Patent Application
20160143434
The present invention relates generally to the field of music stands, and, more particularly, to a music support to hold printed music, wherein the support is held in place by the weight of an electronic keyboard and is preferably not attached to a support stand.
Electronic keyboards are popular with professional musicians and amateurs alike. When someone buys an electronic keyboard, he typically buys a number of items with it, such as a stool, a support table to hold the keyboard at a convenient height in front of him, a set of speakers, and an amplifier. But, one often forgets that he will need something to hold printed music in front of him as he is seated at the keyboard.
There are many music stands available on the market. A typical music stand includes a base that rests on the floor, a vertical support column, and a rack coupled to the support column that holds printed music. Unfortunately, this type of music stand requires a certain amount of space between the keyboard and the wall behind it so that the keyboard takes up even greater space in the room in which it is located. Also, a typical music stand available on the market does not include a light fixture so that some sort of light source is required to see printed music placed on the music stand.
A music stand is needed that does not take up floor space, is flexible enough to accommodate keyboard players of all heights, and provides, if desired, illumination to printed music placed on the stand. The music stand disclosed herein provides these and other features.
A horizontal plate is arranged to fit between an electronic keyboard and a support stand on which the electronic keyboard rests. The horizontal plate is attached to a vertical plate, preferably with a portion of the vertical plate extending above the horizontal plate and a portion of the vertical plate extending below the horizontal plate. A rack may be attached to the vertical plate on a side of the vertical plate away from the horizontal plate, although the rack may be attached toward the horizontal plate, and thus toward the keyboard and keyboard player. Preferably, a light is attached to the rack to provide illumination to printed music placed on the rack.
These and other features and advantages of this invention will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art.
So that the manner in which the above recited features, advantages and objects of the present invention are attained and can be understood in detail, more particular description of the invention, briefly summarized above, may be had by reference to embodiments thereof which are illustrated in the appended drawings.
A telescoping mount 36 is preferably joined to the vertical mount 28. As shown, the telescoping mount 36 is preferably joined to the back of the vertical mount 28, although it may be joined to the front of the vertical mount. The telescoping mount 36 comprises a cylinder portion 38 and an extending arm 40. The extending arm is held at a user-selectable position by a friction lock 42 and, when the friction lock is released, the extending arm is free to move up and down, as well as rotate within the cylinder portion.
The extending arm terminates in a swivel 34 that rotates around an axis 44 A music rack 46 is securing affixed to the swivel 34. The music rack comprises a bottom member 48 and a top member 50, formed as a unit and angled at roughly 90° to each other. The swivel permits the user to position the rack at an angle best suited to the user.
A lamp assembly 52 is mounted to the top member 50, preferably on the back of the top member, as shown. Mounting the lamp assembly to the front of the top member is more likely to interfere with sheet music held on the rack. In a preferred embodiment, the rack assembly 52 comprises a mounting plate 54, a light fixture 56, and an extension 58 coupling the mounting plate 54 to the light fixture 56. The extension may be a rigid bracket, but is preferably a flexible gooseneck to allow for flexible positioning of the fixture to suit the user. An electrical cord (not shown) powers the light fixture and runs along the music stand so that is plugged into an available outlet on the keyboard or into a wall outlet in the conventional manner.
The principles, preferred embodiment, and mode of operation of the present invention have been described in the foregoing specification. This invention is not to be construed as limited to the particular forms disclosed, since these are regarded as illustrative rather than restrictive. Moreover, variations and changes may be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit of the invention.
