Abstract: An apparatus for playing chords, scales and/or intervals on a musical instrument for visually-impaired people is provided. The apparatus can have a substantially rectangular card with multiple indicators attached to the card that a visually-impaired person can play all chords, intervals and scales on a piano with a dedicated card having the chord or scale configuration by aligning the indicators to any piano key and finding the other keys of the same chord or scale on the piano by aligning the other indicators.

Abstract: A system of teaching piano playing and music theory having piano cards. Piano cards are a flash card system with piano note information on each card. These piano cards are placed above piano keys of a piano or other keyboard designating keys to be played in a specific scale. Black and white triangles on these piano cards designate ebony and ivory keys to be played and can only be placed on a keyboard correctly if aligning white and black triangles with ebony and ivory keys. Triangles designate fingers to be used on fingering cards by way of numbers designating fingers. On music theory cards numbers inside triangles designate scale degrees. On chord cards numbers designate degrees to be played. This music teaching system further comprises a music wheel that has been color coded designating the key a scale is in.

Abstract: A method and device for facilitating learning of musical scales on string instruments are provided. The device comprises a visual scheme consisting of blocks to be positioned just below notes of a scale when fixed on an instrument, each block being formed by the overlap of two rectangles in distinct sizes, which serve as space for accommodation of different didactic information; a manual providing information for the understanding and proper use of the visual scheme; and a musical background providing tracks that sound in the same frequency or tonality of the visual scheme. The device can further include a complementary visual scheme useful in practicing scales in different tonalities.

Abstract: One embodiment of the present invention relates to a method for teaching music to one or more students. The instructor's manual operation of a musical instrument controls in real-time the illumination of guide lamps on each student's musical instrument. This allows the students to visually connect the note to be played with the instructor's verbal instruction and then play the visually indicated note without having to look up at the instructor or a distant display. In another embodiment, the instructor's manual operation of his musical instrument provides a score display of the played note on each student's musical instrument. The students can visually connect the played note with the musical notation on the score display. Remote teaching over a communication network is also described as well as a removable interface for the musical instrument to assist in teaching and use of the instrument.

Abstract: An instructional device for use by music students is constructed as an outer sleeve having a slide member fitted within it. The outer sleeve has first and second sets of openings and is imprinted with a representation of a piano keyboard. The slide member has alphabetic representations of musical notes showing through the first set of openings as the slide member is moved. One alphabetic representation shows the musical key selected and seven others display the notes of the chromatic scale and major and minor chords associated with that key. A first series of markings sized and located to show through the second set of openings will indicate the piano keys related to the chromatic scale selected. Additional sets of openings and markings on the slide member indicate the piano keys associated with the major and minor chords selected. These piano keys shown by colored markings or specially shaped openings.

Abstract: A method and system of teaching and/or studying music theory and for aiding the practice of musical instruments according to the integration of the color spectrum with notes of the circle of fifths and rearrangement of those notes into the musical chromatic scale. This rearrangement is accomplished by rotating either set of notes (spaced at whole-tone intervals) in the circle of fifths by 180 degrees. The musical chromatic scale arrangement of colors is then applied to various instruments. Diagrams representing the various note/color patterns as they appear on the various color-coded instruments are also provided. Scale and/or chord charts or diagrams for various instruments are also provided. The inventive color code is also applied to tablature, as well as to inventive forms of music notation.

Abstract: A method and device to aid musicians interested in composition, improvisation, and music theory. Various embodiments provide interactive reference tools that organize musical concepts including chord harmonies, chord progressions, cord substitutions, modes, key transpositions, and alternative scales, illustrating how these aspects of music theory are related. A cylindrical first surface having presented upon it musical information in the form of columns of note values and/or intervals may be positioned inside a cylindrical second surface. A second surface, a cylindrical sleeve, may have presented upon it one or more music reference tools which display music theoretic forms and structures in a key-independent manner. The surfaces may comprise printable surfaces on which the musical information and reference tools may be printed, or a digital display device on which the musical information and reference tools may be displayed.

Abstract: A transposition rule for musical theory for the visual indication of the sequence of notes of musical scales and/or chords in the various keys of a tone system. The transposition rule includes an elongated base member which is provided with fixed scales, wherein the scales include the notes of the tone system arranged with a uniform division, and replaceable sliding scales which are displaceably guided in the base member and are provided with the sequences of notes of the musical scale and of the chords in a division corresponding to the division of the fixed scales. The slide member is arranged in the base member in an on-edge position.

Abstract: A toilet for bed-ridden patients is supported by a flat planar support surface which holds the weight of the patient. One end of the support surface is tapered and rests on the surface of the patient's bed; the other end is supported by a pair of height adjustable legs so that the entire support surface may be set up level, over a range of bed heights. Back and side support rails fit into the support surface, and may be positioned so that the support may be mounted either to the right or the left side of a bed.

