Music practice supporting appliance

• US 20070186757A1
• Filed: 02/06/2007
• Published: 08/16/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 02/14/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Seiko Instruments Incorporated (Seiko Group)
• Original Assignee: Seiko Instruments Incorporated (Seiko Group)
• Inventors: Yagi, Shigeki
• Granted Patent: US 7,595,443 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 84/616
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 15/00 Teaching music metronomes G04F5/02
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 1/44 Tuning means
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 2210/066 for pitch analysis as part of wider processing for musical purposes, e.g. transcription, musical performance evaluation; Pitch recognition, e.g. in polyphonic sounds; Estimation or use of missing fundamental

Abstract

Provided is a music practice supporting appliance, which receives an input of sounds of a musical instrument, vocal music, and the like and acquiring and displaying deviation of those sounds inputted by a practicing person from preset reference sounds with high precision so that a change in the deviation is easier to grasp for the practicing person than in the case of a conventional music practice supporting appliance. In the music practice supporting appliance, a musical interval of an input signal of sound inputted in a signal input unit (1) is detected by a musical interval detecting unit (6), and a sound volume thereof is detected by a sample-and-hold unit (8). The detected pieces of data are displayed on a display unit (11). Since the musical intervals and the sound volumes of the sounds of the musical instrument can be objectively displayed, the display is useful in practices of playing the musical instrument. Also, by storing the data in a memory unit, practiced contents can be confirmed later.

Claims

1. A music practice supporting appliance, which receives an input of a musical sound of a musical instrument and displays deviation of one of a pitch and a sound volume of the inputted musical sound with respect to the one of the pitch and the sound volume of a preset reference sound, comprising:

a signal input unit for receiving the input of the musical sound, converting the inputted musical sound into an electric signal, and outputting the electric signal as an input signal;

an input signal amplifying unit for amplifying the input signal inputted through the signal input unit;

a waveform processing unit for converting the amplified input signal into a rectangular wave and outputting as input signal data;

a timer unit for outputting a timing signal used to store the input signal data;

a first data memory unit for storing thereinto the input signal data in correspondence with the timing signal; and

a display unit for displaying thereon the input signal data stored in the first data memory unit.

2. A music practice supporting appliance according to claim 1, further comprising a second data memory unit for storing thereinto the input signal data,

wherein in a case where the input signal data stored in the first data memory unit exceeds a storage capacity thereof, pieces of the input signal data stored in the first data memory unit are deleted therefrom in an order of old storage of the input signal data, stores the deleted pieces of input signal data in the second data memory unit, and new input signal data is stored in the first data memory unit.

3. A music practice supporting appliance according to claim 1, further comprising a display method setting unit for setting an abscissa and an ordinate, which are displayed on a screen, wherein the display unit displays the abscissa and the ordinate in accordance with a setting of the display method setting unit.

4. A music practice supporting appliance according to claim 2, further comprising:

a display information switching unit for selecting which one of the input signal data stored in the first data memory unit and the input signal data stored in the second data memory unit is to be displayed; and

a display data memory unit for storing thereinto display data which is to be displayed on the display unit,

wherein the display data memory unit stores thereinto the display data based upon a content selected by the display information switching unit.

5. A music practice supporting appliance according to claim 3, wherein the display method setting unit receives an input of the input signal data, and sets a first piece of the input signal data as a predetermined value of a range to be displayed.

6. A music practice supporting appliance according to claim 3, wherein the display method setting unit receives an input of the input signal data, and sets a minimum value and a maximum value of the input signal data as a lower limit and an upper limit of a range to be displayed, respectively.

7. A music practice supporting appliance according to claim 1, wherein the signal input unit includes:

a vibration sensor for converting a vibration into the electric signal; and

a fixing unit for fixing the music practice supporting appliance on the musical instrument.

8. A music practice supporting appliance according to claim. 1, wherein the waveform processing unit includes:

a waveform shaping unit for converting a waveform of the amplified input signal into the rectangular wave; and

a musical interval detecting unit for acquiring a frequency of a musical sound from the shaped input signal data and detecting musical interval information from the acquired frequency.

9. A music practice supporting appliance according to claim 3, wherein:

the waveform processing unit includes;

a waveform shaping unit for converting a waveform of the amplified input signal into the rectangular wave; and

a musical interval detecting unit for acquiring a frequency of a musical sound from the shaped input signal data and detecting musical interval information from the acquired frequency,

wherein the display method setting unit includes settings of a center musical interval and a range, displays the musical interval information on the display unit, displays the center musical interval at a predetermined position of the screen along a direction of the ordinate, displays deviation from the center musical interval along the direction of the ordinate, and displays an elapse of time along a direction of the abscissa.

10. A music practice supporting appliance according to claim 1, wherein:

the waveform processing unit includes;

a sample-and-hold unit for detecting a level of the input signal amplified by the input signal amplifying unit; and

a hold time setting unit for setting an output holding time period of the sample-and-hold unit; and

the input signal data corresponds to level information of the input signal.

11. A music practice supporting appliance according to claim 3, wherein:

the waveform processing unit includes;

a sample-and-hold unit for detecting a level of the input signal amplified by the input signal amplifying unit; and

a hold time setting unit for setting an output holding time period of the sample-and-hold unit;

the input signal data corresponds to sound volume information of the input signal; and

the display method setting unit includes settings of a center sound volume and a range, displays the sound volume information on the display unit, displays the center sound volume at a predetermined position of the screen along a direction of the ordinate, displays deviation from the center sound volume along the direction of the ordinate, and displays an elapse of time along a direction of the abscissa.

12. A music practice supporting appliance according to claim 9, wherein:

the waveform processing unit includes;

a sample-and-hold unit for detecting a level of the input signal amplified by the input signal amplifying unit; and

a hold time setting unit for setting an output holding time period of the sample-and-hold unit;

the input signal data corresponds to sound volume information of the input signal;

the display method setting unit includes settings of a center sound volume and a range, displays the sound volume information on the display unit, displays the center sound volume at a predetermined position of the screen along a direction of the ordinate, displays deviation from the center sound volume along the direction of the ordinate, and displays an elapse of time along a direction of the abscissa; and

the display method setting unit sets a layout with respect to displays of both the musical interval information and peak information.