Assistive apparatus, method and computer program for playing music

• US 20040112203A1
• Filed: 09/04/2003
• Published: 06/17/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 09/04/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Yamaha Corporation, Yamaha Music Foundation (Yamaha Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Yamaha Corporation, Yamaha Music Foundation (Yamaha Corporation)
• Inventors: Ito, Shinichi, Ikeya, Tadahiko, Ueki, Kazuhisa, Ishibashi, Masao, Hara, Masaki, Kubo, Sachiyo, Takagi, Tetsuya
• Granted Patent: US 7,297,859 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 84/613
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 1/0008 Associated control or indicating means
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 1/38 Chord
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 2210/331 Note pitch correction, i.e. modifying a note pitch or replacing it by the closest one in a given scale
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 2210/576 Chord progression
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 2240/311 MIDI transmission G10H2240/056 takes precedence

Abstract

An assistive music playing apparatus is provided for playing a music piece with musically acceptable notes even when the player inputs musically unacceptable notes. The apparatus provides a chord progression pattern, and comprises a note conversion device. A chord progression pattern defines a series of chords, which are presented one after another in time for a music progression. As the player plays music, inputting potentially unacceptable notes, the inputted notes will be converted to musically acceptable notes with reference to the currently presented chord in the chord progression. The note conversion rules are prepared different for a melody note range, a chord note range and a bass note range. Overlap of converted notes are avoided. Depending on the conditions of the player'"'"'s note input, i.e. whether the melody is ascending or descending, or the chord is played in a block chord or in an arpeggio, the conversion rules may be selected to generate notes which fit the designated chord, even including non-basic notes or tension notes.

Claims

1. An assistive music playing apparatus comprising:

a chord progression pattern providing device which provides a chord progression pattern representing a series of chords;

a note input device which inputs notes constituting music playing along with said chord progression, said inputted notes potentially including unacceptable notes to be subjected to note correction; and

a note conversion device which converts said inputted notes, with reference to a current chord in said chord progression at the time of said inputted notes, to converted notes according to conversion characteristics which are differently predetermined for different note sub-ranges as divided in view of note pitches.

2. An assistive music playing apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein said note conversion device has different conversion algorithms for different note sub-ranges.

5. An assistive music playing apparatus as claimed in any one of claims 1, further comprising:

a note range split device which splits the entire note range of the input notes into a first sub-range in which the inputted notes are subjected to the note conversion and a second sub-range in which the input notes are not subjected to the note conversion;

wherein said note conversion device conducts note conversion of the inputted notes in said first sub-range and does not conduct note conversion of the inputted notes in said second sub-range.

6. An assistive music playing apparatus as claimed in any one of claims 2, further comprising:

a note range split device which splits the entire note range of the input notes into a first sub-range in which the inputted notes are subjected to the note conversion and a second sub-range in which the input notes are not subjected to the note conversion;

wherein said note conversion device conducts note conversion of the inputted notes in said first sub-range and does not conduct note conversion of the inputted notes in said second sub-range.

9. An assistive music playing apparatus as claimed in any one of claims 1, further comprising:

an additional note providing device which provides additional note to the converted notes based on said converted notes.

10. An assistive music playing apparatus as claimed in any one of claims 2, further comprising:

an additional note providing device which provides additional note to the converted notes based on said converted notes.

13. An assistive music playing apparatus as claimed in any one of claims 5, further comprising:

an additional note providing device which provides additional note to the converted notes based on said converted notes.

14. An assistive music playing apparatus as claimed in any one of claims 6, further comprising:

an additional note providing device which provides additional note to the converted notes based on said converted notes.

3. An assistive music playing apparatus comprising:

a chord progression pattern providing device which provides a chord progression pattern representing a series of chords;

a note input device which inputs notes constituting music playing along with said chord progression, said inputted notes potentially including unacceptable notes to be subjected to note correction;

a note conversion device which converts said inputted notes to first converted notes with reference to a current chord in said chord progression at the time of said inputted notes; and

a note reconversion device which reconverts, when a plurality of said first converted notes become the same notes, one of said same notes to another note.

