Music instrument system and methods
View Patent ↗A system and methods which allow even a novice performer to easily play music which is not disharmonious and which is pleasing to the performer and his or her audience. The music is preferably created by a performer breaking one or more beams of light, which are emitted by one or more beam emitters and received, or detected, by one or more beam detectors. When a beam detector determines that a beam has been broken, a trigger is sent to a synthesizer, with such synthesizer preferably being a computer interfaced to the beam detectors via a Universal Serial Bus connection. The synthesizer selects from one or more electronic sounds, based on a pre-programmed collection of sounds, and a sound generator, such as an amplifier and speakers, plays the sound.
1. A music instrument comprising:
a plurality of electromagnetic beam emitters each adapted to emit an electromagnetic beam;
a plurality of electromagnetic beam detectors each adapted to detect at least one of the emitted beams;
a processor;
a controller responsive to the beam detectors and configured to exchange control signals with the processor as a function of the detectors;
a plurality of music programs configured to permit the processor to generate an electronic signal as a function of the controller; and
at least one sound generator configured to generate audible musical sounds as a function of the electronic signal.
2. The music instrument as specified in claim 1 wherein when one of the beam detectors detects a first state for a prolonged period of time successive said audible sounds are generated.
3. The music instrument as specified in claim 1 wherein the audible musical sounds are sympathetic.
4. The music instrument as specified in claim 2 wherein the audible musical sounds are sympathetic.
5. The music instrument as specified in claim 1 wherein the sound generator is a synthesizer.
6. The music instrument as specified in claim 1 wherein the controller comprises a trigger circuit configured to determine when one said beam detector has changed state.
7. The music instrument as specified in claim 1 wherein each said music program comprises sound elements.
8. The music instrument as specified in claim 7 wherein the sound elements of each said music program comprise a subset of a musical composition.
9. The music instrument as specified in claim 8 wherein the musical composition of each said music program is correlated to each other.
10. The music instrument as specified in claim 9 wherein the musical composition of each said music program is a subset of a song.