# US 2014/0190338 A1 · Electronic stringed instrument, musical sound generation method, and storage medium

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- Number: US 2014/0190338 A1
- Document ID: US20140190338A1
- Status: Published application
- Kind: A1
- Application number: 14/145,250
- Filed: 2013-12-31
- Published: 2014-07-10
- Earliest claimed: 2013-01-08
- Assignees: Casio Computer Co., Ltd.
- Applicants: Casio Computer Co., Ltd.
- Inventors: Tatsuya DEJIMA; Tetsuichi NAKAE; Akio IBA; Katsutoshi SAKAI; Kazuyoshi WATANABE
- Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US20140190338A1

## CPC

- G10H 1/46: Volume control
- G10H 1/342: {for guitar-like instruments with or without strings and with a neck on which switches or string-fret contacts are used to detect the notes being played (electric guitars in which the tones are generated by the vibration of strings G10H3/18)}
- G10H 3/12: using mechanical resonant generators, e.g. strings or percussive instruments, the tones of which are picked up by electromechanical transducers, the electrical signals being further manipulated or amplified and subsequently converted to sound by a loudspeaker or equivalent instrument
- G10H 3/125: {Extracting or recognising the pitch or fundamental frequency of the picked up signal}
- G10H 3/18: using a string, e.g. electric guitar {(mechanical features G10D1/085)}
- G10H 3/186: {Means for processing the signal picked up from the strings (filtering G10H1/12)}
- G10H 2220/301: Fret-like switch array arrangements for guitar necks
- G10H 2250/441: Gensound string, i.e. generating the sound of a string instrument, controlling specific features of said sound
- G10H 2250/451: Plucked or struck string instrument sound synthesis, controlling specific features of said sound
- G10H: ELECTROPHONIC MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS; INSTRUMENTS IN WHICH THE TONES ARE GENERATED BY ELECTROMECHANICAL MEANS OR ELECTRONIC GENERATORS, OR IN WHICH THE TONES ARE SYNTHESISED FROM A DATA STORE

## Abstract

An electronic stringed instrument 1 includes a string-pressing sensor 44 that detects a state of contact between each of a plurality of frets 23 and each of a plurality of strings 22. A CPU 41 detects that picking of any of the plurality of strings 22, provides a sound generation instruction to a connected sound source 45 to produce musical sound of a pitch determined based on the detected state of contact, detects a vibration pitch of the string 22 of which picking was detected, and corrects the pitch of the musical sound generated by the connected sound source 45 based on the detected vibration pitch.

## Claims

### Claim 1

An electronic stringed instrument, comprising:
a plurality of strings stretched above a fingerboard unit provided with a plurality of frets;
a state detection unit that detects a state between each of the plurality of frets and each of the plurality of strings;
a string picking detection unit that detects picking of any of the plurality of strings;
a sound generation instruction unit that provides a sound source with a sound generation instruction of musical sound of a pitch determined based on the state detected by the state detection unit;
a pitch detection unit that detects a vibration pitch of a string of which picking is detected by the string picking detection unit; and
a correction unit that corrects the pitch of the musical sound generated by the sound source, based on the vibration pitch detected by the pitch detection unit.

### Claim 2 (depends on 1)

The electronic stringed instrument according to claim 1, wherein the state detection unit sequentially supplies a signal to each of the strings in a time-sharing manner, and detects whether or not the signal supplied to each of the strings is received by any of the frets, thereby detecting a fret and a string which are in contact with each other by a string-pressing operation.

### Claim 3 (depends on 1)

The electronic stringed instrument according to claim 1, wherein the state detection unit includes electrostatic sensors in positions respectively corresponding to the plurality of frets correspondingly to the plurality of strings, and wherein detected electrostatic capacity of the electrostatic sensors changes as the strings approach thereto.

### Claim 4 (depends on 1)

The electronic stringed instrument according to claim 1, further comprising:
a degree-of-change detection unit that detects a degree of change in a string vibration level at a time point when the state detection unit detects the state; and
a volume determination unit that determines volume of musical sound of which generation is instructed by the sound generation instruction unit, based on the degree of change detected by the degree-of-change detection unit.

