Patent Application
20190228748
The present disclosure relates to musical instruments and the tuning thereof, specifically to percussion instruments and the tuning of percussion instruments, and more specifically to the tuning of percussion instruments such as drums.
The drum rim 32 is placed over the drum head 12. One or more studs 25 are included on and/or attached to the drum shell 11, such as to the outer wall 11d. A plurality of studs 25 are included at different annular points around the drum shell 11. The drum rim 32 is attached to the remainder of the drum via tensioning rods 36. The tensioning rods 36 pass through the drum rim 32 and attach to the studs 25. The tensioning rods 36 can be screw-like devices, such that the amount of downward pressure on the drum rim 32 is adjustable. Some examples of percussion instruments including drum rims or hoops and methods for using them are described in commonly owned U.S. Pat. App. Pub. No. 2016/0322036 to Good, which is fully incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.
Disclosed herein are methods of tuning drums, analyzing the natural notes of drum shells and drums, grouping drums based on their natural notes and/or the natural notes of their shells, and producing drum sets including drums with proper intervallic relationships therebetween. These are but some of the methods and devices described herein, and many embodiments of methods and devices according to the present disclosure are possible.
It is understood that when an element is referred to as being “on” another element, it can be directly on the other element or intervening elements may also be present. Further, when one element is referred to as being “connected” to another element, it can be directly connected to the other element or intervening elements may also be present as would be understood by one of skill in the art. Furthermore, relative terms such as “inner”, “outer”, “upper”, “top”, “above”, “lower”, “bottom”, “beneath”, “below”, and similar terms, may be used herein to describe a relationship of one element to another. Terms such as “higher”, “lower”, “wider”, “narrower”, and similar terms, may be used herein to describe angular and/or relative relationships. It is understood that these terms are intended to encompass different orientations of the elements or system in addition to the orientation depicted in the figures.
Although the terms first, second, etc., may be used herein to describe various elements, components, regions and/or sections, these elements, components, regions, and/or sections should not be limited by these terms. These terms are only used to distinguish one element, component, region, or section from another. Thus, unless expressly stated otherwise, a first element, component, region, or section discussed below could be termed a second element, component, region, or section without departing from the teachings of the present disclosure.
Embodiments of the disclosure are described herein with reference to view illustrations that are schematic illustrations. As such, the actual thickness of elements can be different, and variations from the shapes of the illustrations as a result, for example, of manufacturing techniques and/or tolerances are expected. Thus, the elements illustrated in the figures are schematic in nature and their shapes are not intended to illustrate the precise shape of a region and are not intended to limit the scope of the disclosure.
The manufacture of drum shells is known in the art. After the initial steps of drum shell manufacturing where the wood and/or other material is rolled into an open cylinder shape, the drum shell is further prepared by cutting edges, drilling holes, and other procedures to prepare the drum shell for assembly of the completed drum itself. This preparation process results in the drum shell losing mass and being to a certain extent reshaped such that it vibrates at a different acoustic frequency than in its pre-processing phase. Before and/or after this processing is complete, a method according to the present disclosure includes finding the acoustic frequency at which the modified drum shell naturally vibrates, with the vibration often being detectable as sound. As shown in
Once held in a manner so as to produce a relatively pure acoustic frequency, the drum shell's natural acoustic frequency can be matched to a note on the musical scale. A sensor, such as a microphone, can be located near the drum shell when it is struck, and the note produced can then be analyzed to determine its location on the musical scale. Such analysis can be performed, for example, by a comparator. Other methods of identifying the shell's natural note are also possible, including but not limited to ear identification and/or use of a pitch pipe. Many different manners of identifying the frequency at which the shell vibrates and/or the shell's natural note are possible. This process of finding the drum shell's natural vibrating frequency and/or natural note can also be done prior to the described processing of the drum shell to provide an estimate of the drum shell's eventual natural post-processing note. Some embodiments of tuning methods and apparatus, and other methods and apparatus, which may be used in embodiments of the present disclosure are described in commonly owned U.S. Pat. No. 5,770,810 to Lombardi, which is fully incorporated by reference herein in its entirety. Many different embodiments are possible.
The drum shell will produce the highest quality sound as part of a full drum whenever the full drum is tuned so as to produce the drum shell's natural note. Once the drum shell is matched with its natural note, it can be provided with an identifier and/or labeled with this information so as to inform a user of the note at which a drum including the drum shell should be played to produce the highest quality sound. This labeling can be performed utilizing human readable means such as a letter, symbol, and/or musical note notation, which could be included, for example, on a simple sticker, and/or performed utilizing computer readable means such as a barcode or UPC code. Other identification/labeling processes and devices, and other processes and devices generally used for allowing a user to identify the drum shell's natural note, are also possible.
