Sound plate percussion instrument and method for manufacturing a sound plate percussion instrument

Abstract

To provide a sound plate percussion instrument which can reduce discomfort to a musical interval even if a tuning curve is not controlled.SOLUTION: A sound plate percussion instrument 10 is the sound plate percussion instrument 10 including a plurality of long main sound plates 1 and includes wooden cross grain sound plates 1a with grain following a width direction as a plurality of main sound plates 1 at least on a bass side.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

Technical Field

[0005]

[0001] The present invention relates to a soundboard percussion instrument and a method for manufacturing a soundboard percussion instrument.

Background Art

[0002] Soundboard percussion instruments such as marimbas and xylophones include a plurality of fundamental soundboards as sound - producing bodies. These fundamental soundboards are struck by mallets to produce sound. As materials for these fundamental soundboards, for example, woods such as rosewood, onoore kaba, padauk, and karin are used. It is desired that these fundamental soundboards produce the natural sound of materials such as wood.

[0003] On the other hand, these fundamental soundboards may be dented or cracked when struck by mallets. Therefore, today, it has been proposed to improve the durability of the fundamental soundboards by impregnating the cell walls of wood with thermosetting resins (see Patent Document 1).

Prior Art Documents

Patent Documents

[0004]

Patent Document 1

Summary of the Invention

Problems to be Solved by the Invention

[0005] When the fundamental soundboard is impregnated with resin as described in Patent Document 1, while the durability of the fundamental soundboard is improved, the frequency of the fundamental tone becomes higher. Therefore, it is likely to be required to control tuning by applying a tuning curve to this fundamental soundboard.

[0006] The present invention has been made based on such circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to provide a soundboard percussion instrument that can reduce the sense of incongruity with respect to the pitch without controlling a tuning curve like a conventional fundamental soundboard.

Means for Solving the Problems

[0007] A percussion instrument with sound plates according to one aspect of the present invention is a percussion instrument with sound plates comprising a plurality of long diatonic sound plates, wherein at least a plurality of diatonic sound plates on the bass side are made of wood and have a transverse grain along the shorter direction.

[0008] The soundboard percussion instrument may be equipped with resonating tubes corresponding to the transversely oriented soundboards.

[0009] The fundamental frequency of at least one of the aforementioned transverse tone plates should be 525.6 Hz or less.

[0010] The longitudinal length of the transversely oriented sound plate having the aforementioned fundamental frequency is preferably 200 mm or less.

[0011] The aforementioned transverse-grained sound plate is preferably a single-layer structure.

[0012] It is preferable that all of the aforementioned diatonic tone plates are the aforementioned transverse tone plates.

[0013] The percussion instrument in question should be a musical toy.

[0014] Another aspect of the present invention relates to a method for manufacturing a soundboard percussion instrument, comprising a plurality of long diatonic soundboards, wherein at least the plurality of diatonic soundboards on the bass side are made of wood and have transverse grain with the wood grain oriented in the short direction, such that the longitudinal length is smaller compared to the case where the wood grain is oriented in the longitudinal direction.

[0015] A method for manufacturing a soundboard percussion instrument according to yet another aspect of the present invention is a method for manufacturing a soundboard percussion instrument comprising a plurality of long diatonic soundboards and a plurality of resonating tubes corresponding to the plurality of diatonic soundboards, wherein at least the plurality of diatonic soundboards on the bass side are made of wood and have a transverse grain with the wood grain oriented in the short direction, such that the ratio of the longitudinal length of the diatonic soundboard to the length of the resonating tube is smaller compared to the case where the wood grain is oriented in the longitudinal direction.

[0016] In the present invention, the "bass-side fundamental sound board" means a fundamental sound board that is located on the lower-frequency side than the middle frequency when all the fundamental sound boards are arranged in order of frequency.

