE ie STOP AUTOMATIC PERFORMANCE INTERRUPT PROCES U S Patent Apr 22 2008 Sheet 5 of 6 US 7 361 829 B2 FIG 5 RECORDING INTERRUPT PROCESS START S21 lt tr gt YES S22 STORE KEY EVENT DATA AND TIMING DATA IN PERFORMANCE RECORDING BUFFER 23 NO YES STORE PEDAL EVENT DATA AND TIMING DATA IN PERFORMANCE RECORDING BUFFER STORE DAMPER POSITION DATA AND TIMING 25 DATA IN DISPLAY RECORDING BUFFER STORE PEDAL DEPRESSION DATA AND 526 TIMING DATA IN DISPLAY REGORDING BUFFER RETURN U S Patent Apr 22 2008 Sheet 6 of 6 US 7 361 829 B2 AUTOMAT IG PERFORMANCE INTERRUPT PROCESS FIG 6 START r 31 PEDAL DISPLAY MODE OR ACTION DISPLAY ACTION DISPLAY MODE PEDAL DISPLAY DISPLAY ANIMATIONS IN AREA 61 BASED ON PEDAL DEPRESSION DATA AT PRESENT TIMING S34 DISPLAY GRAPHS IN AREA 65 BASED ON DAMPER POSITION DATA BELONGING TO TIME LENGTH BETWEEN PRESENT TIMING AND DISPLAY TIMING DISPLAY
3. cal performance on a piano Specifically an automatic performance piano e g a player piano is equipped with a computer screen on which periods and timings for operating pedals are displayed based on performance data In keyboard musical instruments such as pianos musical performance and musical expressions are greatly influenced by pedal operations and key depression intensities or key touch intensities on keys of keyboards Therefore it is very difficult for users to learn sophisticated musical performance and musical expressions closely related to key depression intensities by merely playing keyboard musical instruments while watching fingering guidance displays for designating keys to be depressed In addition musical scores merely show ON OFF symbols regarding pedals which make it very difficult for users to learn musical performance and musical expressions using pedal operations This problem occurs in the conventional technology disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Publication No H06 27938 which is designed to merely indicate the timings for pedal operations SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Tt is an object of the invention to provide a keyboard musical instrument that displays various pieces of informa 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 2 tion regarding fingering guidance pedal operations and damper positions all of which realize improvements for musical techniques and musical expressions so a
4. displays which guide users to depress keys in musical performance in progress when practicing keyboard musical instruments For example Japanese Patent Application Publication No 05 173546 discloses performance guidance device for keyboard musical instrument in which two colored LEDs e g red and green LEDs arranged on the upper portion of a keyboard and are turned on to designate keys to be depressed based on musical tune data Specifically each key is designated by a green light just before it should be depressed and each key is designated by a red light just at the timing at which it should be depressed whereby it is possible to reduce delays regarding a user s manual opera tions with regard to the precise key depression timing Generally such fingering guidance is realized by turning on LEDs which are arranged in proximity to keys of the keyboard thus designating keys to be depressed Specifi cally five LEDs are installed in a keyboard musical instru ment so as to show the positioning of the user s five fingers on a keyboard Alternatively OPEN CLOSE indicators are installed in a keyboard musical instrument so as to show the positioning of user s five fingers on a keyboard Japanese Patent Application Publication No H06 27938 discloses a pedal operation display device for a piano which is designed to cope with difficulties that players experience when directly watching pedals being operated during musi
5. not shown which is made on a fall board of a piano and the center line of the screen 14a is roughly aligned to match the center line of the music stand In this regard the screen 14a of the display 14 may be placed on a top board of the piano For the display 14 it is possible to use various types of displays such as CRT displays liquid crystal displays and plasma displays The position of the screen 14a of the display 14 is not necessarily limited to the aforementioned position aligned to match the center line of the music stand wherein the display 14 can be placed on either side of the music stand The display 14 is not limited to a build in type display hence the display 14 can be realized by a portable display or a personal digital assistant PDA A control unit 100 including a microcomputer and its peripheral circuits is arranged in the lower right side under a keybed 115 of the keyboard 12 The control unit 100 has a flexible disk drive FDD 10 which enables recording and playback or reproduction of musical data by use of flexible disks e g floppy disks For example the control unit 100 is capable of recording performance data that are created by playing the player piano and is also capable of reproducing performance data that are already recorded on flexible disks so as to realize automatic performance on the player piano That is the player piano of the present embodiment can serve various purposes wherein students pr
