Octave subdivided diatonic scale organizer

Abstract

Abstract The invention is in the field of musical learning and playing devices, and particularly relates to keyboard instruments. A plurality of cards are provided each of which defines a forward pocket and each of which spans an octave on the keyboard. These cards are positioned adjacent to one another across the breadth of the keyboard, and a second group of insert cards are inserted into the pockets defined by the first cards. These second cards may be one of several types, but in any event they display indicia which register with keys on the keyboard, and each of these cards also includes a laterally extended tab which engages the adjacent card by overlapping same so that the entire line of cards is stationary as a unit rather than being completely separate. The indicia on the insert cards may be scale tones identifying a chord, or the notes on a musical staff, but in either case the presence of the fixed octave-spanning cards and the varied insert cards clarifies the superimposition of the structure of written music on the octave structure. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION In order to understand written music, it is necessary to analyze the written notes. When notes are played from the staff, there is no visible clue to the way they are put together. There is only one clue to aid in this analysis of the written notes which is the "chord symbol". A chord symbol stands for a group of notes called a chord, containing two or more notes, played together. The student sees a chord symbol over a melody line, and he immediately transfers his mental image of the chord symbol to the piano keyboard. The reason for this is that chords on a keyboard are physically alike. The notes of a chord are structured in any of the octaves of a keyboard. They can be played, physically identically, in all seven octaves. It is repeated in each octave, over and over, with the keys remaining alike in all octaves and only the sound pitch changing from one octave to the next. Each octave can be given a name, such as octave one, two, etc. This informs the student "where" to play the chord on the keyboard. The written notes do not show this similarity in notes and octaves. It is the purpose of the instant device to give each note of the chord a specific number across the keyboard, and then the locating of the chord can be accomplished by locating a specific piano key having a number and transferring this number to the written notes on a clef (treble or base). By using the seven octaves of the keyboard as a general locator for notes found in a certain key signature, and then breaking up the chord into an identity for each single note of a chord, and then finding the name of the chord by using a chord symbol, it becomes an easy matter to analyze the chord in written - note form. The chord symbol is transferred above the melody line and the student has already analyzed the chord from the scale on the keyboard, and his keyboard analysis enables him to read "groups of notes" by chord symbols instead of one note at a time.

Inventors

• 👤 Verna M. Leonard

Bibliographic Details