Drum shells can be tested and labeled as a collection to be included as part of a kit or set. For instance, the drum shells can be tested to determine their natural or resonant frequency value, and a label may be affixed to the inside of the drum shell displaying that value or the drum shell's natural note, which can be calculated from the natural or resonant frequency value. For example, a kit can include four tom-toms with different diameters: an 8″ tom, a 10″ tom, a 12″ tom, and a 14″ tom, with larger toms producing lower notes (noting that the methods described herein can also be performed on drum sets including various different sizes, including drum shells with unequal size differences therebetween; for example, a 13″ tom could also be included in the above set). Drum shells with the same or similar natural notes can be grouped together to be manufactured as part of the same kit. Typical drum sizes range from 6″ to 30″ in diameter, though it is understood that sizes outside this range are also possible.
In a kit, it can sometimes be equally or more important to ensure that the intervallic relationship between the different drums is correct, as opposed to or in addition to ensuring that each of the drums is at or near the proper note. For example, it may be better to have all four drums playing slightly flat, as opposed to having two drums playing the desired note and two drums playing slightly flat of the desired note such that the intervallic relationships amongst the various drums are improper. As such, in addition to or in place of grouping based on natural note, grouping can be done to ensure that the proper intervallic relationships are maintained.
Once individual drum shells are tested using the above methods, drum shells of different sizes can be matched together such that those shells can eventually be used in the same set of drums having proper intervallic relationships therebetween. The drum shells can be grouped prior to and/or after the previously described processing (including, e.g., cutting and shaping). These drum shells can then stay together throughout the manufacturing process (that manufacturing process resulting in drums including, e.g., the elements shown in
After being provided with identifying natural notes, labeled with their natural notes, and/or grouped with other drums having a similar or the same natural notes, the one or more drums can be manufactured/processed using the one or more drum shells to arrive at processed drums similar to the drum shown in
Some methods according to embodiments of the present disclosure can include further categorization steps that can take place after the drums are manufactured. For instance, drums can be categorized based on the amount of change in the produced note based on the amount of movement of one or more of the drum's tuning rods. For example, in one embodiment one turn of a drum's tuning rods may cause that drum to be tuned one step sharp or flat of its drum shell's natural note. This drum could in turn be matched with other drums that 1) include a drum shell having the same natural note or a natural note properly intervallically related, and/or 2) also become one step sharp or flat of that natural note upon one turn of the drum's tuning rods. Grouping these drums in such a manner allows the user to adjust all of the tuning rods of a set by the same amount, while maintaining the proper intervallic relationships between the drums. Further, each drum can be provided with an identifier, such as a label, that informs the user of this property of the drum. Drums according to the present disclosure can be identified and/or labeled according to various different attributes thereof, such as identification based on the highest or lowest note to which the drum can reasonably be tuned. Further, drums having two or more consistent qualities can be grouped together; for example, a drum set could be grouped together based on the natural notes of the drum shells and the highest note to which the final drum can be tuned. Many different embodiments are possible.
In one method according to the present disclosure, the preprocessed drum shells (i.e., the open-cylinder shells that have yet to be cut or have holes placed therein) are tested via one or more of the above methods, and grouped based on the discovered natural note. Each group of drum shells is then processed, and tested again via one or more of the above methods, and divided into even smaller subgroups based on the discovered natural note. Drums including the processed drum shells are then manufactured. Finally, the finished drums can be tested via one or more of the above methods and yet again divided such that the drums are grouped with other drums that could form part of the same set. It is understood that while this paragraph describes three evaluation steps, methods according to the present disclosure could include only a single one of these steps, any combination of two of these steps, all three of these steps, additional steps, or none of these steps.
It is understood that various attributes and elements of from any one embodiment can also be included in other embodiments. Although the present disclosure has been described in detail with reference to certain preferred configurations thereof, other versions are possible. The actual scope of the disclosure encompasses not only the disclosed embodiments, but also all equivalent ways of practicing or implementing the disclosure. The above detailed description of the embodiments of the disclosure is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the disclosure to the precise form disclosed above or to the particular field of usage mentioned in this disclosure. While specific embodiments of, and examples for, the disclosure are described above for illustrative purposes, various equivalent modifications are possible within the scope of the disclosure, as those skilled in the relevant art will recognize. The elements and acts of the various embodiments described above may be combined to provide further embodiments. Further, the teachings of the disclosure provided herein may be applied to products and systems other than percussion instruments, including but not limited to other musical instruments.
The present application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent App. No. 62/620,960 to Good et al., filed on Jan. 23, 2018 and entitled “Tuning Method for Percussion Instrument or Set of Percussion Instruments,” the entire contents of which is incorporated by reference herein.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 62620960 | Jan 2018 | US |
