Musical instrument tuning method and apparatus

• US 20080264238A1
• Filed: 04/21/2008
• Published: 10/30/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 04/20/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Master Key LLC
• Original Assignee: Master Key LLC
• Inventors: Lemons, Kenneth R.
• Granted Patent: US 7,928,306 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 84/454
• CPC Class Codes: G10G 1/00 Means for the representation of music
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 1/383 Chord detection and/or recognition, e.g. for correction, or automatic bass generation
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 2220/005 Non-interactive screen display of musical or status data graphical user interfaces specifically adapted for electrophonic musical instruments G10H2220/091; fingering displays G10H2220/041
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 2250/031 Spectrum envelope processing

Abstract

The present disclosure relates to musical instruments and devices. A system is provided which utilizes tonal visualization components incorporating color and/or shape to allow a person to “see” a note or group of notes sounded by an instrument to determine whether the instrument is in tune and make appropriate adjustments if necessary.

Claims

1. A system for tuning a musical instrument, comprising:

a sound input device;

a processing device; and

a display;

wherein;

said processing device executes computer readable code to create a first visual representation of a sound sensed by said sound input device for output on said display;

wherein;

said sound is generated by a musical instrument; and

wherein;

said first visual representation is generated according to a method comprising the steps of;

(a) labeling equally spaced points along the perimeter of a circle with a plurality of labels corresponding to a plurality of equally spaced frequency intervals in an octave, such that moving clockwise or counter-clockwise between adjacent ones of said labels represents a first frequency interval;

(b) identifying a first point associated with a first label corresponding to a first frequency;

(c) identifying an occurrence of a second frequency within said sound;

(d) identifying a second point on the perimeter of the circle corresponding to the second frequency;

(e) creating a first line connecting the first point and the second point; and

wherein;

the color of the first line is determined by to the frequency difference between the first frequency and the second frequency according to a predefined scheme.