Electronic musical instrument, method of controlling the electronic musical instrument, and storage medium thereof

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10431193-B2
Application number	US-201816130392-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 13, 2018
Priority date	Sep 26, 2017
Publication date	Oct 1, 2019
Grant date	Oct 1, 2019

Abstract

The instrument includes a controller to perform a pitches determination process of, based upon first timing and first pitch included in music data, determining pitches within a fixed range from the first pitch, which is allowed to be designated in accordance with the first timing, a display process of displaying an identifier to identify the pitches determined, and an automatic playing process of advancing automatic playing of the music data by producing sound corresponding to the first pitch from a sound producing unit when one of the pitches identified by the identifier displayed by the display process is designated.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. An electronic musical instrument comprising:
a plurality of keys that are operable to designate pitches of sound to be output by the electronic musical instrument; and
a processor that is configured to perform an automatic playing process including:
determining one of the plurality of keys to be a first key, based on pitch information indicating a first pitch of a first timing included in music data, wherein the first key is expected to be designated by a user within a first period according to the first timing;
determining one of the plurality of keys to be a second key based on pitch information indicating a second pitch of a second timing after the first timing included in the music data, wherein the second key is expected to be designated by the user within a second period according to the second timing;
determining at least one of the plurality of keys other than the first key to be at least one third key that is assigned a sound of a different pitch from the first pitch, wherein the at least one third key is determined based on a position or pitch relationship of said at least one of the plurality of keys with the first key;
displaying an identifier for identifying the at least one third key before the first timing in accordance with progressing of the music data; and
in response to an operation by the user designating the first key or the at least one third key, controlling the electronic musical instrument to output a sound of the first pitch, and progressing the music data from the first timing to a timing before the second timing;

wherein the processor does not progress the music data from the first timing to the timing before the second timing, when the user designates a key other than the first key or the at least one third key within the first period.

2. The electronic musical instrument of claim 1 , wherein the at least one third key is positioned within a predetermined positional range with respect to a position of the first key.

3. The electronic musical instrument of claim 1 , wherein the at least one third key falls within predetermined pitch range with respect to viewed from the first pitch associated with the first key.

4. The electronic musical instrument of claim 1 , wherein:
the processor is configured to perform a determination process of determining whether a result of playing of the user reaches a certain reference; and
a quantity of the at least one third key, which is determined in relation to the first key after it is determined in the determination process that the result of playing of the user reaches the certain reference, is smaller than the quantity of the at least one third key, which is determined in relation to the first key before it is determined in the determination process that the result of playing of the user reaches the certain reference.

5. The electronic musical instrument of claim 1 , wherein:
the processor is configured to perform a determination process of determining whether a result of playing of the user reaches a certain reference; and
as it is determined that the result of playing of the user reaches the certain reference, a quantity of the at least one third key decreases gradually.

6. The electronic musical instrument of claim 1 , wherein:
the processor is configured to perform a scoring process of scoring playing of the user and a determination process of determining whether a result of playing of the user reaches a certain reference; and
a quantity of the at least one third key, which is determined in relation to the first key after it is determined in the determination process that the result of playing of the user reaches the certain reference, is smaller than the quantity of the at least one third key, which is determined in relation to the first key before it is determined in the determination process that the result of playing of the user reaches the certain reference.

7. The electronic musical instrument of claim 1 , wherein:
the processor is configured to perform a white-key/black-key determination process of determining which of a white key and a black key the first key to be designated by the user is;
the at least one third key is set to include white keys only when it is determined in the white-key/black-key determination process that the first key is the white key; and
the at least one third key is set to include black keys only when it is determined in the white-key/black-key determination process that the first key is the black key.

8. The electronic musical instrument of claim 1 , wherein the processor is configured to perform a display mode changing process of changing a display mode of the identifier to be displayed before and after a lapse of the first timing.

9. The electronic musical instrument of claim 1 , wherein the processor is configured to perform a display mode changing process of changing a display mode of the identifier to be displayed from timing that is earlier than the first timing toward the first timing.

10. A method of causing a computer of an electronic musical instrument, which includes plurality of keys that are operable to designate pitches of sound to be output by the electronic musical instrument, to perform a process comprising:
determining one of the plurality of keys to be a first key, based on pitch information indicating a first pitch of a first timing included in music data, wherein the first key is expected to be designated by a user within a first period according to the first timing;
determining one of the plurality of keys to be a second key, based on pitch information indicating a second pitch of a second timing after the first timing included in the music data, wherein the second key is expected to be designated by the user within a second period according to the second timing;
determining at least one of the plurality of keys other than the first key to be at least one third key that is assigned a sound of a different pitch from the first pitch, wherein the at least one third key is determined based on a position or pitch relationship of said at least one of the plurality of keys with the first key;
displaying an identifier for identifying the at least one third key before the first timing in accordance with progressing of the music data; and
in response to an operation by the user designating the first key or the at least one third key, controlling the electronic musical instrument to output a sound of the first pitch, and progressing the music data from the first timing to a timing before the second timing;
wherein the processor does not progress the music data from the first timing to the timing before the second timing, when the user designates a key other than the first key or the at least one third key within the first period.

11. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium which stores a program that is executable by a computer of an electronic musical instrument, which includes a plurality of keys that are operable to designate pitches of sound to be output by the electronic musical instrument, the program being executable by the computer to control the electronic musical instrument to perform a process comprising:
determining one of the plurality of keys to be a first key, based on pitch information indicating a first pitch of a first timing included in music data, wherein the first key is expected to be designated by a user within a first period according to the first timing;
determining one of the plurality of keys to be a second key, based on pitch information indicating a second pitch of a second timing after the first timing included in the music data, wherein the second key is expected to be designated by the user wit

Assignees

• Casio Computer Co Ltd

Inventors

• Setoguchi Masaru

Classifications

• G10H1/344

  Structural association with individual keys (electrically operated wind-actuated organs G10B3/22) · CPC title

• G10H1/0033

  Recording/reproducing or transmission of music for electrophonic musical instruments · CPC title

• G10H1/06 Primary

  Circuits for establishing the harmonic content of tones {, or other arrangements for changing the tone colour} · CPC title

• G10H2210/091

  for performance evaluation, i.e. judging, grading or scoring the musical qualities or faithfulness of a performance, e.g. with respect to pitch, tempo or other timings of a reference performance · CPC title

• G10H2220/031

  Blinking or flashing indicator lights · CPC title