Methods and electronic systems for fingering assignments

• US 20050235812A1
• Filed: 04/21/2005
• Published: 10/27/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 04/22/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: James Calvin Fallgatter
• Original Assignee: James Calvin Fallgatter
• Inventors: Fallgatter, James Calvin
• Granted Patent: US 7,202,408 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 84/645
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 1/0008 Associated control or indicating means
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 2220/041 Remote key fingering indicator, i.e. fingering shown on a display separate from the instrument itself or substantially disjoint from the keys
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 2220/056 Hand or finger indicator, e.g. for indicating which hand or which specific finger should be used

Abstract

Embodiments of the disclosure relate to assignment of fingering for performance of a musical piece. In one example, a processor of an electronic system receives a file having data relating to at least one musical piece. The processor parses the file and assigns keys to occurrences of notes within the musical piece. In certain embodiments, the key-to-note assignments are based on predetermined factors, such as common patterns of learned fingering and a user typing proficiency level, and/or predetermined assignment rules, such as physical or spatial limitations with respect to the user'"'"'s fingers and the keys of the keyboard. Furthermore, embodiments of the invention allow for different keys to be assigned to different occurrences of the same note or allow for a single key to be assigned to multiple notes, such as a chord, or to different notes occurring at different points in the musical piece.

Claims

1. A method of assigning keyboard fingering for a performance of a musical piece, the method comprising:

receiving a file comprising data associated with a plurality of notes of a musical piece;

assigning a first key having a first position on a keyboard to a first note of the plurality of notes, wherein the first note has a first pitch; and

assigning a second key having a second position on the keyboard to a second note of the plurality of notes, wherein the second note has the same pitch as the first note and wherein said assigning of the second key comprises at least determining a positional relationship between the second key and another key on the keyboard.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising assigning the first key to a third note, wherein the third note comprises a different pitch associated therewith than the first note.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising assigning to a user one of a plurality of proficiency levels.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein each of the plurality of proficiency levels is associated with a different predetermined number of keys of the keyboard to be assigned to the plurality of notes.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein said assigning the first key comprises assigning the first key to a chord including the first note.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the first key and the second key are each associated with an alphanumeric character.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein said assigning of the second key further comprises determining if the alphanumeric character associated with the second key forms a predetermined letter sequence with an alphanumeric character associated with another key of the keyboard.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the second key is one of a group of keys having not been assigned, immediately prior to said assigning the second key, to one of the plurality of notes of the musical piece.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein said of assigning the second key comprises randomly selecting an available key from the group of unassigned keys.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein said assigning of the second key comprises selecting the second key based at least on a difference between an expected frequency of use of the second key and an actual frequency of assignment of the second key to notes in the musical piece.

11. A method of assigning keyboard fingering for a performance of a musical piece, the method comprising:

receiving a file comprising data associated with a plurality of notes of a musical piece;

assigning a first key of a keyboard to a first note of the plurality of notes, wherein the first note has a first pitch; and

assigning the first key to a second note of the plurality of notes, wherein the second note has a different pitch than the first note and wherein said assigning of the first key to the second note comprises at least determining a positional relationship between the first key and another key on the keyboard.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising reassigning a second key of the keyboard to the second note if said assigning of the first key to the second note violates at least one predetermined rule.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the at least one predetermined rule comprises data relating to key combinations that correspond to implausible finger positions.

14. A machine loadable software program capable of assigning fingering for a performance of a musical piece, the software program comprising:

first software instructions capable of assigning a first key having a first location on a keyboard to an occurrence of a first note of a musical piece;

second software instructions capable of assigning a second key having a second location on the keyboard to an occurrence of a second note of the musical piece; and

third software instructions capable of determining if the first location and the second location comprise an implausible key combination.

15. The software program of claim 14, wherein the second software instructions are further capable of reassigning a third key to the occurrence of the second note if the third software instructions determine that the implausible key combination exists.

16. The software program of claim 14, wherein the second software instructions are capable of assigning the second key to the occurrence of the second note based at least in part on a comparison between an expected usage of an alphanumeric character associated with the second key and an actual frequency of assignment of the second key-to occurrences of notes of the musical piece.

17. The software program of claim 14, wherein the third software instructions are capable of determining if the implausible key combination exists by determining if a distance between the first location and the second location exceeds a threshold amount.

18. The software program of claim 14, wherein the third software instructions are capable of determining if the implausible key combination exists by determining if the first location and the second location correspond to a predetermined pattern identified as an unnatural hand position.

19. A system for assigning keyboard fingering, the system comprising:

means for receiving a file comprising data associated with a plurality of notes of a musical piece;

means for assigning a first key having a first position on a keyboard to an occurrence of a first note of the plurality of notes; and

means for assigning a second key having a second position on the keyboard to an occurrence of a second note of the plurality of notes, wherein the means for assigning the second key comprises determining at least a relationship between the first position and the second position.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the keyboard comprises a QWERTY keyboard.