This invention relates generally to note playing guide template for a musical keyboard.
Modern piano keyboards comprise 52 white keys and 36 black keys, totalling 88 keys and covering seven octaves plus a minor third (from A0 to C8). The black keys are raised and set further back as compared to the white keys and each key represents a specific musical note. The white keys signify the seven note names (A-G) whereas the black keys identify sharp or flat notes.
Musical keyboard playing guides which use templates that are placed over piano keys have been devised for aiding beginners by indicating the key positions.
Most musical keyboard guides comprise a panel which stands vertically against the keyboard fall board to indicate relative key positioning thereunderneath, including U.S. Pat. No. 4,905,567 A (KAVOKLIS et al.) 6 Mar. 1990 which discloses a musical instrument teaching aid which comprises sections which snap together and stand vertically against the fall board to represent notes.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,107,743 A (DECKER) 28 Apr. 1992 similarly discloses a panel which stands vertically across the keyboard but which has lights located directly above the piano keys to be played.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,897,861 B2 (Delong et al.) 2010 Aug. 26 similarly has pre-printed rectangular sheets which are inserted upright behind the keyboard and which have instructional fingering guides marked as arrows to assist students learning and practice playing scale sequences both forwards and backwards.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,881,887 B2 (Berens) 2005 Jan. 27 similarly discloses a guide with vertical numerically colour-coded lines which can be moved along behind the keyboard.
Other configurations have been devised, including the arrangement taught by JP 2008304879 A (HAMAYOSHI ERIKO) 18 Dec. 2008 which has a rear vertical fixing section which stands vertically against the keyboard backboard and from which a plurality of pitch name indicating sections extend orthogonally across the white keys.
JP 3210842 U (TAEKO OSAKI) 8 Jun. 2017 discloses another version having a booklet having rectangular cutouts along a binding thereof so that various pages thereof may be opened across the white keys.
GB 163921 A (SIEGEL) 2 Jun. 1921 furthermore discloses a note indicator to be laid on a piano keyboard which comprises a plate which rests on the rear parts of the white keys and has forwardly-projecting depressible tongues bearing different pictures of common objects and/or notes. The black keys project through slots in the plate which is extended vertically to a part folded rear parts of the black keys which similarly bear pictures of objects or notes.
The present invention seeks to provide a guide template for a musical keyboard, which will overcome or substantially ameliorate at least some of the deficiencies of the prior art, or to at least provide an alternative.
It is to be understood that, if any prior art information is referred to herein, such reference does not constitute an admission that the information forms part of the common general knowledge in the art, in Australia or any other country.
There is provided herein a note playing guide template for a musical keyboard comprising raised keys (typically coloured black) and lower keys (typically white).
The template has a spine holding a plurality of interstitial guide pieces extending from one side of the spine which have guide annotations.
The template is planar so that, in use, the template can be laid flat across the lower keys so that the spine is coplanar with the guide pieces, the guide pieces fit between the raised key and the spine fits behind the raised keys.
The present configuration was surprisingly found to be able to fit most commercially available keyboards discreetly and without easily becoming dislodged unlike the aforedescribed prior art arrangements which stand above the lower keys.
The spine may have a width of less than 10 mm, preferably approximately 5 mm. As such, the present spine was found to be able to either fit between the fall board and rear edges of the raised keys of most commercial keyboards or extend slightly under the fall board for more compact commercial keyboards.
The template is preferably flexible and may be made of rubber such as silicon, a material which allows the template to lie flat across the lower keys with a relatively higher coefficient of static friction as compared to cardboard or the like to prevent movement of the template and wherein each piece has sufficient weight and flexibility to move with the fall of each lower key. A template made of silicon may be approximately 1.5 mm thick.
The pieces may be annotated with clef, staff and/or note annotations. The annotations may be arranged to provide clear guidance without visual clutter wherein, for example, the staff notation may be provided only on a subset of the pieces, the notes may arranged more apparently above the staff notation and/or the notes may be relatively large, such as comprising a width of more than half the width of each respective piece.
The length of each piece may be sufficient to display the visual annotations but not to extend too far along each lower key to interfere with finger placement. In this regard, each piece may comprise a length so as to not extend beyond half the length of each raised key, such as wherein each piece comprises a length less than 40 mm, such as approximately 30 mm.
The template may define consecutive group gaps of 2 and 3 to conform with the corresponding spacing of the raised keys. Adjacent pieces between each group may be separated with a slit so as to yet allow each piece to move independently with each respective lower key.
The sizing and spacing of the pieces may be configured to prevent interference with adjacent pieces or adjacent raised keys, including accounting for manufacturing tolerances where the template is made of silicon. For example, the slits between adjacent pieces may be between 1-2 mm in width, preferably approximately 1.7 mm. Furthermore, the gaps between the guide pieces may generally be between 13 and 15 mm in width. Furthermore, the width of each piece may generally be between 12.5 mm and 13.5 mm.
Other aspects of the invention are also disclosed.