7. An assistive music playing apparatus as claimed in any one of claims 3, further comprising:

a note range split device which splits the entire note range of the input notes into a first sub-range in which the inputted notes are subjected to the note conversion and a second sub-range in which the input notes are not subjected to the note conversion;

wherein said note conversion device conducts note conversion of the inputted notes in said first sub-range and does not conduct note conversion of the inputted notes in said second sub-range.

11. An assistive music playing apparatus as claimed in any one of claims 3, further comprising:

an additional note providing device which provides additional note to the converted notes based on said converted notes.

15. An assistive music playing apparatus as claimed in any one of claims 7, further comprising:

an additional note providing device which provides additional note to the converted notes based on said converted notes.

4. An assistive music playing apparatus comprising:

a chord progression pattern providing device which provides a chord progression pattern representing a series of chords;

a note input device which inputs notes constituting music playing along with said chord progression, said inputted notes potentially including unacceptable notes to be subjected to note correction;

a note conversion device which converts said inputted notes to converted notes with reference to a current chord in said chord progression at the time of said inputted notes according to the number of substantially simultaneously inputted notes, a note distance between the highest note and the lowest note in said substantially simultaneously inputted notes, and the note degree of said highest note from the root of said current chord in said chord progression.

8. An assistive music playing apparatus as claimed in any one of claims 4, further comprising:

a note range split device which splits the entire note range of the input notes into a first sub-range in which the inputted notes are subjected to the note conversion and a second sub-range in which the input notes are not subjected to the note conversion;

wherein said note conversion device conducts note conversion of the inputted notes in said first sub-range and does not conduct note conversion of the inputted notes in said second sub-range.

12. An assistive music playing apparatus as claimed in any one of claims 4, further comprising:

an additional note providing device which provides additional note to the converted notes based on said converted notes.

16. An assistive music playing apparatus as claimed in any one of claims 8, further comprising:

an additional note providing device which provides additional note to the converted notes based on said converted notes.

17. A computer program for executing assistive music playing processing which processes music playing information based on a given chord progression, said processing comprising:

a procedure of providing a chord progression pattern representing a series of chords;

a procedure of inputting notes constituting music playing along with said chord progression, said inputted notes potentially including unacceptable notes to be subjected to note correction; and

a procedure of converting said inputted notes to converted notes with reference to a current chord in said chord progression at the time of said inputted notes.

18. A computer program as claimed in claim 17, wherein said procedure of converting uses different conversion algorithms for different note sub-ranges.

21. A computer program as claimed in any one of claims 17, further comprising:

a procedure of splitting the entire note range of the input notes into a first sub-range in which the inputted notes are subjected to the note conversion and a second sub-range in which the input notes are not subjected to the note conversion;

wherein said procedure of converting conducts note conversion of the inputted notes in said first sub-range and does not conduct note conversion of the inputted notes in said second sub-range.

22. A computer program as claimed in any one of claims 18, further comprising:

a procedure of splitting the entire note range of the input notes into a first sub-range in which the inputted notes are subjected to the note conversion and a second sub-range in which the input notes are not subjected to the note conversion;

wherein said procedure of converting conducts note conversion of the inputted notes in said first sub-range and does not conduct note conversion of the inputted notes in said second sub-range.

25. A computer program as claimed in any one of claims 17, further comprising:

a procedure of providing additional note to the converted notes based on said converted notes.

26. A computer program as claimed in any one of claims 18, further comprising:

a procedure of providing additional note to the converted notes based on said converted notes.

29. A computer program as claimed in any one of claims 21, further comprising:

a procedure of providing additional note to the converted notes based on said converted notes.

30. A computer program as claimed in any one of claims 22, further comprising:

a procedure of providing additional note to the converted notes based on said converted notes.

