Patent Application
20240221705
The present disclosure generally relates to the field of musical instruments, and in particular, to woodwind instruments.
When a young child or person with small hands is first learning to play the saxophone their small hands struggle to reach around the saxophone. It is common for a student with small hands to accidentally press open the left hand palm keys (D. D sharp. F) causing wrong notes and frustration. Because of this it is common for music teachers to advise a small handed student to delay learning until their grip length grows. Sadly, the saxophone palm keys that block early learning for small hands are rarely used or taught during the first year of learning.
While it is common to see ¼ scale violins made for smaller students, it is very rare to find smaller scale saxophones. Those that are available are expensive.
Small handed saxophone students need a low-cost way to remove bulky palm keys so the saxophone is more slender to grasp and easier for small handed learners.
The present disclosure describes a device for removing a woodwind key and sealing closed the related tone hole with a water tight and air tight cover. Selectively removing bulky woodwind keys and sealing closed their related tone hole openings, allows people with small hands to reach around the instrument and play.
Various terms used in the present disclosure are described as follows, although such terms may have other descriptions included in the present disclosure.
“Musical Instrument.” “Wind Instrument,” “Woodwind” or “Instrument” refers to any portable woodwind instrument. For example, saxophone, clarinet, flute, oboe, etc.
“Body,” or “Body Tube” refers to any part of a woodwind musical instrument used for the generation of sound, or the surface along which, or through which, the sound resonates and/or travels. The body includes the structure through which the forced air and/or sound vibrations flow.
“Tone Hole” refers to any opening of a woodwind instrument that the musician opens or closes via key mechanism or finger closure to adjust musical tone.
“Tone Hole Chimney,” or “Chimney” refers to the portion of a woodwind instrument body that extends out from the tone hole up toward the key pad or valve pad or finger closure that opens and closes the tone hole.
“Cover Piece” or “Tone Hole Cover” refers to any device, ancillary to a woodwind instrument, that is intended to cause a closure seal of a tone hole or related tone hole chimney, thus disabling the venting operation of that woodwind instrument tone hole.
“Adhesive,” refers to any substance that adheres to or causes materials to stick fast to a tone hole or tone hole chimney.
“Key Mechanism,” or “keys” refers to the body ribs, posts, rods, arms, key touches, key tabs, springs, key cups, pads, bumpers, guards, feet, levers, auxiliary levers, or a lyre holder of a musical instrument.
It should be noted that although various devices are described below with reference to sealing saxophone tone holes, devices are not intended to be limited only to saxophones. The devices may be scaled and adjusted to work with any woodwind musical instrument.
It is appreciated that the previous description of the disclosed embodiments is provided to enable any person skilled in the art to make or use the present disclosure. Various modifications to these embodiments will be apparent to those skilled in the art, and the generic principles defined herein may be applied to other embodiments without departing from the spirit or scope of the disclosure. Thus, the present disclosure is not intended to be limited to the embodiments shown herein but is to be accorded the widest scope consistent with the principles and novel features disclosed herein.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 63478186 | Jan 2023 | US |
