Automatic performing apparatus of electronic musical instrument

Claim 1

An automatic performing apparatus of an electronic musical instrument comprising: memory means for storing performance data read out from a recording medium external to said performing apparatus, said data representing a progression of music to be played and comprising pitch sub-data representing pitches of notes of said music, duration sub-data representing durations of said notes and control sub-data for controlling a generation mode of the music to be played which pertains to at least one of a tone color, a modulation effect, a rhythm and a tempo, said sub-data each having an identifying code which distinguishes between the respective sub-data wherein said control sub-data is stored at memory locations which allows the control sub-data to be read out from said memory means only at a time when the tone generation mode is to be changed; read-out means for successively reading out the performance data from said memory means in accordance with the progression of the music wherein said read-out means comprises means responsive to said identifying code for distinguishing the respective sub-data in the performance data and means responsive to the duration sub-data of each note to read out the pitch sub-data of the next note every time the duration of each note lapses after the pitch sub-data is read out; first latch means for latching the pitch sub-data and the duration sub-data both read out from said memory means, the sub-data latched in the first latch means being updated every time new pitch sub-data and new duration sub-data are read out from memory means; second latch means for latching said control sub-data read out from said memory means, the control sub-data latched in the second latch means being updated only when the generation mode of the music is changed; tone signal generating means for generating musical tone signals in response to the pitch sub-data and the duration sub-data latched in said first latch means; and means for controlling the generation mode of the music in response to the control sub-data latched in said second latch means.