Advantages of the Invention

[0017] By using the side-eye sound board as the bass-side fundamental sound board in the sound board percussion instrument according to one aspect of the present invention, the longitudinal elastic coefficient in the longitudinal direction of this fundamental sound board can be reduced. Since the longitudinal elastic coefficient in the longitudinal direction has a positive correlation with the fundamental frequency of this fundamental sound board, by reducing the longitudinal elastic coefficient in the longitudinal direction of the fundamental sound board, the fundamental frequency of this fundamental sound board can be lowered. That is, the sound board percussion instrument can easily shift the fundamental frequency of the entire fundamental sound board to the bass side by using the side-eye sound board as the bass-side fundamental sound board. As a result, the sound board percussion instrument can produce a wooden sound and can reduce the sense of incongruity with respect to the pitch without controlling the tuning curve like a conventional fundamental sound board.

Brief Description of the Drawings

[0018] [Figure 1] FIG. 1 is a schematic plan view showing a sound board percussion instrument according to an embodiment of the present invention. [Figure 2] FIG. 2 is a schematic front view of the sound board percussion instrument of FIG. 1. [Figure 3] FIG. 3 is a schematic side view showing the grain direction of the fundamental sound board arranged in the sound board percussion instrument of FIG. 1. [Figure 4] FIG. 4 is a schematic plan view of the fundamental sound board of FIG. 3. [Figure 5] FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a manufacturing method of the sound board percussion instrument of FIG. 1. [Figure 6] FIG. 6 is a diagram for explaining the procedure of arranging the side-eye sound board in the manufacturing method of FIG. 5. [Figure 7] FIG. 7 is a schematic perspective view showing a sound board percussion instrument according to a different form from the sound board percussion instrument of FIG. 1. [Figure 8] FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing a manufacturing method of the sound board percussion instrument of FIG. 7.

Best Mode for Carrying Out the Invention

[0019] Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail while appropriately referring to the drawings. Regarding the numerical values described in this specification, it is possible to adopt only one of the described upper limit value and lower limit value, or to arbitrarily combine the upper limit value and the lower limit value. In this specification, it is assumed that all numerical ranges from the combinable upper limit value to the lower limit value are described as preferred ranges.

[0020] [First Embodiment] <Soundboard percussion instrument> The soundboard percussion instrument 10 shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 includes a plurality of long main soundboard 1. The soundboard percussion instrument 10 is a percussion instrument such as a marimba or a xylophone. More specifically, the soundboard percussion instrument 10 is a musical instrument toy that does not include a derived soundboard and a resonance pipe. The main soundboard 1 is rectangular in plan view. The main soundboard 1 has a striking surface 11 that is struck with a mallet, and a concave portion is provided on the surface opposite to the striking surface 11. Note that the “rectangular shape” is not limited to a perfect rectangle, and includes, for example, a shape with chamfered corners or a shape with partial irregularities.

[0021] The number of main soundboards 1 in the soundboard percussion instrument 10 is not particularly limited, but the number of main soundboards 1 can be, for example, 8 corresponding to the musical scale of one octave from “Do” to the next “Do”.

[0022] As shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, the soundboard percussion instrument 10 includes, as at least a plurality of main soundboards 1 on the bass side, a horizontal grain soundboard 1a made of wood and with the wood grain along the short side direction. Note that the soundboard percussion instrument 10 is a so-called xylophone, and when it includes main soundboards other than the horizontal grain soundboard 1a, it is preferable that these main soundboards are also made of wood.

[0023] Generally, when a main soundboard is struck on the striking surface with a mallet, it vibrates in a direction perpendicular to the striking surface, and the sound is heard as a fundamental tone. The frequency f [Hz] of the fundamental tone can be approximated by the following formula 1 when the main soundboard is regarded as a beam.

[0024]

number

[0025] In Equation 1, E is the longitudinal Young's modulus, and the fundamental frequency f is proportional to the square root of this Young's modulus. In Equation 1, L is the length (length of the beam portion), I is the second moment of area, and A is the cross-sectional area. Conventionally, for wooden tone boards, longitudinally grained boards are used, where the wood grain runs along the longitudinal direction. However, this configuration results in a large longitudinal Young's modulus, making it difficult to lower the fundamental frequency. Therefore, conventionally, especially for low-frequency tone boards, the longitudinal length is increased to increase L in Equation 1, and the thickness is reduced to decrease I / A in Equation 1. In addition, the durability of the tone boards is sometimes increased by impregnating them with resin or the like.