6. piano which has a keyboard 12 in the middle portion of a piano housing US 7 361 829 B2 3 or a casing 11 which is equipped with soft pedal 13A a muffler pedal 13B and a loud pedal 13C all arranged in the lower portion Though the explanation will be made on the upright piano the present invention is applicable to a grand piano For the sake of convenience the soft pedal 13A mufller pedal 13B and loud pedal 13C are collectively referred to as pedals 13 The functions of the pedals 13 are similar to those of pedals installed in conventionally known upright pianos That is when the soft pedal 13A is depressed strokes of hammers are reduced in power so as to weaken the intensities in which the hammers strike strings thus reducing the volumes of sounds When the muffler pedal 13B is depressed a felt muffler member not shown is introduced between the hammers and the strings so as to reduce striking forces applied to strings thus reducing the volumes of sounds When the loud pedal 13C is depressed vibrations of strings being struck with hammers are sus tained for a while so as to cause resonation of other strings thus increasing volumes of sounds screen 14a of a display 14 is attached to the center area of an upper front board 11a which is arranged in the upper portion of the piano housing 11 The display 14 can be arranged independently of the piano housing 11 The screen 14a of the display is placed above a music stand
7. support 45 are intercon nected via a metal support assembly 44 The front portion of the key is arranged above the front support 4a the center portion of the key 1 is mounted on the balance support 45 and the rear portion of the key 1 is mounted on the rear support 4c When the front portion of the key 1 is depressed the key 1 rotatably moves about the supporting position corresponding to the balance support 45 within a vertical plane in FIG 2 A key sensor 5 is fixed onto the metal support assembly 4d The key sensor 5 detects depression of the key 1 key depression velocity and key depression pressure so as to produce a key on signal or a key off signal an initial touch signal and an after touch signal These signals are collected to form a key depression signal which 1s supplied to a control circuit CC ofthe control unit 100 A key solenoid 6 is arranged in proximity to the rear support 4c The key solenoid 6 is driven by a servo circuit 6a under the control of the control circuit CC In an automatic performance when the key solenoid 6 is driven the rear portion of the key 1 is lifted up so as to realize an automatic depression of the key 1 which is similar to manual depression of the key 1 For the sake of convenience FIG 2 shows a single group of three elements 1 e the key sensor 5 the key solenoid 6 and the servo circuit 6a Of course these elements are arranged for each of the keys e g eighty eight keys of the keyb
8. the present timing and event data belonging to the prescribed time length between the present timing and the display timing Thus the displayed contents are scrolled vertically in the progression of the automatic performance The present embodiment provides the pedal display mode for displaying operation states of the pedals 13 and the action display mode for displaying damper positions in the action mechanism 3 which are switched over Of course it is possible to provide either the pedal display mode or the action display mode In the present embodiment operation states of the pedals 13 are displayed as the animations 13Ap 13Bp and 13Cp in the area G1 on the screen 14a Of course it is possible to pickup real images of pedals being operated by use of a video camera and the like so that real images of pedals are actually displayed on the screen 14a of the display 14 In the present embodiment operation states of dampers of the action mechanism 3 are displayed as damper position graphs dg in the area G5 on the screen 14a Of course it is possible to modify the present embodiment such that operation states of other parts of the action mechanism 3 and the like are displayed on the screen 14a of the display 14 In addition performance data to be recorded on flexible disks are not necessarily created in response to model performance played by a specifically designated teacher That is it is possible to use general performance data s
9. the flow directly proceeds to step S8 If recording is started the flow proceeds to step S4 for starting a recording interrupt process then the flow proceeds to step S5 whereby it is 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 8 possible to start the recording interrupt process shown in FIG 5 at the prescribed interrupt timing corresponding to the tempo that is manually or automatically set up In step S5 the microcomputer monitors whether the recording is to stop in response to an operation event regarding the record ing start stop operator The present embodiment is designed to neglect operation events regarding other operators in the operation panel 20 during the recording of performance data until the recording is stopped When the recording is stopped the microcomputer stops the recording interrupt process in step S6 then the flow proceeds to step S7 In step S7 the microcomputer creates performance data of pre scribed format based on previous data that are stored in performance recording buffer not shown in the recording interrupt process then it writes them into memory e g internal RAM Thereafter the flow proceeds to step S8 In step S8 a decision is made as to whether or not automatic performance is started in response to an operation event regarding an automatic performance start stop opera tor If the automatic performance is not started the flow directly proceeds to step S12 If the autom
