Electronic display system for musical instruments

An electronic system for driving a two-dimensional display for musical instruments, such as guitars or the like, comprising

• display means having first and second series of light sources forming an X-Y display and wherein illumination of one light source of each series identifies a musical note to be played on an instrument with which the display means is directly associated, said display means comprising a plural number G of X-Y displays for respective instruments,
• means for receiving a stored data word sequence representing musical notes to be played, a portion of said stored sequence representing the time intervals for which said notes are to be played, and demodulator means comprising a plurality of storage registers, and said data word sequence representing notes to be played on a respective plural number G of musical instruments,
• decoder means for receiving said data words in parallel and for operating one light source of each series of light sources in response to each parallel data word for the interval represented by said portion of said sequence and
• counting means connected with said demodulator means for gating data words for notes to be played on respective instruments to respective ones of said storage registers to thereby cause appropriate light sources in the X-Y displays of the instruments to operate simultaneously for facilitating the playing of the musical instruments simultaneously.

An electronic system for driving displays for musical instruments, such as guitars or the like, comprising

• a plurality of display means each having light sources forming a display and wherein illumination of a light source identifies a musical note to be played on a musical instrument with which a respective display means is directly associated, each of said display means comprising a first series of light sources adapted to be associated with the strings of a guitar, with each light source of the first series being associated with a respective string, and a second series of light sources respectively adapted to be associated with the frets of the guitar,
• means for receiving a stored data word sequence representing musical notes to be played by the instruments, a portion of said stored sequence representing the time intervals for which said notes are to be played,
• demodulator means comprising a plurality of storage registers corresponding with the number of display means, said data word sequence representing notes to be played on a corresponding number of musical instruments for the interval represented by said portion of said stored sequence,
• counting means connected with said demodulator means for gating data words for notes to be played on respective instruments to respective ones of said storage registers to thereby cause appropriate light sources in the displays for the plurality of instruments to operate simultaneously for facilitating the playing of the musical instruments simultaneously, and,
• decoder means connected with said demodulator means for receiving said data words in parallel and for operating a light source of each display in response to each parallel data word for the interval represented by said portion of said stored sequence.