Musical key transposer

• US 6,245,981 B1
• Filed: 03/27/2000
• Issued: 06/12/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 03/26/1999
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Jonathan R. Smith
• Original Assignee: Jonathan R. Smith
• Inventors: Smith, Jonathan R.
• Primary Examiner(s): Donels, Jeffrey
• Application Number:
  US09/536,359
• Time in Patent Office: 442 Days
• Field of Search: 844/56, 844/70.R, 844/71.R, 844/74
• US Class Current: 84/474
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 15/005 of the slide type

Abstract

A circular slide attachment with pitch notations and additional markings is provided to enable circular pitch instruments and their indicia to be used for transposing musical keys. In the preferred embodiment of the invention, a circular slide having twelve chromatic scale note indicia is rotatably and coaxially fixed to a thirteen-tone pitch instrument bearing thirteen note indicia. Additional markings affixed to the pitch instrument cooperate with markings on the slide to enable transposition of the notes represented by one set of indicia to the notes represented by the other.

Claims

1. A transposing device, comprising:

A solid upper body (22) and a solid lower body (21);

the upper body having a periphery (7) and a center (11);

the upper body being rotatably affixed at its center with slight frictional engagement to the lower body;

the bottom surface (17) of the upper body and the top surface (3) of the lower body being of similar contour so as to permit smooth rotation of the upper body in contact with the lower body through any angle of rotation;

the upper face (9) of the upper body being marked with a number X of upper characters (8) to form an upper uniform circular array;

the lower body being marked with a number X+1 equally-spaced lower characters (4), at least two of which are identical and adjacent, and all of which form a lower uniform circular array;

the lower surface (3) being further marked by delineations ((18) in FIG. 5, (29) in FIG.

     6) corresponding to, and capable of being rotatably aligned with, the upper characters, the delineations also having a one-to-one correspondence with X−

1 of the lower characters and a one-to-two correspondence with the two adjacent remaining lower characters.

2. The transposing device of claim 1, wherein:

X=12;

said upper characters are the standard letter notations of the chromatic musical scale in any order; and

said lower characters are the same notations in the same order with one character appearing twice side-by-side.

3. The transposing device of claim 2 wherein said lower body (21) comprises a radially-symmetrical arrangement of pitch producing instruments, each instrument, when played, producing the tone represented by the nearmost of said lower characters.

4. The transposing device of claim 3 wherein said pitch producing instruments consist of vibrating reeds with air inlet openings (1) at the periphery (2) of said lower body.

5. A musical key transposer, comprising:

a disk-shaped upper body (22) and a lower body (21) containing pitch-producing elements;

the upper body being approximately circular and having a periphery (7) and a center (11);

the upper body being rotatably affixed at its center with slight frictional engagement to the lower body;

The width of the upper body being less that the width of the lower body, exposing an annular surface portion of the top surface of the lower body;

the bottom surface (17) of the upper body and the top surface (3) of the lower body being flat and capable of smooth rotation relative to one another about the center through any angle of rotation;

the upper face (9) of the upper body being marked in even spacing near its periphery with the twelve musical notations of the chromatic scale in order of increasing pitch;

the annular surface of the lower body being marked with thirteen equally-spaced musical notations of the chromatic scale in the same order, two of which constitute a pair of identical and adjacent notations;

the annular surface of the lower body being further marked by lines connecting the eleven unpaired lower notations and the pair of identical notations with twelve evenly-spaced positions on the inner periphery of the annular surface, so that the twelve evenly-spaced notations on the upper body can be rotated into exact correspondence with any of the twelve possible sequences of the evenly-spaced positions on the annular surface of the lower body.

6. A musical key transposing attachment for a circular pitch instrument, the instrument comprising an upper face containing a first circular array of musical pitch notations, the attachment comprising:

a thin solid disk having a face formed to match the contour of the upper face of the pitch instrument;

the disk being of a diameter smaller than the first circular array;

the disk further having musical pitch notations arranged in a second circular array;

the disk further having, at its center, means of rotatable attachment to the pitch instrument;

the attachment means permitting the formed face of the attachment to slidably contact the upper side of the pitch instrument;

the second array cooperating visually with the first array, so that when the signature for a desired key on the second array is rotated to a position adjacent the signature of a given key on the first array, each of the notes in the scale of the desired key can be found on the second array adjacent to the corresponding note from the given key on the first array.

7. The musical key transposing attachment of claim 6, wherein said first array and said second array consist of an equal number of pitch notations.

8. The musical key transposing attachment of claim 7, wherein said number is twelve and said notations correspond to the twelve pitches of the chromatic musical scale in ascending order.

9. The musical key transposing attachment of claim 6 wherein:

said first circular array consists of the twelve pitches of the chromatic scale plus one pitch being a repeat of an adjacent pitch;

the first array being supplemented with alignment markings inwardly disposed toward said center from the first array, the alignment markings each defining a space between them, the spaces having an outer gap and an inner gap;

the outer gaps being spaced apart at twelve intervals, eleven of which subtend one-thirteenth of a circle, the twelfth of which is a wide gap subtending two-thirteenths of a circle;

the wide outer gap being centered on the pair of repeated adjacent pitches;

the inner gaps being twelve equal intervals each subtending one-twelfth of a circle;

the alignment markings having inner termini just outside said diameter of said disk; and

said upper pitch notations thereby being positionable radially adjacent to said inner termini by manual rotation of said disk about said center.