10. GRAPHS IN AREA G2 BASED ON PEDAL DEPRESSION DATA BELONGING TO TIME LENGTH BETWEEN PRESENT TIMING AND DISPLAY TIMING COPY AND SCROLL LINE OF 535 UNIT LENGTH IN AREA G 836 EVENT DATA AT NO DISPLAY TIMING 2 YES STORE ALL EVENT DATA AT DISPLAY TIMING IN DISPLAY BUFFER READ SINGLE EVENT DATA FROM DISPLAY BUFFER NO lt _NOTE OFF gt DISPLAY SEGMENT OF NOTE BAR ON LINE AT THE CORRESPONDING KEY POSITION CLEAR EVENT DATA PROCESSING OF ALL EVENT DATA IN DISPLAY BUFFER COMPLETED 2 YES EVENT DATA NO AT PRESENT TIMING STORE ALL EVENT DATA AT PRESENT TIMING IN PERFORMANCE BUFFER NOTE THE OSITION ERASE SEGMENT OF BAR ON LINE FROM CORRESPONDING KEY PLAY AUTOMATIC PERFORMANCE BASED ON DATA OF PERFORMANCE BUFFER RETURN US 7 361 829 B2 1 KEYBOARD MUSICAL INSTRUMENT DISPLAYING DEPRESSION VALUES OF PEDALS AND KEYS BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1 Field of the Invention This invention relates to keyboard musical instruments having fingering guidance functions which guide users to depress keys based on performance data so that conditions and operations for manual performance on keyboards are displayed This application claims priority on Japanese Patent Appli cation No 2004 74031 the content of which is incorporated herein by reference 2 Description of the Related Art Conventionally various types of technologies have been developed with regard to fingering guidance
11. a2 United States Patent Uehara US007361829B2 US 7 361 829 B2 Apr 22 2008 10 Patent No 45 Date of Patent 54 KEYBOARD MUSICAL INSTRUMENT DISPLAYING DEPRESSION VALUES OF PEDALS AND KEYS 75 Inventor Haruki Uehara Shizuoka ken JP 73 Assignee Yamaha Corporation Shizuoka ken Subject to any disclaimer the term of this patent is extended or adjusted under 35 U S C 154 b by 511 days 21 Appl No 11 077 425 22 Filed Mar 10 2005 65 Prior Publication Data US 2005 0204908 1 Sep 22 2005 30 Foreign Application Priority Data Mar 16 2004 2004 074031 51 Int Cl GI0H 1 32 GI0H 3 00 GI0H 1 00 G09B 15 00 2006 01 G09B 15 02 2006 01 52 US Ch ertt eren 84 746 84 477 R 58 Field of Classification Search 84 721 84 746 470 R 477 R 478 See application file for complete search history 2006 01 2006 01 2006 01 56 References Cited U S PATENT DOCUMENTS 6 084 167 7 2000 Akimoto et al 84 477 6 160 213 A 12 2000 Arnold et al 84 615 6 388 181 B2 5 2002 Moe FOREIGN PATENT DOCUMENTS CN 1135627 11 1996 JP 05 173546 7 1993 JP 06 027938 2 1994 JP 2003 255929 9 2003 cited by examiner Primary Examiner Jeffrey Donels 74 Attorney Agent or Firm Harness Dickey amp Pierce PLC 57 ABSTRACT A keyboard musical instrument supp
12. actice piano lessons and teachers play model performance When a teacher plays the keyboard 12 the player piano produces key operation data representing keycodes touch data key on events and key off events with regard to musical notes pedal operation data representing types of pedals being operated and amounts of depressions applied to pedals and operation state data representing motions being detected with respect to prescribed parts of an action mechanism specifically in the present embodiment damper position data all of which are collected together to form perfor mance data which are recorded on a flexible disk in a prescribed format When a flexible disk is put into the control unit 100 the player piano reproduces the teacher s performance data representing the teacher s model perfor mance so as to realize automatic performance according to which a student can practice piano lessons Based on the teacher s performance data being repro duced the control unit 100 controls the display 14 so as to 5 25 40 45 65 4 display operation states regarding the keyboard 12 and the pedals 13 as well as operation states regarding the dampers i e positions of dampers on the screen 14a This allows the student to experience fingering guidance with reference to operation states of the keyboard 12 Also the student can visually recognize operation states of pedals and dampers which are difficult to view directl
13. atedly performed every time an interrupt occurs in the processing of the automatic performance Thus note bars Ba are scrolled downwards in the area G4 in accordance with the progression of the automatic performance In the action display mode shown in FIG 3B the display 14 displays areas G3 G5 on the screen 14a wherein an action display section corresponds to the area G5 and a keyboard display section consists of the areas G3 and G4 The area G5 shows graphs dg each of which shows time related variations of the position of the damper d of the corresponding key 1 In the graphs dg the horizontal axis represents the distance between the string 2 and the damper d and the vertical axis represents time Hence curves or US 7 361 829 B2 7 lines of the graphs dg show time related variations of distances with respect to the corresponding keys These graphs dg are collectively scrolled downwards in the pro gression of the automatic performance Next detailed descriptions will be given with respect to the graphs 13Ag 13Bg and 13Cg which are displayed in the area G2 shown in FIG 3A and the graphs dg which are displayed in the area G5 shown in FIG 3B Pedal depression data representing depression values which are applied to the pedals 13 and are detected by the pedal sensors 7 and damper position data representing positions of the dampers d which are detected by the damper position sensors 9 are recorded in correspondence with p
