Method of and control system for automatically correcting a pitch of a musical instrument

A method of automatically correcting a pitch of a musical instrument including a note input device for inputting note input signals according to a first intonation system, in particular, an intonation system with equal temperament and a tone-generating device for receiving the note input signals and for generating respective tones, the method comprising the steps of:

• (a) determining whether an input signal pattern, comprising at least two note input signals, corresponds to one of a plurality of predetermined chord patterns each comprising a predetermined fundamental note;
• (b) in the case of a correspondence of the input signal pattern to one of the plurality of chord patterns, replacing the corresponding input signal pattern by a corrected input signal pattern, the corrected input signal pattern being determined on a basis of the input signal pattern corrected by first and third correction factors, the first correction factor being attributed to the one chord pattern and being determined to correct, according to a second intonation system, different from the first intonation system, in particular an intonation system with "just" intonation, all note input signals except for a note input signal corresponding to the fundamental note of the respective chord pattern;
• (c) determining whether two successive input signal patterns, first and second signal patterns, correspond to two different chord patterns of the plurality of predetermined chord patterns but with at least one coinciding note;
• and
• (d) in case of the correspondence of the two successive input patterns to two different chord patterns, further correcting the second input signal pattern over the two successive input patterns by the third correction factor, the third correction factor being determined to shift at least the at least one coinciding note within the second input signal pattern so that a frequency difference between the coinciding notes of the first and the second input signal patterns is less than a pre-determined difference value.

A pitch control system for a musical instrument comprising, (i) at least one input device for inputting note input signals according to a first intonation system, in particular, an intonation system with equal temperament;

• (ii) a tone generating device for receiving the note input signals and for generating respective tones;
• (iii) a chord recognition circuit for determining whether an input signal pattern comprising at least two note input signals corresponds to one of a plurality of predetermined chord patterns, each of said predetermined chord patterns comprising a predetermined fundamental note;
• (iv) a correction signal pattern store circuit for storing correcting factors attributed to each of the predetermined chord patterns;
• (v) a correction circuit for receiving the input signal pattern and the correction signals for generating output signals to be received by the tone-generating device, which output signals correspond to the input signals corrected according to the correction signals;
• and (vi) a control circuit connected to the chord recognition circuit, the correcting signal pattern store circuit and the correction circuit for causing the correction signal pattern store to deliver the correcting factors attributed to one of said predetermined chord patterns to the correction circuit in case that the chord recognition circuit determines the correspondence of said one chord pattern with the present input signal pattern.