PLAY BY NUMBER METHOD AND SYSTEM OF NOTATION, TRANSCRIPTION AND INSTRUCTION FOR KEYBOARDS

Abstract

In the Play By Number Music Notation System a grand staff is placed on top with multiple keyboard images aligned underneath. Each keyboard image represents one CHUNK of the song (a melodic phrase) and is identified with a letter (A, B, C, . . . ) on the right side and numbers on the left (01, 02, 03 . . . ) to show the sequence each chunk is played. Numbers are placed on the white keys indicating the order the keys are pressed (i.e. 1-12 . . . ) and the duration by using the familiar plain, bold, bold-italic from printing to indicate short, long and longer. When numbers are placed on the line between two keys this indicates you move up the line and play the black key. No need to indicate sharp(#) or flat(b). One simple follows the numbers pressing each key in sequence until the chunk is done.

Claims

1. A music notation system comprising: (a) Multiple images of piano/organ keyboards placed on a page. (b) Grand staff placed at above the images aligned to the keys in the image. (c) Numbers starting with one are placed on the white keys of each keyboard image to indicate the order in which to press the keys. (d) The style of the number [plain, bold, bold-italic] indicates the relative length of time to hold the key [short, long, longer]. (e) Numbers placed on the line separating the white keys indicates to play the black key above. (f) A number appearing more than once on an individual keyboard image indicates to play both/several keys at once. (g) Said system shall be claimed for the 44 key version illustrated. Additionally claim extends to the following sized keyboards: 24 Key, 25 Key, 36 Key, 48 Key, 49 Key, 54 Key, 61 Key, 72 Key and 88 Key. A method of creating such music notation by: (a) Removing Title (b) Removing Tempo and Latin instructional words (c) Simplifying Chords (d) Remove Left Hand (Bottom) Staff (e) Remove Right Notes and Rests that clash with the Melody (f) Reduce Notes (g) Combine Staffs (h) Remove Bottom Staff (i) Break Music into Chunks (a melodic phrase) (j) Number Notes beginning with 1 in each Chunk (k) Transferring information manually onto a blank Play By Number Notation System Form or editing a Master Play By Number Notation System Form on a computer for printing. A method of instruction in playing music on the keyboard by: (a) Placing the Play By Number Notation above the keyboard. (b) Looking at the image of the first keyboard [the one with the letter A on the right hand side] locate which key has the number 1 placed on it. (c) Determining if the number 1 is plain, bold or bold-italic to know whether to play it short, long or longer respectively. (d) Determine if number 1 appears more than one time on the keyboard. If it does you press all the keys with the number 1 on them for the same amount of time and release at the same time. (d) Continue playing until you have played all the numbers on the keyboard. (e) Repeat steps a-d until you have mastered this chunk of the song. (f) Note the gray numbers 01 on the left hand side. This is the order (1, 2, 3, 4, . . . ) that the chunks (A,B,C) are played. (g) Repeat on the next chunk until all are played.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0030] FIG. 1 shows detailed call outs for a Play By Number notation of a song with lyrics and chords.

[0031] FIG. 2 shows the same music in traditional notation and the Play By Number notation side by side.

[0032] FIG. 3 shows how to indicate a section is repeated with a text instruction box.

[0033] FIG. 4 shows how to Indicate specific MIDI voices [TUBULAR BELLS (MIDI 15)] for sections of the song and an alternate way to indicate chords.

[0034] FIG. 5 shows a complete song in the Play By Number notation with the Grand Staff, Song Tide and author, chunks (A, B & C) and the sequence of chunks on the left (01, 02, 03)

[0035] FIG. 6 shows a blank Play By Number Notation System Form (Title Page) used to manually notate a song.

[0036] FIG. 7 shows a blank Play By Number Notation System Form (Body Page) used for longer songs.

[0037] FIG. 8-18 show the method of creating the Play By Number Notation from existing sheet music.

[0038] FIG. 19 shows the process of editing the Master Play By Number Notation System Form on a computer for printing.

[0039] FIG. 20 shows some simple traditional sheet music.

[0040] FIG. 21 shows some very complex sheet music.

[0041] FIG. 22 shows traditional sheet music with guitar chords above and guitar tabs below.

[0042] FIG. 23 shows the Grand Staff aligned with the 88 key piano keyboard.