14. atic performance is started the flow proceeds to step S9 for starting the automatic performance interrupt process then the flow proceeds to step S10 As a result it is possible to start the automatic performance interrupt process shown in FIG 6 at the prescribed interrupt timing corresponding to the tempo that is automatically or manually set up In step S10 the microcomputer monitors whether the automatic perfor mance is to stop in response to an operation event regarding the automatic performance start stop operator In this case the microcomputer neglects operation events regarding other operators in the automatic performance until the automatic performance is stopped When the automatic performance is stopped the flow proceeds to step S11 for stopping automatic performance interrupt process then the flow proceeds to step S12 In step S12 the microcomputer performs other processes In step S13 a decision is made as to whether or not the main routine is terminated in response to a power switch not shown being turned off If not the flow reverts to step S1 In step S13 the microcomputer adds file names and titles of musical tunes to performance data which are created and recorded in advance so that the performance data are written into flexible disks for example In the recording interrupt process shown in FIG 5 the flow firstly proceeds to step S21 in which a decision is made as to whether or not a key event i e a key on
15. esenting the keys of the keyboard to be sequentially depressed and for controlling the pedal display section to display the operation states of the pedals based on pedal depression data representing depression values of the pedals 2 A keyboard musical instrument according to claim 1 wherein the performance data are created to indicate finger ing guidance for sequentially designating the keys to be depressed 3 A keyboard musical instrument comprising a keyboard display section for displaying operation states of keys of a keyboard an action display section for displaying relative positions of selected parts of action mechanisms including inter mediate positions which transmit operations of the keys to strings in action mechanisms and a control device for controlling the keyboard display section to display the operation states of the keys of the keyboard based on performance data representing keys of the keyboard to be sequentially depressed and for controlling the action display section to display the operation states of the selected parts of the action mechanisms in a time series manner 4 A keyboard musical instrument according to claim 3 wherein the performance data are created to indicate finger ing guidance for sequentially designating the keys to be depressed 5 A keyboard musical instrument according to claim 3 wherein the selected parts of the action mechanisms are dampers for damping vibrations transmitted to t
16. f a single note bar is displayed on the line at a prescribed position of the corresponding key in which the note on event occurs In the case of a note off event the flow proceeds to step S42 in which a segment of a single note bar is erased and not displayed on the line at a prescribed position of the corresponding key in which the note off event occurs In step S43 data regarding the note on off event is cleared from the display buffer then the flow proceeds to step S44 The aforementioned processing is repeatedly performed with respect to all events When the 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 10 processing is completed with respect to all events the decision result of step S44 turns to YES so that the flow proceeds to step S45 Thus it is possible to update all data regarding one line in the piano roll display In step S45 decision is made as to whether or not event data exist at the present timing When event data exist the flow proceeds to step 546 in which all event data at the present timing are stored in performance buffer not shown In step S47 an automatic performance is played based on event data of the performance buffer Thereafter the flow reverts to the original routine i e the main routine shown in FIG 4 According to the automatic performance interrupt process described above the displayed contents are updated so as to play automatic performance on the basis of event data at
17. g to various setup operations made by the user then the flow proceeds to step S3 In the setup process for example the microcomputer selectively sets either a left register or a right register because all the keys of the keyboard 12 are divided into two groups 1 e right and left registers with respect to the areas G3 G4 and G5 on the screen 14a Herein a desired register is selected in response to a musical tune subjected to automatic performance and is selectively dis played on the screen 14a Alternatively in response to phrases of a musical tune being practiced a desired register is selectively displayed on the screen 14a but another register that is not used in practice is not displayed on the screen 14a That is a prescribed display area is automati cally selected with respect to keys of the keyboard 12 divided into right and left registers Thus it is possible to effectively use the limited width of the screen 14a which can display a limited number of keys Such a display area can be automatically detected in response to automatic performance and keys actually played by users for example Incidentally the setup process allows the pedal display mode and action display mode to be switched over and it allows a tempo of a musical tune to be set up In step S3 a decision is made as to whether or not recording is started in response to an operation event regard ing a recording start stop operator If recording is not started