19. A computer program for executing assistive music playing processing which processes music playing information based on a given chord progression, said processing comprising:

a procedure of providing a chord progression pattern representing a series of chords;

a procedure of inputting notes constituting music playing along with said chord progression, said inputted notes potentially including unacceptable notes to be subjected to note correction;

a procedure of converting said inputted notes to first converted notes with reference to a current chord in said chord progression at the time of said inputted notes; and

a procedure of reconverting, when a plurality of said first converted notes become the same notes, one of said same notes to another note.

23. A computer program as claimed in any one of claims 19, further comprising:

a procedure of splitting the entire note range of the input notes into a first sub-range in which the inputted notes are subjected to the note conversion and a second sub-range in which the input notes are not subjected to the note conversion;

wherein said procedure of converting conducts note conversion of the inputted notes in said first sub-range and does not conduct note conversion of the inputted notes in said second sub-range.

27. A computer program as claimed in any one of claims 19, further comprising:

a procedure of providing additional note to the converted notes based on said converted notes.

31. A computer program as claimed in any one of claims 23, further comprising:

a procedure of providing additional note to the converted notes based on said converted notes.

20. A computer program for executing assistive music playing processing which processes music playing information based on a given chord progression, said processing comprising:

a procedure of providing a chord progression pattern representing a series of chords;

a procedure of inputting notes constituting music playing along with said chord progression, said inputted notes potentially including unacceptable notes to be subjected to note correction;

a procedure of converting said inputted notes to converted notes with reference to a current chord in said chord progression at the time of said inputted notes according to the number of substantially simultaneously inputted notes, a note distance between the highest note and the lowest note in said substantially simultaneously inputted notes, and the note degree of said highest note from the root of said current chord in said chord progression.

24. A computer program as claimed in any one of claims 20, further comprising:

a procedure of splitting the entire note range of the input notes into a first sub-range in which the inputted notes are subjected to the note conversion and a second sub-range in which the input notes are not subjected to the note conversion;

wherein said procedure of converting conducts note conversion of the inputted notes in said first sub-range and does not conduct note conversion of the inputted notes in said second sub-range.

28. A computer program as claimed in any one of claims 20, further comprising:

a procedure of providing additional note to the converted notes based on said converted notes.

32. A computer program as claimed in any one of claims 24, further comprising:

a procedure of providing additional note to the converted notes based on said converted notes.

33. An input note converting apparatus comprising:

a chord information acquiring device which acquires chord information from a chord information providing device;

an input note information acquiring device which acquires input note information indicating inputted notes from a musical note input device;

a note conversion table which contains note employment factors for indicating a number of notes to be employed for note conversion according to the number of substantially simultaneously inputted notes with respect to respective chord types;

a note conversion device which converts notes represented by said input note information to notes which fit the chord type represented by said chord information using said note conversion table; and

a note conversion control device which controls said note conversion device so that the converted note shall not overlap with another note which is currently being generated.

34. An input note converting apparatus comprising:

a chord information acquiring device which acquires chord information from a chord information providing device;

an input note information acquiring device which acquires input note information indicating inputted notes from a musical note input device;

a note conversion device which converts notes represented by said input note information to notes which fit the chord type represented by said chord information; and

a note conversion control device which takes the converted note as an output candidate, detects music playing conditions from said input note information, and controls said note conversion device in different manner depending on the detected playing condition so that the converted note shall not overlap with another note which is currently being generated.

35. An input note converting apparatus comprising:

a chord information acquiring device which acquires chord information from a chord information providing device;

an input note information acquiring device which acquires input note information indicating inputted notes from a musical note input device;

a note conversion device which converts notes represented by said input note information to notes which fit the chord type represented by said chord information; and

a note conversion control device which compares the note pitches of the note which is currently subjected to note conversion and the preceding input note as to which is higher when there is another note being generated, and controls said note conversion device according to the comparison result so that the converted note shall not overlap with another note which is currently being generated.

