Harmony hat

#No Federally sponsored research was involved in the development of this invention.

#Musicians experiment with various arrangements of musical notes and chords in order to develop new musical arrangements, songs or various types of musical compositions. However, experimenting with musical sounds often requires immediate access to large instruments, such as a piano or electronic organ, which are not portable. The limited availability and access to piano or organ based instruments prevents musicians from experimenting with musical notes while on the go, such as while traveling in a car or airplane, or in any environment where the piano or organ are not otherwise available. While portable musical instruments such as guitars and electronic organs are generally known in the prior art, even these instruments are not sufficiently portable to permit musical experimentation while the musician is on the go, such as traveling in a car, bus or airplane. Another limitation on prior art musical instruments is the requirement for an alternating current power source supplied by a conventional AC outlet. Even for portable electronic instruments, such as electronic organs and electric guitars, this limitation seriously restricts the overall portability of these instruments.

#The aforementioned limitations in the prior art musical instruments are resolved by the improvements developed for the present invention. The Harmony Hat is a musical instrument which greatly improves the portability of an electronic musical instrument by: (1) integrating the keyboard surfaces into the visor of a hat; and (2) deploying a portable battery supply so as to eliminate any need for alternating current supplies or AC wall sockets. Additionally, the Harmony Hat integrates all the electronic components of an electronic organ or synthesizer into a portable and wearable hat so that a musician can use the hat to experiment with musical notes in any environment, such as while traveling in a car or plane, and even while jogging or walking.

#FIG. 1 is a general perspective view of the Harmony Hat, illustrating the various features of the preferred embodiment.

#FIG. 2 is a detailed perspective view pointing to particular features associated with the preferred embodiment.

#FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the Harmony Hat with a standard interface connection to a laptop computer.

#FIG. 1 is a general perspective view of the Harmony Hat 10, with limited reference citation numbers in order to clearly illustrate the basic configuration of the Harmony Hat. In its most basic configuration, the Harmony Hat is a cap having a visor in which a miniature keyboard is integrated into the visor. The electronics controlling the keyboard are integrated inside the cap portion of the visor. The exact location of the controlling electronics is not fixed, and can be placed at any interior or exterior position on the Harmony Hat.

#FIG. 2 is a detailed perspective view of the preferred embodiments of the Harmony Hat 10. The basic hat structure includes a visor portion 11 and a cap portion 13. The visor portion 11 is attached to the cap portion 13 along a seam 16. The cap portion may be adjustable, such as with an adjustable slider or adjustable snaps. The cap is otherwise adjustable in any other manner known in the art. The visor portion 11 includes a covering flap 12 with button 14 so as to provide a pivotal cover over the visor portion 11. The covering flap 12 is designed to cover and protect electronic keyboard structure 18.

#In the preferred embodiment of the invention, the electronic keyboard structure 18 is a silicone pad divided into individual touch sensitive areas corresponding to the individual keys that would normally be found on a conventional piano or electronic keyboard. Each touch sensitive area represents an individual piano key, and the overall silicone pad is divided into a plurality of such keys that are formed into the pad. The number of individual keys provided can vary, but in the preferred embodiment, a sufficient number of keys are provided so as to represent one or two octaves of a conventional piano keyboard. While the keys are represented as being formed on a flexible silicone substrate, other embodiments could be utilized, such as actual keyboard style keys or screen printed keys which are printed on an electrically conductive substrate.