18. ge in the action display mode The displayed image of FIG 3A regarding the pedal display mode is divided into four areas G1 G4 wherein a pedal display section consists of the areas G1 and G2 and a keyboard display section consists of the areas G3 and G4 The area G1 shows animations representing the three pedals 13 illustrated in plan view specifically three animations 13Ap 13Bp and 13Cp are displayed in correspondence with the soft pedal 13A the muffler pedal 13B and the loud pedal 13C respectively In FIG 3A it shows a pedal operation state in which the soft pedal 13A and the loud pedal 13C are not depressed but the muffler pedal 13B represented by the animation 13Bp is depressed Each of the animations 13Ap 13Bp and 13Cp are vertically deviated in position so as to show a depression value thereof The animations 13Ap 13Bp and 13Cp are varied in response to operations of the pedals 13 in the progression of automatic performance The area G2 shows graphs 13Ag 13Bg and 13Cg that are displayed to show depression values ofthe pedals 13A 13B and 13C with respect to time wherein the horizontal axis represents the depression value and the vertical axis repre sents time Herein curves or lines drawn in the graphs show time related variations of depression values with respect to 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 6 the pedals 13 In addition the graphs 13Ag 13Bg and 13Cg are collectively scrolled down
19. he strings in the action mechanisms so that the action display section displays positions of the dampers in a progression of a musical performance
20. isplay using note bars Instead of using note bars displayed on the screen of the display it is possible to use other symbols or marks which designate keys to be depressed and which are displayed in the area G4 just above the keys of the keyboard displayed in the area G3 In this case symbols or marks can be changed in colors before and after key depression timings Alternatively they can be changed in vertical positions thereof on the screen of the display The keyboard display section is positioned appropriately on the screen of the display wherein the displayed position thereof can be adjusted to match the upper lower sides of the screen or the left right sides of the screen for example When it is positioned to match the left right sides of the screen the keys of the keyboard are scrolled horizontally In the horizontal scrolling the keys of the keyboard are scrolled such that the designated keys or designated regis ter gradually move away from the screen or they gradually move into the screen for example This invention is not necessarily limited to the present embodiment in which the area G4 displays scroll bars i e note bars having vertically elongated rectangular shapes representing note lengths ranging from key on timings to key off timings which are displayed in correspondence with keys corresponding to note on events Instead of using scroll bars it is possible to use other symbols or icons which are positioned in cor
21. lows First when performance data subjected to automatic performance are selected or designated the microcom puter analyzes and extracts a prescribed amount of perfor mance data belonging to a prescribed time length which corresponds to the vertical width of the area G4 on the screen 14a of the display 14 so that all note bars belonging to the prescribed time length in the automatic performance are displayed in the area G4 When an interrupt occurs in the processing of the automatic performance that is started a line L for a single scroll operation is copied to the top position of the area G4 and all note bars displayed there under are scrolled by one line Herein each note bar Ba is displayed in the form of a rectangular segment which is constituted by pixels representing the corresponding note length and pixels representing the width of the correspond ing key displayed in the area G3 Based on performance data corresponding to the timing hereinafter referred to as display timing which is subsequent to the interrupt timing ofthe automatic performance hereinafter referred to as present timing by the prescribed time length corre sponding to the height of the area G4 segments of note bars corresponding to note on events are displayed in relation to the line L displayed at the top position of the area G4 but segments of note bars corresponding to note off events are erased from the area G4 The aforementioned process is repe