36. A computer program for executing input note conversion processing in a musical note information processing apparatus which includes a note conversion table containing note employment factors for indicating a number of notes to be employed for note conversion according to the number of substantially simultaneously inputted notes with respect to respective chord types, said input note conversion processing comprising:

a procedure of acquiring chord information from a chord information providing device;

a procedure of acquiring input note information indicating inputted notes from a musical note input device;

a procedure of converting notes represented by said input note information to notes which fit the chord type represented by said chord information using said note conversion table; and

a procedure of controlling said note conversion device so that the converted note shall not overlap with another note which is currently being generated.

37. A computer program for executing input note conversion processing in a musical note information processing apparatus, said input note conversion processing comprising:

a procedure of acquiring chord information from a chord information providing device;

a procedure of acquiring input note information indicating inputted notes from a musical note input device;

a procedure of converting notes represented by said input note information to notes which fit the chord type represented by said chord information; and

a procedure of taking the converted note as an output candidate, detecting music playing conditions from said input note information, and controlling said note conversion device in different manner depending on the detected playing condition so that the converted note shall not overlap with another note which is currently being generated.

38. A computer program for executing input note conversion processing in a musical note information processing apparatus, said input note conversion processing comprising:

a procedure of acquiring chord information from a chord information providing device;

a procedure of acquiring input note information indicating inputted notes from a musical note input device;

a procedure of converting notes represented by said input note information to notes which fit the chord type represented by said chord information; and

a procedure of comparing the note pitches of the note which is currently subjected to note conversion and the preceding input note as to which is higher when there is another note being generated, and controlling said procedure of converting according to the comparison result so that the converted note shall not overlap with another note which is currently being generated.

39. An input note converting apparatus comprising:

a chord information acquiring device which acquires chord information from a chord information providing device;

an input note information acquiring device which acquires input note information indicating inputted notes from a musical note input device;

an input condition discriminating device which discriminates note input conditions from said input note information;

a note conversion device which converts notes represented by said input note information to notes which fit the chord type represented by said chord information; and

a note conversion control device which controls said note conversion device according to said note input condition as discriminated by said input condition discriminating device so that the converted note shall be a basic note or a non-basic note according to said chord information.

40. An input note converting apparatus comprising:

a chord information acquiring device which acquires chord information representing chord types from a chord information providing device;

an input note information acquiring device which acquires input note information indicating inputted notes from a musical note input device;

an input condition discriminating device which discriminates note input conditions from said input note information;

a note conversion table containing note employment factors which decide available converted notes corresponding to the respective chord types, and including a first sub-table and a second sub-table, said first sub-table containing the note employment factors for converting input notes to basic notes in view of said chord type, and said second sub-table containing the note employment factors for converting input notes also to non-basic notes in view of said chord type; and

a table deciding device which decides which of said first and said second sub-table to use for the respective input notes according to the note input conditions of said input note information as discriminated by said input condition discriminating device.

41. A computer program for executing input note conversion processing in a musical note information processing apparatus, said input note conversion processing comprising:

a procedure of acquiring chord information from a chord information providing device;

a procedure of acquiring input note information indicating inputted notes from a musical note input device;

a procedure of discriminating note input conditions from said input note information;

a procedure of converting notes represented by said input note information to notes which fit the chord type represented by said chord information; and

a procedure of controlling said procedure of converting according to said note input condition as discriminated by said procedure of discriminating so that the converted note shall be a basic note or a non-basic note according to said chord information.

42. A computer program for executing input note conversion processing in a musical note information processing apparatus which includes a note conversion table containing note employment factors which decide available converted notes corresponding to the respective chord types, and including a first sub-table and a second sub-table, said first sub-table containing the note employment factors for converting input notes to basic notes in view of said chord type, and said second sub-table containing the note employment factors for converting input notes also to non-basic notes in view of said chord type, said input note conversion processing comprising:

a procedure of acquiring chord information representing chord types from a chord information providing device;

a procedure of acquiring input note information indicating inputted notes from a musical note input device;

a procedure of discriminating note input conditions from said input note information; and

a procedure of deciding which of said first and said second sub-table to use for the respective input notes according to the note input conditions of said input note information as discriminated by said procedure of discriminating.

