Musical teaching device for expediting musical instruction

Claim 2

A musical teaching device comprising: a base having a sheet of material with a grid appearing thereon, said grid representing the fingerboard of a stringed instrument having strings and frets, wherein said grid has a plurality of lines which represent the strings and a plurality of lines which represent the frets, each string line intersecting each fret line at a corresponding point of intersection, a plurality of indicators positioned within said grid, wherein each indicator is fixedly situated in the vicinity of a corresponding one of said points of intersection and musically notates a particular musical note that would be obtained from that instrument by depressing the corresponding represented string against the corresponding represented fret at the corresponding point of intersection on the fingerboard of said instrument and simultaneously picking that string on the instrument, a plurality of moveable markers, wherein each of said markers can be positioned anywhere on said grid and is visually identified by a symbol appearing on a top surface of that marker so that the placement of each of said markers over said grid indicates where on the fingerboard a corresponding string is to be depressed and said symbol on said marker represents musical information other than the name of a note.

Claim 3

The teaching device in claim 1 wherein the indicators appear on a substantially transparent overlay that is positioned over the base and beneath said markers.

Claim 4

The teaching device in claim 2 wherein each of said moveable markers is magnetic.

Claim 5

The teaching device in claim 3 wherein said grid is printed on a magnetic base member.

Claim 6

The teaching device in claim 4 wherein each of said moveable markers is comprised of a magnetized base, and a colored cap on which said symbol appears.

Claim 7

The teaching device in claim 3 wherein a first set of said moveable markers is used to indicate fingering and a second set of said moveable markers different from the set used to indicate harmonic relationships.

Claim 8

The teaching device in claim 6 wherein said symbol appearing on each moveable marker of said first set corresponds to a particular finger of a hand.

Claim 9

The teaching device in claim 7 in which each of said symbols appearing on each marker of said first set is an Arabic numeral.

Claim 10

The teaching device in claim 6 wherein the symbol printed on each moveable marker of said second set corresponds to a numerical position of a musical note in a musical scale.

Claim 11

The teaching device in claim 9 wherein each of said symbols appearing on each of the markers of said second set is a Roman numeral.

Claim 12

The teaching device in claim 6 wherein each moveable marker which is used to indicate a corresponding accented musical note is colored with a first color, each moveable marker which is used to indicate a musical note affected by contrary motion is colored with a second color, and each moveable marker which is used to indicate an un-accented note that is not affected by contrary motion is colored with a third color.

Claim 13

The teaching device in claim 2 wherein a first set of moveable markers, different from the first set, of moveable markers is used to indicate fingering and a second set is used to indicate harmonic relationships.

Claim 14

The teaching device in claim 12 wherein said symbol appearing on each moveable marker of said first set corresponds to a particular finger of a hand.

Claim 15

The teaching device in claim 13 in which each of said symbols appearing on each marker of said first set is an arabic numeral.

Claim 16

The teaching device in claim 12 wherein the symbol printed on each moveable marker of said second set corresponds to a numerical position of a musical note in a musical scale.

Claim 17

The teaching device in claim 15 wherein each of said symbols appearing on each of the markers of said second set is a Roman numeral.

Claim 18

The teaching device in claim 12 wherein each moveable marker which is used to indicate a corresponding accented musical note is colored with a first color, each moveable marker which is used to indicate a musical note affected by contrary motion is colored with a second color, and each moveable marker which is used to indicate an un-accented note that it is not affected by contrary motion is colored by a third color.

Claim 19

The teaching device in claim 5 further comprised of: a first set of said moveable markers used to indicate fingering wherein said symbol appearing on each moveable marker in said first set is an arabic numeral which corresponds to a particular finger of a hand, a second set of said moveable markers different from said first set used to indicate harmonic relationships wherein said symbol appearing on each moveable marker in said second set is a Roman numeral which corresponds to a numerical position of a musical note in a musical scale, and wherein each moveable marker which is used to indicate a corresponding accented musical note is colored with a first color, each moveable marker which is used to indicate a musical note, which is affected by contrary motion is colored with a second color, and each moveable maker which is used to indicate an un-accented note which is unaffected by contrary motion is colored with a third color.

Claim 20

A musical teaching device comprising: a base member having a magnetic sheet of material with a grid appearing thereon, said grid representing the fingerboard of a stringed instrument having strings and frets, wherein said grid has a plurality of lines which represent the strings and a plurality of lines which represent the frets, each string line intersecting each fret line at a corresponding point of intersection, a plurality of indicators positioned within said grid, wherein each indicator is fixedly situated in the vicinity of a corresponding one of said points of intersection and musically notates a particular musical note that would be obtained from that instrument by depressing the corresponding represented string against the corresponding represented fret at the corresponding point of intersection on the fingerboard of said instrument and simultaneously picking that string on the instrument, at least two different sets of moveable markers, wherein each of said markers can be positioned anywhere on said grid and is visually identified by a symbol appearing on a top surface of that marker so that the placement of each of said markers over said grid indicates where on the fingerboard a corresponding string is to be depressed and said symbol on said marker represents different musical information other than the name of a note, wherein the first set of said markers is used to indicate fingering and said symbol appearing on each moveable marker in said first set is an Arabic numeral which corresponds to a particular finger of a humam hand, the second set of moveable markers is used to indicate harmonic relationships and said symbol appearing on each moveable marker in said second set is a Roman numeral which corresponds to a numerical position of a musical note in a musical scale, and each moveable marker which represents a corresponding accented musical note is colored with a first color, each moveable marker which represents a musical note which is affected by contrary motion is colored with a second color, and each moveable marker which represents an unaccented note that is not affected by contrary motion is colored with a third color.

Claim 21

A musical teaching device comprising: a base member having a magnetic sheet of material with a grid appearing thereon, said grid representing the fingerboard of a stringed instrument having strings and frets, wherein said grid has a plurality of lines which represent the strings and a plurality of lines which represent the frets, each string line intersecting each fret line at a corresponding point of intersection, a plurality of indicators positioned within said grid, wherein each indicator is fixedly situated in the vicinity of a corresponding one of said points of intersection and musically notates a particular musical note that would be obtained from that instrument by depressing the corresponding represented string against the corresponding represented fret at the corresponding point of intersection on the fingerboard of said instrument and simultaneously picking that string on the instrument, at least two different sets of moveable markers, wherein each of said markers can be positioned anywhere on said grid and is visually identified by a symbol appearing on a top surface of that marker so that the placement of each of said markers over said grid indicates where on the fingerboard a corresponding string is to be depressed and said symbol on said marker represents different musical information other than the name of a note, wherein the first set of said markers is used to indicate fingering and said symbol appearing on each moveable marker in said first set is an Arabic numeral which corresponds to a particular finger of a humam hand, the second set of moveable markers is used to indicate harmonic relationships and said symbol appearing on each moveable marker in said second set is a Roman numeral which corresponds to a numerical position of a musical note in a musical scale, and each moveable marker which represents a corresponding accented musical note is colored with a first color, each moveable marker which represents a musical note which is affected by contrary motion is colored with a second color, and each moveable marker which represents an unaccented note that is not affected by contrary motion is colored with a third color.