22. oard 12 pedal sensor 7 and a pedal solenoid 8 are arranged in proximity to each of the pedals 13A 13B and 13C The pedal sensor 7 detects the depression of the corresponding pedal 13 so as to produce a pedal operation signal repre senting a depression value 1 e a depression stroke which is supplied to the control circuit CC The pedal solenoid 8 is driven by a servo circuit 8a under the control of the control circuit CC so that the corresponding pedal 13 is driven to US 7 361 829 B2 5 realize an automatic depression thereof which is similar to manual depression of the pedal 13 when depressed by user s foot Similar to conventionally known action mechanisms adapted to acoustic pianos the action mechanism 13 adapted to the player piano includes a whippen a a damper spoon b a damper lever c a damper d a jack e a pad P a hammer shank g and a hammer h When the key 1 is manually depressed or it is driven by the solenoid 6 a capstan la planted at the rear end portion of the key 1 presses up the whippen a so that the damper spoon b drives the lower end of the damper lever c whereby the damper d separates from the string 2 At this time the jack e drives the pad f so as to cause rotation with regard to the hammer shank g and the hammer h which thus strikes the string 2 The player piano of the present embodiment has a damper position sensor 9 for detecting the opera
23. off event occurs in the keyboard 12 If no key event occurs the flow directly proceeds to step S23 When a key event occurs the flow proceeds to step S22 in which the corresponding key event data are stored in the performance recording buffer together with the timing data thereof then the flow proceeds to step S23 In step S23 a decision is made as to whether or not a pedal event i e a pedal on off event occurs in any one of the pedals 13 If not pedal event occurs the flow directly proceeds to step S25 When a pedal event occurs the flow proceeds to step S24 in which the corresponding pedal event data are stored in the performance recording buffer together with the timing data thereof then the flow proceeds to step S25 In step S25 damper position data which are produced by the damper position sensor 9 are stored in a display recording buffer together with the timing data thereof In step S26 pedal depression data which are produced by the pedal sensor 7 in response to a depression value adapted to the pedal 13 are stored in the display recording buffer together with the timing data thereof US 7 361 829 B2 9 Thereafter the flow reverts to the original routine i e the main routine shown in FIG 4 According to the recording interrupt process described above performance data are sequentially stored in the performance recording buffer and damper position data and pedal depression data are sequentially stored in the di
24. orts lessons in practic ing musical performance on a keyboard to allow users to learn musical performance expressions In accordance with a teacher s model performance performance data represent ing operations of keys of the keyboard pedal depression data representing operations of pedals and damper position data representing positions of dampers in action mechanisms are created and recorded on recording media such as flexible disks When a student plays the keyboard musical instru ment the performance data pedal depression data and damper position data are reproduced by means of the recording media so that they are displayed on the screen of a display wherein the prescribed keys to be depressed are sequentially displayed in a piano roll form based on the performance data and wherein depression values of the pedals and positions of the dampers are displayed based on the pedal depression data and damper position data 5 Claims 6 Drawing Sheets U S Patent Apr 22 2008 Sheet 1 of 6 US 7 361 829 B2 SEAD o p 2 j d a U S Patent Apr 22 2008 Sheet 2 of 6 US 7 361 829 B2 FIG 2 8a 8 E 13C 14 7 8 E 8 7 8 fn DV 9 1 00 E Eur uy 20 Fm 4 N i CONTROL PANEL f CIRCUIT bt a 10 ps la ae 25 77 ME 4 6 11b 4b 5 4 U S Patent Apr 22 2008 Sheet 3 of 6 US 7
25. rescribed clock timings of performance data When an interrupt occurs in the processing of the automatic perfor mance the aforementioned graphs are created based on performance data corresponding to the prescribed time length between the present timing corresponding to the interrupt timing and the display timing whereby they are written over in the areas G2 and G5 respectively s a result the graphs 13Ag 13Bg and 13Cg and the graphs dg are sequentially scrolled downwards in the progression of the automatic performance In order to avoid interference between displayed regions between adjacent key regions on the screen 14a the graphs dg are displayed in the area 15 only with respect to note on events Next details of the controlling and processing adapted to the player piano of the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS 4 to 6 FIG 4 is a flowchart showing a main routine of control programs FIG 5 is a flowchart showing a recording interrupt process and FIG 6 is a flowchart showing an automatic performance interrupt process The main routine shown in FIG 4 mainly describes the processing for the operation panel 20 wherein step S1 is related to setup operation in which a decision is made as to whether or not a setup operation is made by a user of the player piano If NO the flow proceeds to step S3 If YES the flow proceeds to step S2 in which the microcomputer performs setup processes correspondin
