IP Library Granted Patent US 8,735,706
Granted Patent B2
US 8,735,706 · App. 12/782,876 · Granted May 27, 2014

Musical instrument keyboard having identically shaped black and white keys

Inventor: Sydney Mathews (Ottawa, CA)
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Quick Facts
Patent No.
US 8,735,706
App. No.
12/782,876
Granted
May 27, 2014
Kind
B2
Abstract

A musical instrument keyboard is provided comprising a plurality of black and white keys being identically shaped and sized and arranged on a single plane in a parallel and fully adjacent manner relative to one another said keys being connected to key responsive means for enabling the generation of tones substantially within the tonal range of a standard piano.

Claims (17)

1. A musical instrument keyboard comprising:

a single row of keys comprising at least one complete scale of a plurality of complete scales for enabling generation of tones, each key having four sides when viewed from above, the keys for the at least one complete scale consisting of a predetermined sequence of adjacently disposed partially-black surfaced keys and white surfaced keys where adjacently disposed keys within each complete scale exhibit a fixed mathematical relationship to each neighboring key and the partially-black surfaced keys and white surfaced keys are identically sized and shaped,

wherein each partially-black surfaced key has a bar-shaped surface that directly abuts and immediately extends from a first side of the partially-black surfaced key without contacting second, third, and fourth sides of the partially-black surfaced key, and

wherein the first side is a top side of the partially-black surfaced key.

2. The musical keyboard according to claim 1 ,

wherein the predetermined sequence is white, partially-black, white, partially-black, white, white, partially-black, white, partially-black, white, partially-black, and white.

3. The musical keyboard according to claim 1 , wherein a position of fingers of a hand of a user do not change when playing a same basic pattern of uniquely defined solfege notes for different chords.

4. The musical keyboard according to claim 1 , wherein the at least one complete scale of a plurality of complete scales comprises tones matching a predetermined portion of a tonal range of a standard piano.

5. The musical keyboard according to claim 1 , wherein an overall tonal range of the keyboard is increased by adding further a predetermined portion of a further scale of the plurality of complete scales.

6. The musical keyboard according to claim 1 , wherein the keys are generally rectangular in shape, and an edge of each key is directly adjacent to an edge of an adjacent key.

7. The musical keyboard according to claim 6 , wherein the edge of each key is parallel to the edge of the adjacent key.

8. The musical keyboard according to claim 1 , wherein the fixed mathematical relationship is two to the power of one twelfth.

9. The musical keyboard according to claim 1 , wherein said partially black surfaces are centered laterally on a white surface of each partially black surfaced keys.

10. A musical instrument keyboard comprising:

a single row of keys comprising at least one complete scale of a plurality of complete scales for enabling generation of tones, each key having a pair of long sides and a pair of short sides when viewed from above, each short side having a dimension shorter than each long side, the keys for the at least one complete scale consisting of a predetermined sequence of adjacently disposed partially-black surfaced keys and white surfaced keys where adjacently disposed keys within each complete scale exhibit a fixed mathematical relationship to each neighboring key and the partially-black surfaced keys and white surfaced keys are identically sized and shaped,

wherein each partially-black surfaced key has a black stripe directly abutting and immediately extending from one of the short sides, being parallel to the long sides, and having a length shorter than the long sides and a width shorter than the short sides, and

wherein the short side from which the black stripe extends from is a top side of the partially-black surfaced key.

Continuity (1)
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