[0043] FIG. 24 shows the 1950 Hammond with dual 44 key organ keyboards from U.S. Pat. No. 2,506,451.

[0044] FIG. 25 shows the Grand Staff aligned with a 44 key organ keyboard.

[0045] FIG. 26 shows a 1969 Baldwin with dual 44 key organ keyboards.

[0046] FIG. 27 shows a 1970's MiniMoog Model D Synthesizer with a 44 key organ keyboard.

[0047] FIG. 28 shows a 1980's Moog Liberation Guitar Style Synthesizer with a 44 key organ keyboard.

[0048] FIG. 29 shows a 1980's Yamaha PortaSound PC-100 with a 44 key organ keyboard.

[0049] FIG. 30 shows a 1980's Casiotone MT-36 with a 44 key organ keyboard.

[0050] FIG. 31 shows a current Casio SA-76 with a 44 key organ keyboard.

[0051] FIG. 32 shows the 1946 Firestone Music Teaching Device from U.S. Pat. No. 2,406,946.

[0052] FIG. 33 shows the WikiHow Read-Piano-Tabs article.

[0053] FIG. 34 shows the 2007 Nelson Method for Teaching Musical Notation and Composition from U.S. Pat. No. 7,288,705 B1.

[0054] FIG. 35 shows the 2005 MacCutcheon Music Teaching System and Method from U.S. Pat. No. 6,870,085 B2.

[0055] FIG. 36 shows the PLAY-THE-PIANO-BY-NUMBERS-OR-LETTERS booklet.

[0056] FIG. 37 shows the 2006 Smith Carter Choral Keyboarding Non-Note Reading Methodology from U.S. Pat. No. 7,041,891 B2.

[0057] FIG. 38 shows the 2007 Egan Morpheus Music Notation System from U.S. Pat. No. 7,241,945 B2.

[0058] FIG. 39 shows the 2000 Lotito Musical Notation System from U.S. Pat. No. 6,124,540.

[0059] FIG. 40 shows the 2014 West et al. Music Notation System from U.S. Pat. No. 8,916,760 B1.

[0060] FIG. 41 shows the 2001 Fajardo Musical Notation System from U.S. Pat. No. 6,288,316 B1.

[0061] FIG. 42 shows the 2008 Mataele Method and System for Music Notation from patent application US 2008/0202318 A1.

[0062] FIG. 43 shows the 2002 Bermudez Method and Apparatus for Teaching Music U.S. Pat. No. 6,388,182 B1.

[0063] FIG. 44 shows the 2010 Johnston Music Notation System from U.S. Pat. No. 7,767,895 B2.

[0064] FIG. 45 shows the 2014 King Piano Tablature System and Method from U.S. Pat. No. 8,835,737 B2.

[0065] FIG. 46 shows the commercially available Willis Keyboard and Reference Chart.

[0066] FIG. 47 shows the comparison of the various size keyboards (24-88 keys) aligned with a reference 44 note Grand Staff.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0067] This invention is a music notation system that simplifies learning and playing by eliminating traditional sheet music by using images of keyboards with numbers placed on them to indicate the order keys are pressed by the right hand (FIG. 01). You press the keys in order, so the key with the number one on it is pressed and released, and then the key with the number 2 is pressed and released and so on (FIG. 01-1). A numbers can be printed plain, bold (FIG. 01-2) or bold-italic (FIG. 01-3) to indicate to hold it a short, long or longer time amount of time (FIG. 01-2). When a number is printed on the line separating the white keys (FIG. 01-4) you play the black key above the line. The top of the first page of a song typically has a 44 note grand staff (FIG. 01-5) and keyboard images aligned below (FIG. 01-6). This piece of music is broken into chunks (a melodic phrase). The chunk is played until mastered. Then you move on to the next chunk. Each chunk is identified with a letter (A, B, C, . . . ) on the right side (FIG. 01-7). The left side has a number indicating the order (01, 02, 03, . . . ) a chunk is played (FIG. 01-8). Sometimes a chunk is played multiple times so the left side may have more than one number (FIG. 01-9). Song title, composers and copyright information is listed in the grand staff on the first page of each song (FIG. 01-10). Chords can be listed in a call out box preceded by a number (1-Dm7, 6-Bm7, . . . ) indicating that chord is played at the same time as note 1 (FIG. 01-11). Lyrics are aligned with the numbering on the left side (FIG. 01-12).