43. An input note converting apparatus comprising:

a chord information acquiring device which acquires chord information representing chord types from a chord information providing device;

an input note information acquiring device which acquires input note information indicating inputted notes from a musical note input device;

a voice information acquiring device which acquires voice information from a voice information providing device;

a plurality of note conversion tables containing note employment factors which decide available converted notes corresponding to the respective chord types; and

a note conversion device which converts notes represented by said input note information to notes which fit the chord type represented by said chord information using the note conversion table which is selected from among said plurality of note conversion tables according to said voice information.

44. An input note converting apparatus comprising:

a chord information acquiring device which acquires chord information from a chord information providing device;

an input note information acquiring device which acquires input note information indicating inputted notes from a musical note input device;

a voice information acquiring device which acquires voice information from a voice information providing device;

a voice condition storing device which stores note conversion conditions corresponding to the respective voices; and

a note conversion device which converts notes represented by said input note information to notes which fit said chord information based on said note conversion conditions corresponding to the voice as designated by said voice information.

45. A computer program for executing input note conversion processing in a musical note information processing apparatus which includes a plurality of note conversion tables containing note employment factors which decide available converted notes corresponding to the respective chord types, said input note conversion processing comprising:

a procedure of acquiring chord information representing chord types from a chord information providing device;

a procedure of acquiring input note information indicating inputted notes from a musical note input device;

a procedure of acquiring voice information from a voice information providing device; and

a procedure of converting notes represented by said input note information to notes which fit the chord type represented by said chord information using the note conversion table which is selected from among said plurality of note conversion tables according to said voice information.

46. A computer program for executing input note conversion processing in a musical note information processing apparatus which includes a voice condition storing device which stores note conversion conditions corresponding to the respective voices, said input note conversion processing comprising:

a procedure of acquiring chord information from a chord information providing device;

a procedure of acquiring input note information indicating inputted notes from a musical note input device;

a procedure of acquiring voice information from a voice information providing device; and

a procedure of converting notes represented by said input note information to notes which fit said chord information based on said note conversion conditions corresponding to the voice as designated by said voice information.

47. A method of processing music playing information based on a given chord progression for assisting music playing, said method comprising:

a step of providing a chord progression pattern representing a series of chords;

a step of inputting notes constituting music playing along with said chord progression, said inputted notes potentially including unacceptable notes to be subjected to note correction; and

a step of converting said inputted notes to converted notes with reference to a current chord in said chord progression at the time of said inputted notes.

48. A method as claimed in claim 47, wherein said step of converting uses different conversion algorithms for different note sub-ranges.

51. A method as claimed in claim 47, further comprising:

a step of splitting the entire note range of the input notes into a first sub-range in which the inputted notes are subjected to the note conversion and a second sub-range in which the input notes are not subjected to the note conversion;

wherein said step of converting conducts note conversion of the inputted notes in said first sub-range and does not conduct note conversion of the inputted-notes in said second sub-range.

52. A method as claimed in claim 47, further comprising:

a step of providing additional note to the converted notes based on said converted notes.

49. A method of processing music playing information based on a given chord progression for assisting music playing, said method comprising:

a step of providing a chord progression pattern representing a series of chords;

a step of inputting notes constituting music playing along with said chord progression, said inputted notes potentially including unacceptable notes to be subjected to note correction;

a step of converting said inputted notes to first converted notes with reference to a current chord in said chord progression at the time of said inputted notes; and

a step of reconverting, when a plurality of said first converted notes become the same notes, one of said same notes to another note.

50. A method of processing music playing information based on a given chord progression for assisting music playing, said method comprising:

a step of providing a chord progression pattern representing a series of chords;

a step of inputting notes constituting music playing along with said chord progression, said inputted notes potentially including unacceptable notes to be subjected to note correction;

a step of converting said inputted notes to converted notes with reference to a current chord in said chord progression at the time of said inputted notes according to the number of substantially simultaneously inputted notes, a note distance between the highest note and the lowest note in said substantially simultaneously inputted notes, and the note degree of said highest note from the root of said current chord in said chord progression.