Abstract: Harmonica structures designed for enhancing harmonica play are disclosed. In one aspect, a reed comb is provided with a common bridge having reeds formed integrally therewith. The reed plate has a plurality of reed slots formed therein and is adapted to receive the reeds of the reed comb into corresponding slots formed in the reed plate. A stepped portion formed in the reed plate is adapted to receive a reed of the reed comb therein to permit substantial encasement of the reed within the reed slot. A key benefit of this arrangement is to resist leakage of air between the reed plate and the flanks of the reed during harmonica play. The reed plate can also include a first stepped portion upon which the roots of the reeds are positioned and a second stepped portion positioned adjacent to the tips of the reeds. Other structures are disclosed that include a radiused surface formed on a portion of the reed or on the surface of the reed slot in which the reed is positioned.

Abstract: An improved harmonica is disclosed that includes a plurality of reeds and means operatively associated with at least one of the reeds that converts the mechanical vibration of the reed into electrical energy. The electrical signals are obtained and processed by a sensor board having sensors positioned thereon that correspond to the plurality of reeds on the reed plates of the harmonica. A variety of types and configurations for these sensors are provided. In addition, a piezoelectric material can be employed in conjunction with the reeds to alter the characteristics of their mechanical vibration during harmonica play. The sensor board or boards of the harmonica can be electrically coupled to auxiliary signal conditioning equipment, such as stereo equipment or conventional amplification equipment to further enhance play. Methods for retrofitting a commercially available harmonica with at least one sensor board are also provided.

Abstract: Enclosures for a harmonica are disclosed wherein the wall of the enclosure surrounds the harmonica, provides a mouthpiece opening and an outlet opening, and forms at least one resonance chamber. A lip groove, a bulge, a cradle and a diffuser are disclosed forming a saddle-shaped surface which is concave along a front-to-back axis and convex around the ends of the enclosure. A key benefit of this arrangement is the improved control of the sound by the player's hands. Another key benefit of this arrangement is the enhanced tone and increased loudness of the sound produced by the harmonica. Supporting members are disclosed that constrain movement of the harmonica relative to the enclosure. Single-piece and multi-piece enclosures are disclosed.

Abstract: A harmonica comprising an integral design of a single molded body as well as a reed fastening system providing releasable attachment of said reed.

Abstract: A harmonica is provided with three diatonic reed harps vertically aligned in a single housing. The three diatonic reed harps are in communication with a central mouthpiece. The reed harps are in different keys. Two movable sliders block the air channel to two of the three reed harps at any one time. The sliders are caused to move to blocking or unblocking positions through the actuation of a pair of buttons. The first button and the second button engage and disengage elongated slide members which are aligned in horizontal relation with each of the three diatonic reeds, either blocking or unblocking the air passage therethrough, thus preventing their ability to make sound. Through manipulation of the pair of buttons, the user may select any one of three harps to play. When both buttons are disengaged, the central harp is open, and the top and bottom harps are blocked. When the front button is engaged, the lower harp is open, and the top and middle harps are blocked.

Abstract: A harmonica including damping means for producing pure overblow and/or overdraw tones and making such tones less difficult to produce. The harmonica includes at least one slide which damps at least one blow reed corresponding to a draw reed which vibrates during an overblow procedure. The harmonica may also include a second slide, a draw reed slide which damps at least one draw reed to allow vibration of a blow reed during an overdraw procedure. A method of overdrawing and overblowing is also disclosed.

Abstract: This invention features a U-shaped hole shield, for isolating one harmonica hole at a time, and is sufficiently long to span the lips of a harmonica player. In the center of the face of the U-shaped shield, there is a rectangular aperture with dimensions substantially identical to the dimensions of the rectangular holes of a harmonica. When the shield is placed in position on the harmonica, the rectangular aperture of the shield can be aligned with any desired rectangular hole of the harmonica. Thus, one, and only one, hole of the harmonica will be exposed, while the adjacent holes will be covered, and shielded, by the shield. The musician's lips can be placed against the shield, centered about the aperture, and without the need for the use of the tongue, a single note can be sounded with ease, simply by blowing into, or drawing air out of, the exposed hole. The movement of the shield is controlled by the lips, and the hands move, or slide, the harmonica, sideways, in either direction, relative to the shield.

Abstract: A chromatic harmonica in which the upper register blow-note of a lower octave, and an adjacent, lower register blow-note of an upper octave are identical, repeating notes, and cavities corresponding to these repeating notes are separated by a tactile divider.