26. respondence with keys which are turned on and off at key on timings and key off timings and which are changed in colors in response to velocities for example That is any types of symbols or icons indicating operations of keys can be adapted to keyboard musical instruments according to this invention As this invention may be embodied in several forms without departing from the spirit or essential characteristics thereof the present embodiment is therefore illustrative and not restrictive since the scope of the invention is defined by the appended claims rather than by the description preceding them and all changes that fall within metes and bounds of the claims or equivalents of such metes and bounds are therefore intended to be embraced by the claims What is claimed is 1 A keyboard musical instrument comprising a display divided into first and second display sections the first display section comprising a keyboard display section for displaying operation states of keys of a keyboard 15 25 30 35 40 45 12 the second display section comprising a mode selectable display that alternately displays a an action display for providing a visual representation of keyboard action and b a pedal display section for displaying operation and depression of pedals and a control device for controlling the keyboard display section to display the operation states of the keys of the keyboard based on performance data repr
27. s to effec tively support lessons in practicing musical performance In first aspect of the invention keyboard musical instrument is equipped with control unit and display which shows a keyboard display section for displaying operation states of keys of a keyboard based on performance data indicating fingering guidance for sequentially designat ing keys to be depressed and a pedal display section for displaying operation states of pedals based on pedal depres sion data indicating depression values of pedals to be depressed In the above the depressed keys are sequentially dis played in piano roll form wherein note bars indicating note lengths are scrolled with respect to animated images representing the keys of the keyboard in the progression of musical performance In second aspect of the invention keyboard musical instrument is equipped with control unit and display which shows a keyboard display section for displaying operation states of keys of a keyboard based on performance data indicating fingering guidance for sequentially designat ing keys to be depressed and an action display section for displaying operation states of selected parts of action mecha nisms which transmit operations of the keys to strings in the keyboard in a time series manner In the above the selected parts are dampers for damping vibrations transmitted to the strings in the action mecha nisms so that the action display sec
28. splay recording buffer When the recording is ended performance data of the prescribed format are created in step S7 shown in FIG 4 That is performance data are created in accor dance with the user s piano play on the player piano For example performance data are created in response to the teacher s model performance and are recorded on a flexible disk which is transferred to some student who in turn operates the player piano to play automatic performance based on the performance data Alternatively performance data are created in response to the student s model perfor mance and are recorded on a flexible disk which is trans ferred to some teacher who in turn operates the player piano to play automatic performance based on the performance data whereby the teacher can check the student s perfor mance In the automatic performance interrupt process shown in FIG 6 the microcomputer proceeds to reproduction of automatic performance based on performance data and display controls shown in FIGS and 3B In step 531 a decision is made as to whether the pedal display mode or the action display mode is selected In the pedal display mode the animations 13Ap 13Bp and 13Cp regarding operation states of the pedals 13A 13B and 13C are displayed in the area G1 on the basis of pedal depression data at the present timing in step S32 In step S33 the pedal depression graphs 13Ag 13Bg and 13Cg are displayed in the area G2 on the
29. tion shows positions of the dampers in the progression of musical performance BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS These and other objects aspects and embodiments of the present invention will be described in more detail with reference to the following drawings in which FIG 1 is a perspective view showing the exterior appear ance of a player piano in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the invention FIG 2 is a block diagram showing hardware configura tions interconnected with essential parts of a keyboard of the player piano shown in FIG 1 FIG 3A shows an example of a displayed image in pedal display mode FIG 3B shows an example of displayed image in an action display mode FIG 4 is flowchart showing main routine of control program executed by microcomputer installed in the player piano FIG 5 is flowchart showing recording interrupt process incorporated in the main routine shown in FIG 4 and FIG 6 is a flowchart showing an automatic performance interrupt process incorporated into the main routine shown in FIG 4 DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT This invention will be described in further detail by way of examples with reference to the accompanying drawings FIG 115 perspective view showing the exterior appear ance of keyboard musical instrument in accordance with preferred embodiment of the invention wherein the key board musical instrument is an upright player
