WO2015092421A1

WO2015092421A1 - Method for facilitating the learning of a musical instrument using a display apparatus for real time feedback

Info

Publication number: WO2015092421A1
Application number: PCT/GB2014/053779
Authority: WO
Inventors: Stuart Mitchell ROBERTS
Original assignee: Roberts Stuart Mitchell
Priority date: 2013-12-19
Filing date: 2014-12-19
Publication date: 2015-06-25
Also published as: GB201322513D0

Abstract

Method for facilitating the learning of a musical instrument wherein a visual and teaching aid is used. It provides instant real time feedback to a learner. They can see instantly if the note their musical instrument is producing is correct, and if not, if the note is too high or too low - and by how much. Includes automatic scrolling of notes while they are being played and possibility to tune instrument.

Description

METHOD FOR FACILITATING THE LEARNING OF A MUSICAL INSTRUMENT USING A DISPLAY APPARATUS FOR REAL TIME FEEDBACK

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a method for facilitating the learning of a musical instrument. More particularly, the present invention relates to a method for facilitating the learning of a musical instrument wherein a visual teaching aid is used to facilitate the learning process.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Learning a musical instrument is extremely difficult and time consuming. In addition music teachers can be expensive for the parents of children trying to learn thereby providing a real disincentive.

There are about 1 ,000,000 new instruments sold from the violin family each year - with a large proportion of these sales going to learners.

Although tuners already exist, such as violin tuners existing as apps on iPhones

(Registered Trade Mark) and iPads (Registered Trade Mark) these tuners are not suited to teaching learners how to play the instruments.

Furthermore, although there are karaoke apps which are used to highlight musical staves during which music is played these apps do not assist a learner in learning a musical instrument.

There therefore exists a need for an improved method in which to facilitate the learning of a musical instrument by a learner, and in particular young learners.

It is an object of at least one aspect of the present invention to obviate or mitigate at least one or more of the aforementioned problems.

It is a further object of at least one aspect of the present invention to provide a visual aid method for the learning of a musical instrument. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

According to a first aspect of the present invention there is provided a system for facilitating the learning of a musical instrument said system comprising:

providing a display apparatus capable of displaying lines of music;

said display apparatus also being capable of providing visual feedback to indicate the note being played is at the correct pitch;

said display apparatus also being capable of adding colours to notes of the music;

said display apparatus also being capable of emphasising the appearance of a note when it is incorrectly played;

wherein a user using the system is capable of improving their learning of how to play a musical instrument.

The present invention may therefore be used to facilitate the learning process of a musical instrument and, in particular, provide instant real time feedback to a learner thereby making the experience more interactive and enjoyable. By providing continuous real time visual feedback to learners, they can see instantly if the note their musical instrument is producing is correct, and if not, if the note is too high or too low - and by how much - the learner can then take corrective action.

The display apparatus may display any appropriate number of lines of music.

In use, the next note to be played may be illuminated. This may, for example, occur on a computer or a tablet or any other suitable display system. In the event that a learner plays the correct note then the illuminated note changes colour to, for example, green and when the note has been sustained for the correct pitch for the required time (e.g. one beat) then the next note is illuminated and changes, for example, green when the note has been sustained for the correct pitch for the required time. When the correct note is played then text may be displayed - 'Correct note played'. There may then be a further prompt with 'Next cue'; the next part of the music may then be shown and the process may be repeated. This process can be repeated for as long as required until the piece of music is finished.

In the event, where the first note is played to high - text such as 'Note too high' may be displayed. The illuminated note may then turn, for example, red and a, for example, red column may appear above the note on the stave. The height of the column may be proportional to the amount by which the note is too high. The learner may then be prompted to take corrective action - as corrective action is taken, the height of the column changes until it disappears, and the colour of the illuminated note changes, for example, to green. In addition, when the correct note has been played for the correct time (e.g. one beat) then the next note may be illuminated as before in - 'Next cue'.

In the event, where the first note is played too low - text such as 'Note too low' may be displayed. The illuminated note may then change colour, for example turn red and a column may appear below the note on the stave. The learner may then be prompted to take corrective action - as corrective action is taken the height of the column changes until it disappears when the note is correct. In addition, when the correct note has been played for the correct time (e.g. one beat) then the next note is illuminated as before.

The learning system according to the present invention may be played on suitable display devices such as iPhones (Registered Trade Mark) and iPads (Registered Trade Mark), other tablets and computers. The present invention may also be used for string or brass based instruments e.g. the trombone, bugle and trumpet.

A further feature of the present invention is that the system can be used to tune instruments such as fret-less stringed instruments e.g. violins. For example, after first tuning the open strings of a violin to their correct pitch G D A E, to obtain other notes a violinist must press a string down firmly against the fingerboard to shorten its length by ¹² 2 (twelfth root of 2) for each semitone.

