Yamaha Corporation

Kiyoshi Kawamura

Shinya Koseki

Nobuo Sugiyama

Shigeru Muramatsu

Yasutoshi Kaneko

Masahiro Wada

Yuji Fujiwara

Satoshi Inoue

Tadaharu Kato

Taro Kawabata

Motoya Kondo

Taroh Muramatsu

Haruki Uehara

Yasuhiko Oba

Tsutomu Sasaki

Rei Furukawa

Yasuhiko Ohba

Hajime Hayashida

Shigeaki Sato

Kinya Nozaki

Motoomi Goto

Hironori Osakabe

Takashi Aoyagi

Teruo Akimoto

Masaaki Suzuki

Hanzou Taguchi

Toshio Tajima

Ringi Nozue

An automatic player piano is broken down into an acoustic piano and an automatic playing system, and solenoid-operated key actuators are driven to rotate the black/white keys of the acoustic piano; the space between the keyboard and the array of black/white keys is so narrow that the manufacturer provides the solenoid-operated key actuators in the space below the key bed; plunger holes are formed in the rear portion of the key bed, and the solenoids occupy the space under the key bed so that the plungers project through the plunger holes into the space beneath the rear portions of the keys; the key bed is does not lose the mechanical strength so that the tuning work is not frequently required for the key action units.

Keyboard musical instrument equipped with automatic player and method for retrofitting keyboard musical instrument

A silent piano is a composite keyboard musical instrument fabricated on the basis of an acoustic piano, and a pianist plays a tune by piano tones or electronic tones; when the pianist selects the electronic tones, a hammer stopper enters the trajectories of hammers, and a tandem regulating button mechanism changes damping columns onto the trajectories of jacks in such a manner that the jack is brought into contact with the damping column concurrently with a regulating button; since the damping columns are closer to the jack than the regulating buttons, the jack turns at a larger angular velocity so that the hammer is not pinched between the jack and the hammer stopper; the damping columns are moved onto a virtual plane where the regulating buttons are so that the jacks are commonly used between the silent piano and the standard acoustic piano.

Composite keyboard musical instrument, silent system for performance without acoustic tones and regulating button mechanism for changing escape timing depending upon mode of operation

A grand piano has a keyboard placed on a key bed, and the keyboard is covered with a fall board after completion of practice on the keyboard, wherein a recess is formed in the fall board in such a manner as to offer a clearance to fingers on the black keys so that, even if the pianist straightens his or her fingers on the land portion before moving them to other keys, the nails are never hit against the inner surface of the fall board.

Keyboard musical instrument having fall board formed with clearance for fingers

An automatic player piano is an acoustic piano equipped with a data acquisition system and a playback system, and the data acquisition system monitors the hammers with hammer sensors for producing a set of music data codes representative of a performance on the keyboard, wherein the hammer sensor has a detectable range over the trajectory of the associated hammer so that the data acquisition system obtains pieces of music data accurately representative of the trajectory of hammer to be required for a faithful reproduction of the original performance.

Keyboard musical instrument faithfully reproducing original performance without complicated tuning and music data generating system incorporated therein

A keyboard musical instrument that is equipped with an electric tutor for guiding a trainee in practicing manipulation of black and white piano keys, whereby the electric tutor reads pieces of musical data information representative of the black and white keys to be depressed and a timing to depress each of the black or white keys for guiding the trainee in the fingering. More specifically, while the trainee is practicing a piece of music, the electric tutor automatically sinks the designated black or white keys as an advanced notice to the trainee so that the trainee can prepare to depress the keys at the appropriate timing, and whereby the electric tutor sinks the same keys again for an inductive action at the time when such keys are to be appropriately depressed.

ELECTRIC TUTOR FOR DIRECTLY INDICATING MANIPULATORS TO BE ACTUATED, MUSICAL INSTRUMENT WITH BUILT-IN ELECTRIC TUTOR, METHOD FOR GUIDING FINGERING AND INFORMATION STORAGE MEDIUM FOR STORING PROGRAM REPRESENTATIVE OF THE METHOD

A keyboard musical instrument has keys equal to a multiple of five assigned to the fingers of a trainee, an electric tutor and an electronic sound generating system, and the electric tutor gives the trainee guide in practicing the fingering along a passage, wherein the electronic sound generating system generates the tones when the trainee satisfies predetermined conditions for the training so as to correctly guide him in the practice.

