Automatic playing apparatus which controls display of images in association with contents of a musical piece and method thereof

An automatic playing apparatus comprising:

• performance-data storing means for storing performance data of a musical piece to be automatically played;
• playing means for sequentially reading out performance data stored in said performance-data storing means at predetermined playing timings, and for performing an automatic playing operation based on the read out performance data;
• image data storing means for storing a plurality of image data;
• image data selecting means for detecting timings of respective beats from playing timings at which said playing means performs an automatic playing operation, and for selecting any of the image data stored in said image data storing means on the basis of the detected timings of respective beats;
• wherein said image data selecting means counts a number of timings of beats and switches image data to be selected every time when the counted number of beats reaches a number for one measure of music;
• and
• display control means for controlling display of an image based on the image data selected by said image data selecting means.

In an automatic playing apparatus in which a series of performance data are stored, which are necessary for executing an automatic playing operation, the performance data comprising plural sorts of data elements, said data elements including at least one pitch data which is representative of a tone pitch of a musical tone to be generated, and plural sorts of image data are also stored, a method for displaying an image, comprising the steps of:

• reading out the stored performance data sequentially;
• instructing generation of a musical-tone signal based on the read out performance data;
• selecting any of the stored image data in response to a change in predetermined data elements, the predetermined data elements being included in the read out performance data, wherein the image data is selected only when a tone pitch designated by the tone-pitch data belongs to a particular tone range;
• and
• controlling display of an image based on the selected image data.

In an automatic playing apparatus in which performance data of musical piece to be automatically played are stored, and plural sorts of image data are also stored, a method for displaying an image, comprising the steps of:

• reading out the stored performance data at predetermined playing timings, and performing an automatic playing operation based on the read out performance data;
• detecting timings of respective beats from playing timings at which an automatic playing operation is performed, and selecting any of the stored image data on the basis of the detected timings of respective beats, wherein a number of timings of beats is counted and the image data to be selected is switched every time when the counted number of beats reaches a number for one measure of music;
• and
• controlling displaying of an image based on the selected image data.