Percussive action silent electronic keyboard

Claim 1

A percussive action silent electronic keyboard for play as a musical instrument and providing electrical input signals for electronic music synthesis equipment which generates music electronically in response to play action of the keyboard, said keyboard comprising: a housing; a keyboard array of a plurality of depressable pivoted playing keys adjacently arranged as a musical keyboard, each said key communicating with a pivoted, freely moveable silent hammer in a cam and follower arrangement, each said hammer comprising a butt portion and a flexible bridal strap attached at one end to said butt portion, and further including a leaf spring having one end secured to said housing and the other end free, another end of said bridal strap being attached to said free end of said leaf spring, stop means for stopping the momentum of each silent hammer which is caused to move freely about its pivot in a limited arc from a rest position to an impact position by following a camming surface of its corresponding key resulting from depressing of the key during playing action, electrical switch means responsive to the playing action of said key for generating and supplying electrical signals indicative of said action to said electronic music synthesis equipment with which said keyboard may be used to generate music.