Music training apparatus

• US 5,563,358 A
• Filed: 02/18/1994
• Issued: 10/08/1996
• Est. Priority Date: 12/06/1991
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Thomas G. Zimmerman
• Original Assignee: Thomas G. Zimmerman
• Inventors: Zimmerman, Thomas G.
• Primary Examiner(s): STANZIONE, PATRICK
• Application Number:
  US08/198,254
• Time in Patent Office: 963 Days
• Field of Search: 84/470 R, 84/477 R, 84/478, 84/454, 434/307 R
• US Class Current: 84/477.00R
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 15/00 Teaching music metronomes G04F5/02
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 1/361 Recording/reproducing of accompaniment for use with an external source, e.g. karaoke systems
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 1/44 Tuning means
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 2210/031 Musical analysis, i.e. isolation, extraction or identification of musical elements or musical parameters from a raw acoustic signal or from an encoded audio signal
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 2210/091 for performance evaluation, i.e. judging, grading or scoring the musical qualities or faithfulness of a performance, e.g. with respect to pitch, tempo or other timings of a reference performance
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 2220/011 Lyrics displays, e.g. for karaoke applications

Abstract

An apparatus to assist the musical instruction of a student including one or more tone sources (e.g. flute, human voice, violin) playing monophonically as inputs, means to quantify aural parameters of pitch, amplitude, duration, and timbre of inputs, means to visually store and represent temporal history of said, means to store and playback audio signal of inputs, and means to arrive at and display musical related pitches. A digital waveform analyzer is used to control a tunable low-pass filter in the pitch tracker and preform spectral estimation of timbre. Also, a digital version is described. Pre-recorded music instruction and a karaoke player are used as examples of reference tone sources. Visual representation of aural parameters can be provided as video output.

Claims

1. A music training apparatus for teaching a student correct pitch and other musical skills by reference to a stored or pre-recorded musical sequence, comprising:

display means for presenting a live image visible to the student,

means for receiving a monophonic reference source and sending a variable signal in accordance therewith to the visual display means, so that the display means shows a sequence of pitch values, the monophonic reference source comprising desired pitches to be achieved by the student,

means for providing an audible tone reference to the student in unison with the monophonic reference source and sharing the same fundamental sequence of tones as the monophonic reference source,

pickup means for picking up intonations made by the student in attempting to follow the audible tone reference to produce a digitized waveform,

means to detect amplitude and summed energy of digitized waveforms,

means to produce a plurality of pitch determinations from the digitized waveform,

means to choose one of said plurality of pitch determinations and produce a pitch track signal, and

computer means for receiving pitch track signals from the pitch tracker means and for generating a signal to the display means, to display visually a temporal history of the series of intonations made by the student, superimposed with the desired sequence of pitch values as represented by the monophonic reference source and shown on the display.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the monophonic reference source comprises an audible tone, and including a second pitch tracker means receiving the monophonic reference source, the second pitch tracker means generating a signal to the computer means, which in turn is used to generate the display of the monophonic reference source pitches on the visual display means.

3. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the audible tone reference includes the monophonic reference source.

4. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the monophonic reference source comprises a live, unrecorded intonation.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the computer means includes means for presenting the student'"'"'s intonations and the desired sequence of pitch values in a scrolling format moving across the display means.

6. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the display means includes monophonic display means for displaying the pitch of the monophonic source as a line whose vertical position increases with the pitch of the monophonic source.

7. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the computer means and the display means include pitch display means for displaying the pitch of the student'"'"'s intonation as a line whose vertical position increases with the pitch of the student'"'"'s intonation, in a format visually similar to the line displayed for the monophonic reference source.

8. The apparatus of claim 1, further including means associated with the computer means and the visual display means for displaying in advance a section of the desired sequence of pitch values in a display format visually similar to the display format used to display said temporal history of the series of intonations made by the student.

9. The apparatus of claim 1, further including amplitude determination means for providing information on the display means relating to the student'"'"'s amplitude as well as meter and pitch.

10. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the computer means includes means for displaying pitch as height of a line segment on the display means, and amplitude as thickness of the line on the display means.

11. The apparatus of claim 1, further including means to determine spectral brightness of the digitized waveform for providing information on the display means relating to the student'"'"'s timbre as well as meter and pitch.

12. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the computer means further includes means for displaying pitch as height of a line segment on the display means, and timbre as color of the line on the display means.

13. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein said means to determine spectral brightness comprises means to determine and count the number of zero crossings of said digitized waveform.

14. The apparatus of claim 1, further including means for digitally storing in the computer means a brief history of the audible tone reference and of the visual display relating to the monophonic reference source for a selected interval, for replay audibly and on the visual display means as desired.

15. The application of claim 1, wherein the audible tone references comprises a polyphonic music source.

16. The application of claim 1, wherein the monophonic reference source comprises a note event list.

17. The application of claim 16, wherein the audible tone reference comprises a series of tones produced from the note event list.

18. The application of claim 16, wherein the means for providing an audible tone reference comprises a stereo audio tape recording having one channel with the note event list as the monophonic reference source, and another channel carrying the audible tone reference.

19. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the monophonic reference source further comprises encoded lyrics.

20. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the monophonic reference further comprises encoded computer commands with means for causing further features to be displayed on the display means.

21. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the means for providing an audible tone reference comprises a stereo recording having one channel carrying audible tones as the monophonic reference source and another channel carrying the audible tone reference.

22. The apparatus of claim 21, wherein the audible tones of the monophonic reference source comprise solo singing.

23. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the computer means further includes means for representing as two different lines of different brightness on the display means, the sequence of pitch values from the monophonic reference source and the series of intonations made by the student.

24. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the monophonic reference source comprises a pre-recorded sequence.

25. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the computer means and display means include means for visually displaying musically related pitches to the monophonic reference source.

26. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the monophonic reference is stored on audio tape.

27. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the monophonic reference is stored on compact disk.

28. A music training apparatus for teaching a student correct pitch and other musical skills by reference to a stored or pre-recorded musical sequence, comprising:

a display;

a storage system to store the pre-recorded musical sequence;

an audio input transducer which converts sound made by a student into a digitized waveform; and

a processing system coupled to the display, the storage system, the audio output transducer and the audio input transducer, the processing system including resources which

send a variable signal to the display in accordance the pre-recorded musical sequence, so that the display shows a sequence of pitch values,

pick up intonations made by the student through the audio input transducer in attempting to follow the sequence of pitch values,

detect features of frames of the digitized waveform,

produce a plurality of pitch determinations based on the detected features for the frames,

choose one of said plurality of pitch determinations and produce a pitch track signal, and

cause the display to graphically depict a temporal history of the series of intonations indicated by the pitch track signal, superimposed with the desired sequence of pitch values.

29. The music training apparatus of claim 28, further including:

a audio output transducer; and

resources in the processing system which provide an audible tone reference to the student through the audio output transducer, in response to the pre-recorded musical sequence and sharing the same fundamental sequence of tones as the pre-recorded musical sequence.