Training system for music performance, keyboard musical instrument equipped therewith and training keyboard

A music performance assisting system analyzes a set of music data codes representative of a series of notes and rests forming a tune, and selectively assigns the notes to the five fingers of each hand of a player, wherein the music performance assisting system temporarily assigns notes of each of plural note groups to the fingers in accordance with rules of a fingering for obtaining candidates of a finger pattern, and, thereafter, evaluates the candidates on the basis of rules of a desirable fingering so as to determine the optimum use of fingers so as to decrease the data base and speed up the data processing.

Music performance assisting system for teaching sequential use of fingers, method used therein and information storage medium for computer program representative of the method

A keyboard instrument is configured such that a flat panel-like display unit such as a liquid crystal display for displaying character information and/or images is provided on an instrument main body and that speakers, a recording/reproducing unit for multi media such as sound and/or image recording media, a microphone and a 'karaoke' reproduction unit are connected to the display unit so as to improve the function of displaying a notation and/or lyric at the time of a performance, a performance function such as an ensemble performance or 'karaoke' performance, and a tuning function.

Keyboard instrument with touch responsive display unit

A stopper, a driver unit, key and pedal sensors, a sound processing unit and a sound system are installed in an acoustic piano so as to remodel the acoustic piano into a keyboard musical instrument performable with either acoustic or electronic sounds.

Keyboard instruments having hammer stopper outwardly extending from

An acoustic piano, solenoid-operated key actuators for moving black/white keys in response to a driving signal and an electric system form in combination a keyboard musical instrument, and the electric system previously establishes first relations between key motions and associated hammer motions and second relations between the magnitude of the driving signal and final hammer velocity; the electric system estimates the final hammer velocity and a time delay between a key-on timing and an impact timing on the basis of the first relations for producing pieces of music data information in a recording mode, and tailors the driving signal on the basis of the second relations in a playback mode for exactly reproducing the original performance.

Keyboard musical instrument and recorder/playback controller

a stopper, a driver unit, key and pedal sensors, a sound processing unit and a sound system are installed in an acoustic piano so as to remodel the acoustic piano into a keyboard musical instrument performable with either acoustic or electronic sounds.

Keyboard instrument having hammer stopper outwardly extending from

An automatic player piano has solenoid-operated key actuator units under a keyboard mounted on a wooden key bed, and the solenoid-operated key actuator units are supported by a frame structure inserted into a slot formed in the wooden key bed and bolted to metallic bracket members screwed to the wooden key bed; when the frame structure is taken out for a repairing work, the bracket members are never removed from the wooden key bed, and the bolt holes of the wooden key bed are never undesirably enlarged.

Automatic player piano having frame structure self-aligned with keyboard

An electronic keyboard musical instrument is responsive to a step-on of a soft pedal so as to impart effects similar to those of a soft pedal of an acoustic piano to an electronic sound; a tone generator incorporated in the electronic keyboard musical instrument causes a series of waveform data codes to be read out at a higher speed so as to slightly increase the pitch of an electronic sound, an envelop generator to give a gentle envelop with a small attack and a long sustain to the electronic sound and a filter circuit to emphasize a certain high frequency component, thereby making the electronic sound to be quite close to the piano sound produced under the step-on of the soft pedal.

Electronic keyboard musical instrument capable of imparting effect

In order to give piano-like key touch to a player in an electronically sound producing mode, a keyboard incorporated in a musical instrument is linked with key action mechanisms associated with hammer mechanisms, and a stopper blocks the hammer shanks before the hammers strike the strings so that noises are not mixed with synthesized tones.

Keyboard instrument for selectively producing mechanical sounds and

An acoustic upright piano, an electronic sound system and a hammer stopper form in combination a keyboard musical instrument for generating acoustic sounds in an acoustic sound mode and electronic sounds in an electronic sound mode, and the hammer stopper has a rotatable shaft extending in a lower space under damper blocks of damper assemblies, cushion members projecting into an upper space over the damper blocks and connecting brackets provided between the rotatable shaft and the cushion members, thereby perfectly interrupting hammer motions before an impact on strings in the electronic sound mode.

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Shizuoka, Japan

Kiyoshi Kawamura