[0068] The best way to understand the simplicity of playing a song using this invention is to look at music in traditional sheet music side by side with the invention (FIG. 02). This is the first chunk of the song Taps. Both show the same 6 notes. The dotted quarter notes are replaced with bold numbers. The dotted half notes is replaced with a bold-italic number

[0069] Rather than Latin or Italian instructions for playing (repeats and intensity) will be given in English (FIG. 03-13).

[0070] Some songs sound best with particular instruments so for MIDI keyboards particular voices are called out (FIG. 04-14). Chords can also simply be designated by a number appear on a keyboard image more than once (FIG. 04-15). The same plain, bold, bold-italic rules apply regarding length of notes applies to the chords (FIG. 04-16).

[0071] A best example of this invention can bee seen in the music for the song Taps by Union General Daniel Butterfield (FIG. 05). This song has no lyrics and three chunks. We can clearly see the three chunks of the song (A, B, C) and the numbers for the chunks (01, 02, 03) that indicate they are played only once.

[0072] When this notation is used in a book the top of the first page of the song has the 44 key grand staff with the song title on top (FIG. 06-17), the composer (FIG. 06-18) and in a narrative form the song title, composers and copyright information is listed in the grand staff on the first page of each song (FIG. 06-19). For the subsequent pages only the song title (FIG. 07-20) and composer (FIG. 07-21) is listed.

[0073] To create the notation for this invention we usually start with existing traditional sheet music (FIG. 8). Remove the title (FIG. 9). Remove the Tempo and Latin instructional words (FIG. 10). Simplify the chords (FIG. 11). Remove left hand (bottom) staff (FIG. 12). Remove right notes and rests that clash with the melody (FIG. 13). Reduce notes (FIG. 14). Combine staffs (FIG. 15). Remove bottom staff (FIG. 16) Break music into chunks (a melodic phrase) (FIGS. 17-22 and 17-23). Number notes beginning with 1 in each chunk (FIGS. 18-24 and 18-25). Once the sung is placed in this notation method a consumer can use blank pages (FIGS. 6 and 7) to record the new notation. Professionally produced music books using this notation are created with a computer system (FIG. 19-26) starting with blank sections of the page and collections of plain (FIG. 19-27, bold (FIG. 19-28) and bold-italic numbers (FIG. 19-29). Numbers are dragged into position (FIG. 19-30) and formatted (FIG. 19-31). Title, composer and copyright information is entered (FIG. 19-32). Additional sections of the song are created from the templates (FIG. 19-33) until the song is completed and can be printed.

[0074] This invention is superior to traditional sheet music due to its visual representation of the keyboard with the numbers located on the keys to press. No learning the staff. It is also superior due to the simplicity of relative note lengths (short, long and longest) that allow novice learns (who by their nature play slower) to adjust the note lengths to match their speed.

[0075] This invention is superior to all methods like the 1946 Firestone Music Teaching Device because you do not have to replace your existing keyboard instruments to use it.

[0076] This invention is superior to all of the color coding methods like the 2005 MacCutcheon Music Teaching System because of the lower cost of black and white printing and because color coding methods require you to place stickers on your keyboard.

[0077] This invention is superior to the method of keyboard numbering described in the 2007 Egan Morpheus Music Notation due to the complexity of memorizing 88 key locations required by this system and the need to label all 88 keys.

[0078] This invention is superior to the changing the note shape methods like the 2000 Lotito Musical Notation System due to the fact in order to understand the changing note shapes you need to understand how to read sheet music where this invention eliminates this requirement.

[0079] This invention is superior to methods where you rename the sharps and flats like the 2001 Fajardo Musical Notation System due to need to memorize the location on the keyboard to note K or note Y. No memorization is needed for this invention.

[0080] This invention is superior to the finger numbering methods like the 2014 King Piano Tablature System and Method due to the complexity of the time component of these systems (the need to keep a beat) and the need to keep track of what all 5 fingers on each hand is doing.

[0081] This invention is superior to any reference chart because you are not using the chart to figure out what sheet music means, you are using the invention to see what key to press.

[0082] This invention is superior to all other methods because it allows a user to quickly understand what key to press for the next note in the song allowing for the quick accomplishment of playing a song.