30. tion state of the damper d For example the damper position sensor 9 may be realized by a reflection type photo sensor which has a sensing window that is positioned opposite to the damper d with respect to the string 2 and is also positioned opposite to the backside of a damper wood 41 of the damper d That is when the damper d operates the damper position sensor 9 detects a relative position of the damper d with respect to the string 2 thus producing a position detection signal which is then supplied to the control circuit CC The control unit 100 includes an operation panel 20 in addition to the flexible disk drive FDD 10 The operation panel 20 has various operators e g switches and controls such as an operator for designating start stop of automatic performance an operator for designating start stop of per formance recording and an operator for switching over the pedal display mode and action display mode as well as other operators used for settings and the like The control circuit CC is constituted by a microcomputer which executes control programs stored in a ROM not shown so as to perform various controls with regard to automatic perfor mance display and read write operations of performance data using the flexible disk drive 10 FIGS 3A and 3B show examples of displayed images on the screen 14a ofthe display 14 Specifically FIG 3A shows a displayed image in the pedal display mode and FIG 3B shows a displayed ima
31. uch as performance data representing model performance played by a professional or prominent player suited to the pre scribed format adapted to the keyboard of the player piano for example Of course it is possible to use various record ing media for recording performance data other than flexible disks For example a plurality of player pianos or keyboard musical instruments having control units are connected together via MIDI cables where MIDI stands for Musi cal Instrument Digital Interface standard or LANs 1 local area networks so as to form musical systems which are provided in piano lesson rooms and the like Herein performance data can be transferred from one player piano to the other player piano thus realizing piano lessons between teachers and students Alternatively a plurality of player pianos or keyboard musical instruments having control units which allow teachers and students to play are connected together via networks such as the Internet thus realizing remote piano lessons between them This invention is not necessarily limited to the present embodiment that is directed to the player piano That is this invention can be applied to other types of keyboard musical instruments such as electronic pianos that are not equipped with automatic drive functions with regard to keyboards and pedals US 7 361 829 B2 11 The present embodiment realizes fingering guidance by means of the piano roll d
32. wards in the progression of automatic performance The animations 13Ap 13Bp and 13 are not necessarily displayed and controlled in response to the automatic per formance and they can be displayed and controlled in response to outputs of the pedals 13 which allows pedal operations ofthe teacher s model performance to be visually recognized on the screen 14a of the display 14 The area G3 shows a schematic pattern of the keyboard 12 of the player piano and area G4 shows note bars Ba which form displayed elements of fingering guidance in a piano roll form Such a piano roll display is similar to conven tionally known piano roll displays for displaying contents of performance data wherein note bars Ba sequentially move downwards from the top to the bottom in the area G4 in accordance with the progression of automatic performance and they designate keys to be depressed which are displayed just below them in the area G3 When the lower end of the note bar Ba moves down to match the bottom of the area G4 it shows the key depression timing with regard to the corresponding key In addition note bars Ba whose lower ends do not match the bottom of the area G4 notify a user of key depression timings of the corresponding keys in advance Furthermore the length of the note bar Ba desig nates a time length ranging from the key on timing to the key off timing The present embodiment performs processing regarding the piano roll display as fol
33. y without the display 14 Thus it is possible to realize improvements in the student s piano lessons In addition the player piano can produce student s per formance data regarding the student s piano practice which can be recorded on a flexible disk Using such a flexible disk the player piano reproduces the student s performance data thus realizing automatic performance and displaying various pieces of information on the screen 14a of the display 14 This makes it possible for the teacher to grasp the details of the student s piano practice The player piano of the present embodiment is designed to realize two modes which can be switched between with regard to displayed contents i e a pedal display mode for displaying operation states regarding the keyboard 12 and the pedals 13 and an action display mode for displaying operation states regarding the keyboard 12 and positions of dampers FIG 2 is a block diagram showing hardware configura tions interconnected with essential parts of the keyboard 12 of the player piano shown in FIG 1 The following descrip tion is given with respect to a key 1 of the keyboard 12 which is a white key Of course a black key has a similar structure to the white key The keyboard 12 has an action mechanism 3 that transmits the motion of the key 1 to a string or strings 2 A front support 4a a balance support 45 and a rear support 4c are arranged on a keybed 115 The front support 4a and the balance
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