Notwithstanding any other forms which may fall within the scope of the present invention, preferred embodiments of the disclosure will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:
A note playing guide template 100 is designed for placement flat across a musical keyboard 108 having raised keys 103 and lower keys 104. The raised keys 103 are generally coloured black whereas the lower keys 104 are generally white.
The template 100 comprises a spine 101 holding a plurality of interstitial guide pieces 102 from one side of the spine 101.
The guide pieces 102 have guide annotations printed thereon.
The template 100 is planar and the spine 101 is relatively narrow so that, in use, the template 100 can be laid flat across the lower keys 104 so that the spine 101 and the guide pieces 102 are coplanar, the guide pieces 102 fit between the raised keys 103 and the spine 101 fits behind the raised keys.
With reference to the exemplary dimensions given in
The relatively narrow width of the spine 101 was found to be able to fit behind rear edges 105 of raised keys 103 of most conventional keyboards 108.
In embodiments, the relatively narrow spine 101 is able to fit entirely between adjacent the fall board 107 rear edges 105 of the raised keys 103.
However, for certain keyboards, the spine 101 may extend slightly under the fall board 107. As shown in
The guide pieces 102 may have sufficient length to be able to adequately show the annotations but without interfering with finger placement on the lower keys 104. With reference to
In the embodiment shown in
With further reference to
The pieces 102 may comprise adjacent pieces 110 between adjacent groups 109. With reference to
The annotations may comprise clef notation 112, staff notation 113 and/or alpha character notes 114.
As shown in
As shown in
The foregoing description, for purposes of explanation, used specific nomenclature to provide a thorough understanding of the invention. However, it will be apparent to one skilled in the art that specific details are not required in order to practise the invention. Thus, the foregoing descriptions of specific embodiments of the invention are presented for purposes of illustration and description. They are not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise forms disclosed as obviously many modifications and variations are possible in view of the above teachings. The embodiments were chosen and described in order to best explain the principles of the invention and its practical applications, thereby enabling others skilled in the art to best utilize the invention and various embodiments with various modifications as are suited to the particular use contemplated. It is intended that the following claims and their equivalents define the scope of the invention.
The term “approximately” or similar as used herein should be construed as being within 10% of the value stated unless otherwise indicated.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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2020903312 | Sep 2020 | AU | national |
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
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PCT/AU2021/050964 | 8/25/2021 | WO |
Publishing Document | Publishing Date | Country | Kind |
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WO2022/056578 | 3/24/2022 | WO | A |
Number | Name | Date | Kind |
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1114139 | Hoffmann | Oct 1914 | A |
1217810 | Noel | Feb 1917 | A |
1270657 | Peters | Jun 1918 | A |
1293997 | Von Bornstedt et al. | Feb 1919 | A |
2188098 | Bostelmann, Jr. | Jan 1940 | A |
3022698 | Lucas | Feb 1962 | A |
3335630 | Schmoyer | Aug 1967 | A |
3339447 | Curry | Sep 1967 | A |
D242877 | Bologna | Dec 1976 | S |
4254686 | Leonard | Mar 1981 | A |
4905567 | Kavoklis | Mar 1990 | A |
D313238 | Saraceni | Dec 1990 | S |
5089690 | Okamura | Feb 1992 | A |
5107743 | Decker | Apr 1992 | A |
D353369 | Leibengood | Dec 1994 | S |
5496179 | Hoffman | Mar 1996 | A |
6111180 | DiGiulio | Aug 2000 | A |
6588756 | Hughes | Jul 2003 | B1 |
6881887 | Berens | Apr 2005 | B2 |
7790973 | Winther | Sep 2010 | B1 |
7897861 | DeLong et al. | Mar 2011 | B2 |
8686268 | Young | Apr 2014 | B1 |
D760837 | Schnell | Jul 2016 | S |
D841090 | Cloyd | Feb 2019 | S |
D881265 | Rhone | Apr 2020 | S |
D888151 | McGinnis | Jun 2020 | S |
D972630 | Bourke | Dec 2022 | S |
D1022040 | Guan | Apr 2024 | S |
D1029086 | Li | May 2024 | S |
20230306868 | Bourke | Sep 2023 | A1 |
Number | Date | Country |
---|---|---|
2021342842 | Mar 2023 | AU |
163921 | Jun 1921 | GB |
2008304879 | Dec 2008 | JP |
3210842 | Jun 2017 | JP |
7399250 | Dec 2023 | JP |
WO-8700952 | Feb 1987 | WO |
Entry |
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International Search Report & Written Opinion dated Nov. 29, 2021 from PCT Application No. PCT/AU2021/050964. |
International-type search report dated Aug. 4, 2021 from Australia Application No. 2020903312. |
Piano Key Stickers. Date first available: Feb. 23, 2022. Site visited Jul. 6, 2022. Available from Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Stickers-Beginners-Full-Size-Keyboard-Overlay/dp/B09T6WR648/ref=asc_df_B09T6WR648/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0%E2%80%A6 (Year: 2022). |
The Piano Rake. Date first available: 2022. Site visited Jul. 6, 2022. Available online: https://thepianorake.com/en-us (Year: 2022). |
Number | Date | Country | |
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20230306868 A1 | Sep 2023 | US |