### Claim 5 (depends on 4)

The electronic stringed instrument according to claim 4, wherein the degree-of-change detection unit detects a speed of change in the string vibration level as the degree of change.

### Claim 6 (depends on 4)

The electronic stringed instrument according to claim 4, wherein the degree-of-change detection unit detects acceleration of change in the string vibration level as the degree of change.

### Claim 7 (depends on 4)

The electronic stringed instrument according to claim 4, wherein the degree-of-change detection unit detects jerk of change in the string vibration level as the degree of change.

### Claim 8

A musical sound generation method used in an electronic stringed instrument, the electronic stringed instrument including: a plurality of strings stretched above a fingerboard unit provided with a plurality of frets; and a state detection unit that detects a state between each of the plurality of frets and each of the plurality of strings, wherein the electronic stringed instrument
detects picking of any of the plurality of strings;
provides a sound source with a sound generation instruction of musical sound of a pitch determined based on the state detected by the state detection unit;
detects a vibration pitch of a string of which picking is detected; and
corrects the pitch of the musical sound generated by the sound source, based on the detected vibration pitch.

### Claim 9 (depends on 8)

The musical sound generation method according to claim 8, wherein the electronic stringed instrument sequentially supplies a signal to each of the strings in a time-sharing manner, and detects whether or not the signal supplied to each of the strings is received by any of the frets, thereby detecting a fret and a string which are in contact with each other as a result of the string being pressed.

### Claim 10 (depends on 8)

The musical sound generation method according to claim 8, wherein the electronic stringed instrument includes electrostatic sensors in positions respectively corresponding to the plurality of frets correspondingly to the plurality of strings, and wherein detected electrostatic capacity of the electrostatic sensors changes as the strings approach thereto.

### Claim 11 (depends on 9)

The musical sound generation method according to claim 9, wherein the electronic stringed instrument further
detects a degree of change in a string vibration level at a time point when detecting the state; and
determines volume of the musical sound of which generation is instructed, based on the detected degree of change.

### Claim 12 (depends on 11)

The musical sound generation method according to claim 11, wherein the electronic stringed instrument detects a speed of change in the string vibration level as the degree of change.

### Claim 13 (depends on 11)

The musical sound generation method according to claim 11, wherein the electronic stringed instrument detects acceleration of change in the string vibration level as the degree of change.

### Claim 14 (depends on 11)

The musical sound generation method according to claim 11, wherein the electronic stringed instrument detects jerk of change in the string vibration level as the degree of change.

### Claim 15

A non-transitory storage medium storing a program configured to cause a computer used in an electronic stringed instrument, the electronic stringed instrument including: a plurality of strings stretched above a fingerboard unit provided with a plurality of frets; and a state detection unit that detects a state between each of the plurality of frets and each of the plurality of strings, to execute:
a string picking detection step of detecting picking of any of the plurality of strings;
a sound generation instruction step of providing a sound source with a sound generation instruction of musical sound of a pitch determined based on the state detected by the state detection unit;
a pitch detection step of detecting a vibration pitch of the string of which picking is detected; and
a correction step of correcting the pitch of the musical sound generated by the sound source, based on the detected vibration pitch.

### Claim 16 (depends on 15)

The non-transitory storage medium according to claim 15, wherein the state detection unit sequentially supplies a signal to each of the strings in a time-sharing manner, and detects whether or not the signal supplied to each of the strings is received by any of the frets, thereby detecting a fret and a string which are in contact with each other by a string-pressing operation.

### Claim 17 (depends on 15)

The non-transitory storage medium according to claim 15, wherein the state detection unit includes electrostatic sensors in positions respectively corresponding to the plurality of frets correspondingly to the plurality of strings, and wherein detected electrostatic capacity of the electrostatic sensors changes as the strings approach thereto.

### Claim 18 (depends on 15)

The non-transitory storage medium according to claim 15, further causing the computer to execute:
a degree-of-change detection step of detecting a degree of change in a string vibration level at a time point when the state detection unit detects the state; and
a volume determination step of determining volume of musical sound of which generation is instructed in the sound generation instruction step, based on the degree of change detected in the degree-of-change detection step.