Having reduced the length of a vibrating string to raise its note by a semitone, although the proportion by which it needs to be reduced to increase the note by a further semitone is the same, the actual distance by which the finger needs to move to achieve this reduction is less.

With no frets, or markings on the fingerboard to guide the learner violinist as to where the fingers should be placed, unless there is feedback from a teacher, or the learner has perfect pitch, it is a very long time before a learner begins to play notes correctly.

By providing continuous real time visual feedback to learners, they can see instantly if the note their, for example, violin is producing is correct, and if not, if the note is too high or too low - and by how much - the learner can then take corrective action.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Embodiments of the present invention will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:

Figure 1 is a representation of a method for learning a music instrument according to an aspect of the present invention; and

Figure 2 is a further representation of a method for learning a music instrument according to an aspect of the present invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION

Generally speaking, the present invention resides in the provision of a method for facilitating the learning of a musical instrument wherein a visual teaching aid is used to facilitate the learning process. A particular advantage of the proposed new learning method is that it provides instant real time feedback to a learner thereby making the experience more interactive and enjoyable.

Figure 1 is a representation of the learning method according to the present invention. The music illustrates the first bar of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star' which is common starting point for a music learner.

As shown in Figure 1 there are three lines of music.

The top line represents that when a tutorial session begins, the first note is illuminated. This is shown in Figure 1 by the 'Cue given' text. This may, for example, occur on a computer or a tablet or any other suitable display system. In the event that a learner plays the correct note then the illuminated note changes colour to green and when the note has been sustained for the correct pitch for the required time (e.g. one beat) then the next note is illuminated and changes green etc. when the note has been sustained for the correct pitch for the required time. As shown in Figure 1 when the correct note is played then this is displayed - 'Correct note played'. There is then a further prompt and as shown in Figure 1 with 'Next cue' the next part of the music is shown and the process is repeated. This process can be repeated for as long as required until the piece of music is finished.

The middle line in Figure 1 represents the situation where the first note is played too high - 'Note too high'. The illuminated note then turns red and a red column 10 appears above the note on the stave - this is shown by reference numeral 10 in Figure 1. The height of the red column 10 is proportional to the amount by which the note is too high. The learner is then prompted to take corrective action - as corrective action is taken the height of the red column 10 changes until it disappears and the red column 10 changes to illumination of the note in green. In addition, when the correct note has been played for the correct time (e.g. one beat) then the next note is illuminated as before in - 'Next cue'.

The bottom line in Figure 1 represents the situation when the first note is played too low - 'Note too low'. Similar, to the situation shown in line 2 then the illuminated note then turns red and a red column 12 appears below the note on the stave - this is shown by reference numeral 12 in Figure 1. The learner is then prompted to take corrective action - as corrective action is taken the height of the red column 12 changes until it disappears and the red column 12 changes to illumination of the note in green. In addition, when the correct note has been played for the correct time (e.g. one beat) then the next note is illuminated as before.

Figure 2 is a further representation of the method of learning music according to the present invention. In the bottom of Figure 2 there is shown the typical change in appearance of three notes as they are played. We have incorporated below the note a tick ' S ' to shown when the correct not is played, a ' Q ' for a cue note and a cross ' X ' when the wrong note is played. This therefore provides a user with a visual representation of the accuracy of their music being played and by how much any wrong notes are.

By providing continuous real time visual feedback to learners, a user can see instantly if the note their musical instrument is producing is correct, and if not, if the note is too high or too low - and by how much - the learner can then take corrective action.

The semitone is considered to be made up of 100 Cents. For errors greater than or equal to one semitone, the error bar is at its full height - the actual height (in pixels) will depend on the resolution of the display - and its height is reduced in proportion to the log base 10 of the error expressed in Cents.

The log 10 an error of 100 cents is 2, the log 10 of a 10 Cent error is 1 , although the error has been reduced by 90% the height of the bar has only halved. Therefore the smaller the error, the more sensitive the display becomes. Thus when the final pixel which is usually red and shown by reference numeral 12 in Figure 1 and the error note shown by the ' X ' symbol in Figure 2 disappears, the player can be certain that the note being played is correct. This therefore provides a complete novel and visual way to learn a musical instrument.

The learning system according to the present invention may be played on suitable display device such as iPhones (Registered Trade Mark) and iPads (Registered Trade Mark), other tablets and computers. The present invention may also be used for string or wind based instruments.

A further feature of the present invention is that the system can be used to initially tune instruments such as string instruments e.g. violins.

For example, after first tuning the open strings of a violin to their correct pitch G D A E, to obtain other notes a violinist must press a string down firmly against the fingerboard to shorten its length by ¹² ₂ (twelfth root of 2) for each semitone.