Abstract: A mouth organ includes a voicing element which is a metal plate having in one surface a plurality of U-shaped recesses extending slightly more than halfway through the thickness of the plate, and having in an opposite surface a plurality of rectangular recesses which are each aligned with a respective U-shaped recess and which each extend slightly more than halfway through the thickness of the plate. Each pair of corresponding U-shaped and rectangular recesses communicate at their inner ends and define a respective elongate reed which is an integral portion of the plate and is secured at only one end to the plate. All of the recesses are can be formed simultaneously through photochemical machining. In a variation, each reed has a plurality of recesses spaced along its length which increase progressively in size, to simulate a tapered characteristic for the reed.

Abstract: A harmonica with increased musical range and volume is disclosed. The technique used to produce some of the additional notes is called bending. To increase the musical range of the instrument, the harmonica has four reeds per reed cell. Two of the reeds are traditional blow and draw reeds and the other two reeds are enabler reeds for enabling the blow and draw reeds to both be bent to lower frequencies. All four reeds have check valves which are essential for the enabler reeds to preclude unwanted sympathetic vibration in adjacent cells. One embodiment permits a single valve to serve two reeds.

Abstract: A harmonica is comprised of three components, namely a housing shell, a lid and a sounding board. The lid snaps into engagement with the housing shell and, when so engaged, urges the sounding board against internal walls on the housing shell which define reed compartments.

Abstract: A polyphonic breath controlled electronic musical instrument includes a hand held breath sensor unit having a plurality of bidirectional air flow sensing passageways for detecting sucking or blowing action of the performer in a manner similar to a conventional acoustic harmonica. The breath sensor unit further includes pressure sensing transducers on the surface thereof, adapted to sense lip pressure and finger pressure of the performer, as well as a plurality of switches activated by the fingers of the performer holding the breath sensor unit. A microphone configured in the breath sensor unit picks up the vocal sounds of the performer. A thumb wheel controller is provided on the sensor unit to allow a control of tone parameters, such as volume, by the thumb of the performer.

Abstract: A harmonica with increased musical range and volume is disclosed. The technique used to produce some of the additional notes is called bending. To increase the musical range of the instrument, the harmonica has four reeds per reed cell. Two of the reeds are traditional blow and draw reeds and the other two reeds are enabler reeds for enabling the blow and draw reeds to both be bent to lower frequencies. All four reeds have check valves which are essential for the enabler reeds to preclude unwanted sympathetic vibration in adjacent cells.

Abstract: Harmonics are disclosed in which the pitches of the draw-reeds and blow-reeds are arranged such that, in each of at least seven successive cavities, the pitch of the blow-reed is equal to or lower than that of the draw-reed. Disclosed harmonicas also feature reeds of three or four adjacent cavities arranged to enable them to produce all twelve notes of the chromatic scale, or provide reed arrangements in which a major or minor chord of the draw key-note is repeated by draw-reeds in successive sets of cavities, and in which at least four adjacent cavities produce an extended chord of the blow key-note. In many disclosed harmonicas, the blow-reed in each cavity is lower in pitch than the draw-reed.

Abstract: A reedless harmonica generates control signals for a sound synthesizer which may, if desired, be situated away from the harmonica. The harmonica body has multiple air passages, each generating different musical notes through a plurality of air flow sensors which initiate electrical signals which identify each note being played and indicate changes in the amplitude of the note through transducers. In the preferred embodiment, the sensors are strain gages and circuits are provided for sequentially detecting the electrical resistivity of each gage in a repetitive scanning cycle to produce repetitive sequences of digitally coded signals. Signals produced by the harmonica can be used to control MIDI equipped sound synthesizers or for controlling other forms of electrically operated sound generating equipment.

Abstract: A mouth organ having suction-excited and pressure-excited reeds which cooperate with slotted plates is provided with a pair one-way of valve defining members formed from sheet material. The first valve member defining includes plural integral flaps which respectively act as individual valves to control air flow over associated suction-excited reeds. The second valve defining member is in the form of a single flap which is loosely disposed to move perpendicularly relative to the slotted plate with which the pressure-excited reeds cooperate.

Abstract: An input device for an electronic musical instrument, has blown air apertures and suction air apertures alternately disposed on the front face of its main body. This input device also has elastic members provided within the blown air apertures and suction air apertures, in such a way as to be deformed by the force of the air caused to flow through said blown air apertures and suction air apertures. The input device also has magnets or pressure members serving as operation members, which magnets or pressure members are each displaced by an elastic member, and a plurality of musical tone input switches are driven by the displacement of the magnets or pressure members.

Abstract: A sound attachment for a reed instrument such as a harmonica. A housing is provided having an open end adapted for attachment to the instrument, covering the full width of the portion of the instrument from which sound is emitted, and a closed opposite end. Interior walls of the housing converge from the open end to an area intermediate the length of the housing, defining a sound funnel. A sound absorbing collar is mounted transversely within the housing, located between the intermediate area and the closed end of the housing, and has an electronic sound pick up element mounted therein. The pick up element is located to provide an air chamber on both sides of the collar pick up element assembly, the rear chamber being at least partially filled with sound absorbing material such that virtually total sound from the instrument is received by the pick up element with very little or no distortion, and thus may be amplified without distortion.