Abstract: A music rule is disclosed for assistance in the identification of chord, scale and mode structure with respect to the (ivory) key structure of a piano. The scale has a scale body accommodating an interior sliding rule. The interior sliding rule includes two areas for exposure to the user of the rule. The first exposure area--and preferably the lowest exposure area--is an analog of the piano keyboard. This analog of the rule provides for error-free registration of the rule to the keys of the piano. The second--and preferably higher exposure area--contains note indicia representative of the actual notes which the sliding scale overlies. The sliding scale fits to a rule body having first and second window areas. The first window body constantly exposes the keyboard analog of the piano keys. This enables registration of the rule in the entirety to the correct position on the piano keyboard.

Abstract: A music chart for determining the constituent tones of a plurality of chords and the chord name of a given series of tones is disclosed. The chart is comprised of a disc having at its outer circumference a plurality of spaced-apart chord names. Each chord name lies along a radius of the disc, each radius having delineated thereon a plurality of markers radially spaced from each other. A slide member having an elongated narrow rectangular window is slidably and pivotally superimposed on the disc by means of a central rivet projecting through the window. The slide member has at its lower side a graphic representation of a keyboard which is lettered according to conventional keyboard construction and includes at least two octaves. By rotating and sliding the slide member over the disc a chord name and its constituent tones are easily readable in the window.

Abstract: The ruler for composing or decomposing the chords for polyphonic musical instruments is characterized in that it comprises: ruler slides (A,B,C,D,E,F,P,Q) movable with respect to each other in a given direction and each provided with inscriptions relative to the notes of the chromatic scale, respectively assigned to the fundamental, the third, the fifth, the sixth, the seven the etc. . . . of chord--a cursor (K,N) relatively movable in said given direction with respect to the ruler slides, said cursor being with a marking (L,N5) positioned to make evident one of the notes of the chromatic scale of each of the slides: one element (H) integral with the slide (A,P) assigned to evident the inscriptions relative to the musical chord searched for the invention applies to a chord ruler for polyphonic musical instrument.

Abstract: A musical instrument having a housing. A well is formed in one surface of the housing and adapted to receive a card. A slide is mounted on the housing for movement across the surface of the card. The card containing printed indicia, each of which represents a note of a musical composition with the indicia arranged in a generally rectangular matrix. The indicia on the card are arranged in one direction across the matrix to indicate the sequence of notes played in a musical composition from the beginning to the end thereof. The indicia are arranged in the direction across the matrix extending at right angles to the sequence of playing to indicate changes in frequency of the notes from the lowest frequency on one side of the matrix to the highest frequency on the other side. The slide extends across the card and the well in the direction of the sequence of playing the notes of the composition.

Abstract: Keyboard instrument, in particular a piano or similar instrument that has keys and that can be used in conjunction with aids to learning in the form of templates, characterized in that, of the white keys (long keys 2) that form the C-major scale, the width (b) of the keys that produce the notes B, C, E, and R is 1/4 less than the width (B) of the remaining keys, which produce the notes D, G, and A, so that the ratio of the width of the equally wide keys for B, C, E, and F to the width of the equally wide keys for D, G, and A is 3:4. Templates that are separated into a number of adjacent divisions (5) that are equally wide, each division (5) being 1/2 the width (b) of one D, G, or A key, so that three adjacent divisions (5) will be as wide as two B, C, E, or F keys and two divisions (5) will be as wide as one D, G, or A key can be placed over the keyboard to represent all possible scales, thirds, triads, and tetrads with their inversions, major and minor intervals, cadenzas, transpositions, etc.

Abstract: A musical teaching and playing aid has a sheath with a front panel defining spaced octaves of a keyboard instrument keyboard with slits just above the keys for the insertion of insert cards each of which is identified as to the octave above which it will be inserted, with each of these insert cards having a first tier of scale or chord tones which align with and name the keys on the keyboard, and a second tier of notes on a musical staff, which notes fall within the general range of the keys on the keyboard and the octave named on the card and which are visible by raising the card from a first position to a second position, whereby the independence of each octave is stressed by its isolation from adjacent octaves, disrupting the usual continuity of the keys, and the notes which fit within that octave and their names are identified on the removeable card to facilitate identification of note position on the staff with octave position in the range of notes on the keyboard.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for teaching the relationship between the conventional musical staff and the tone-producing elements or keys of a barred or keyboard type instrument. The apparatus includes an elongated base member having a planar surface on which a replica of a portion of a conventional musical staff consisting of at least five parallel lines is depicted. Each line positioned on the base member is separated from the next line by a distance essentially equal to the width of two tone-producing elements on the instrument. A plurality of cover strips fabricated out of releasable material having a width equal to the width of a single key are superimposed over the lines on the base member in overlying relationship to the lines to provide alternating and parallel covered and uncovered areas of substantially equal width.

Abstract: The present invention integrates the entire body of musical knowledge relating to key signatures, basic chord structure, the logical progression of chords within a key signature according to the cycle of fourths, identification of the root tone both of scales and of chords, the replication of chord and scale structure over the keys of a piano or the like for each consecutive octave, and the display of the most suitable inversion to use in any particular instance for a particular chord in the selected key signature.