This initial lack of progress is extremely frustrating for the learner and causes a high dropout rate. And whilst parents may actively encourage their children to learn to play the violin, in the early stages they are all relieved when practice sessions end. The present invention provides a method in which to speed up the learning of a musical instrument such as a violin.

In addition the invention and system presently described can be used to ensure that the musical instrument such as a violin is always in tune. By providing continuous real time visual feedback to learners, they can see instantly if the note their violin is producing is correct, and if not, if the note is too high or too low - and by how much - the learner can then take corrective action.

The novice player will not move on to a second note until the first note attempted has been played correctly; off notes are not permitted. As the violin will always be in tune, it follows that for a specific note to be played correctly, the player's fingers must always be in exactly the same position. So while using the tutor, the learner's fingers will spend most time in their correct positions and the learner will hear the correct note being played. It is believed that because of this constant physical repetition which has both aural and visual reinforcement, the development of the manual dexterity required to play the musical instrument such as a violin well will be achieved at a rate comparable to that seen with hand-held computer games.

It should be noted that the present invention can also be used for teaching people how to use wind instruments. For example, all players of brass instruments such as the trumpet, have to purse their lips in a precise way to obtain specific notes. The present invention can therefore be used to train a leaner to play the instrument using the system as described above.

Whilst specific embodiments of the present invention have been described above, it will be appreciated that departures from the described embodiments may still fall within the scope of the present invention. For example, any suitable type of display device may be used to show the notes and indicate whether the music is being played correctly or not. Furthermore, the method of the present invention may be used to train a learner to use any fret-less string or brass musical instrument.

Claims

1. A system for facilitating the learning of a musical instrument the system comprising:

providing a display apparatus capable of displaying lines of music;

A system for facilitating the learning of a musical instrument according to claim 1 , wherein the system provides instant real time feedback to a learner thereby making the experience more interactive and enjoyable and provides visual feedback to learners allowing them to see if the note they are is producing is correct, and if not, if the note is too high or too low and by how much.

A system for facilitating the learning of a musical instrument according to any of claims 1 or 2, wherein the display apparatus is capable of displaying any appropriate number of lines of music.

A system for facilitating the learning of a musical instrument according to any preceding claim, wherein in use, the next note to be played is illuminated providing the function that when a learner plays the correct note then the illuminated note changes colour to, for example, green and when the note has been sustained for the correct pitch for the required time (e.g. one beat) then the next note is illuminated and changes, for example, to green when the note has been sustained for the correct pitch for the required time.

5. A system for facilitating the learning of a musical instrument according to claim 4, wherein when the correct note is played then this is displayed - 'Correct note played' and there is then a further prompt with 'Next cue'; the next part of the music is then shown and the process repeated.

6. A system for facilitating the learning of a musical instrument according to any of claims 1 to 3, wherein in the event, where the first note is played too high - text such as 'Note too high' is displayed, an illuminated note is then changed in colour to, for example, red and a column is capable of appearing above the note on the stave.

7. A system for facilitating the learning of a musical instrument according to claim 6, wherein the height of the column is proportional to the amount by which the note is too high allowing the learner to then be prompted to take corrective action - as corrective action is taken the height of the column changes until it disappears and the column changes colour to illumination of the note in, for example, green.

8. A system for facilitating the learning of a musical instrument according to any of claims 1 to 3, wherein in the event, where the first note is played too low - text such as 'Note too low' is displayed, an illuminated note is then changed in colour to, for example, red and a column appears below the note on the stave.

9. A system for facilitating the learning of a musical instrument according to claim 8, wherein the learner is then be prompted to take corrective action - as corrective action is taken the height of the column changes until it disappears and the column changes colour to illumination of the note in, for example, green.

10. A system for facilitating the learning of a musical instrument according to any preceding claim, wherein the learning system is capable of being played on suitable display device such as iPhones (Registered Trade Mark) and iPads (Registered Trade Mark), other tablets and computers.

11. A system for facilitating the learning of a musical instrument according to any preceding claim, wherein the learning system is capable of being used to teach learners how to play string, brass or wind based instruments.

12. A system for facilitating the learning of a musical instrument according to any preceding claim, wherein the system is capable of being used to tune instruments such as string instruments e.g. violins.

13. A system for facilitating the learning of a musical instrument according to claim 12, wherein when tuning an instrument by providing continuous real time visual feedback to learners, they can see instantly if the note their musical instrument such as a violin is producing is correct, and if not, if the note is too high or too low - and by how much - the learner can then take corrective action.

14. A system for facilitating the learning of a musical instrument as hereinbefore described and/or as shown in Figure 1.