Abstract: A mouth organ comprising two molded plastic half air slot bodies with integral voice reeds. The half air slot bodies are joined together and are protected externally with respective cover shell halves which are also preferably molded plastic parts.

Abstract: A harmonica has sound producing chambers of varying lengths and volumes formed on opposite sides of the harmonica body in a staggered alternating arrangement along the body length. Body depth exceeds chamber depth, and a transition zone in each chamber expands the cross section to connect with a fully dimensioned mouthpiece opening.

Abstract: An educational device (10) for teaching proper harmonica (1) playing techniques includes a rectangular holder (20) defining a longitudinal receiving slot (25). An elongated support arm (28) projects outwardly from the holder (20) and includes an interference fitting clip (30) adapted to secure the holder (20) to a harmonica (1) and to locate the receiving slot (25) in a vertical plane. The receiving slot (25) carries special sheet music (15) having a two-dimensional matrix printed thereon. The sheet music (15) faces the harmonica player and includes numbered matrix columns (16) aligned with corresponding numbered blow holes (4) in the harmonica (1). A plurality of music numbers are printed in corresponding matrix columns (16) for alignment with the blow holes (4) referring the harmonica player to a designated blow hole (4) to produce a desired note.

Abstract: To simplify playing of an electronic instrument and to avoid the otherwise clearly recognizable synthetic sound quality, the operating elements are arranged in a wind or blowing body constructed and playable similar to a mouth-harmonica. These operating elements comprise a pressure sensor responsive to the blowing and suction air current or stream of a human being and which is coupled to a mouthpiece displaceable along the wind or blowing body, and a number of position sensors which respond in accordance with the momentary position of the mouthpiece. The pressure sensor and the position sensors are coupled to an evaluation circuit which is structured such that it generates, as a function of the response of these sensors, the control voltages required for controlling the synthesizer.

Abstract: A harmonica has a reed plate with a plurality of reeds overlying slots in the plate. The reed plate is mounted in a chamber of a housing, and the harmonica is played by forcing air from the player's mouth through passages in the housing and past the reeds. If a reed becomes separated from the plate, it is trapped in the chamber. This prevents a separated reed from travelling along the passages into the mouth of the player and possibly injuring the player.

Abstract: An harmonica having a conventional body shaped so as to form a series of adjacent cavities and a plurality of reeds each of which is responsive to the passage of air to produce an audible musical note of a certain fixed pitch. Two reeds are associated with each cavity such that one reed is responsive to blowing into the cavity to produce a blownote and the other is responsive to drawing on such cavity to produce a drawnote. In one embodiment, the reeds are constructed and arranged such that the blownotes include the first, fourth and sixth notes of the major scale of a keynote and all the drawnotes are notes of the major scale of that keynote. Harmonicas utilizing modal scales are also provided.

Abstract: A device to facilitate playing a mouth blown harmonica comprising a body with a plurality of flaired air channels which extend from registry with the harmonica blow holes to the outer periphery of the body. That periphery is shaped to fit the mouth of the user so that a single channel can be easily used at any one time.

Abstract: A wind instrument having a tone color produced from sound producing reeds in response to the blowing of breath through a mouthpiece, is played by manipulating keys arranged to produce notes of the scale in the same manner as a conventional classical wind instrument such as a clarinet, saxophone, trumpet or french horn, as the case may be. The instrument is constructed with a main body of the wind instrument, a plurality of scale operations keys, air passageway change-over valves, a plurality of groups of sound producing members which produce tones in correspondence to finger action of the scale operation keys, and a mechanism for forming the air passageway to introduce air blown in from a mouthpiece of the wind instrument by the operations of a corresponding air passageway change-over valve into the corresponding sound producing member.

Abstract: A respirator through which a person may breath, and which vibrates the air during inhalation and exhalation in such a manner as to vibrate the cilia in the lungs of the person breathing through the respirator.

Abstract: An apparatus and a method are provided for the producing of chordal music. The apparatus includes an elongated tone chamber body of the harmonica type having a plurality of reed-type chambers each including a port. The tone chamber body is slidably inserted into an elongated housing that includes a valve block having a row of air passages spaced to register with the ports of the tone chamber body.Chordal pattern means is provided for blocking and for selectively opening a plurality of the air passages in predetermined chordal patterns. A keynote selection means is provided for manually positioning the tone chamber body and one of the tone chambers therein in registry with one of the air passages of the valve block in order to select a keynote for the predetermined chordal pattern.