[0026] The inventors of this invention have come up with the idea of ​​using transversely grained tone boards as diatonic tone boards to address the challenge of miniaturizing tone boards while sufficiently reducing the fundamental frequency in conventional configurations. Specifically, they focused on the fact that by using transversely grained tone boards as diatonic tone boards on the low-frequency side, the longitudinal modulus of these tone boards can be reduced, thereby significantly lowering the fundamental frequency. Furthermore, they found that by using transversely grained tone boards as diatonic tone boards, the longitudinal length of these tone boards can be reduced compared to conventional designs, while the thickness of these tone boards can be made relatively large, thus preventing insufficient durability. In particular, in the case of musical instrument toys for young children, as shown in Figure 1, the need for miniaturization of the entire instrument is greater than the durability of the diatonic tone boards, and they found that using transversely grained tone boards as diatonic tone boards on the low-frequency side is extremely effective. The transversely grained tone board 1a in the tone board percussion instrument 10 will be described in detail below.

[0027] (Soundboard with horizontal grain) As mentioned above, the horizontally grained tone board 1a is made of wood. The wood is not particularly limited, but examples include rosewood, padauk, quince, maple, hard maple, hornbeam, beech, oak, matwa, mahogany, birch, etc. The wood may be impregnated with resin or the like.

[0028] The transverse-grained tone board 1a only needs to have its grain running along the shorter side, and may be either flat-sawn or quarter-sawn. Note that "grain running along the shorter side" means that the grain is arranged so as a whole that it crosses the shorter side, and is not limited to a configuration where the grain is parallel to the shorter side of the tone board. Furthermore, "quarter-sawn" refers to tone board material that has been cut so that the average angle of the annual rings in a cross-section (where the annual rings appear concentric) is within ±45° of the thickness direction of the tone board.

[0029] It is preferable that the tone bar percussion instrument 10 is equipped with multiple transverse tone bars 1a arranged in frequency order from the lowest pitch. By equipping the tone bar percussion instrument 10 with multiple transverse tone bars 1a arranged from the lowest pitch, the fundamental frequency of the entire tone bar 1 is easily shifted to the lower pitch side. In addition, since the length in the longitudinal direction generally increases with the pitch of the lower notes, by using transverse tone bars 1a for multiple tone bars 1 from the lowest pitch, it is possible to easily miniaturize the entire instrument.

[0030] In this percussion instrument 10, it is particularly preferable that all of the diatonic tone bars 1 are transverse tone bars 1a. With this configuration, the fundamental frequency of the entire diatonic tone bar 1 can be easily and reliably shifted to the lower frequency side. Furthermore, by reducing the longitudinal length of the entire diatonic tone bar 1, the overall size of the instrument can be easily and reliably reduced while maintaining consistency in the longitudinal length of the diatonic tone bars 1 throughout the instrument.

[0031] Preferably, the fundamental frequency of at least one transverse tone bar 1a is 525.6 Hz or lower. In conventional tone bar percussion instruments, if the fundamental frequency of the diatonic tone bar is reduced to below the aforementioned upper limit, the longitudinal length of the diatonic tone bar increases, leading to an overall increase in the size of the instrument. Therefore, it is difficult to use, for example, as a musical toy for young children. In contrast, the tone bar percussion instrument 10 uses a transverse tone bar 1a as the diatonic tone bar on the lower end, thereby achieving a sufficiently low fundamental frequency while miniaturizing the overall size of the instrument. As a result, the tone bar percussion instrument 10 can produce sounds one octave lower than, for example, conventional musical toys for young children. The lower limit of the fundamental frequency is not particularly limited, but for example, it can be 65.7 Hz.

[0032] The upper limit of the longitudinal length L (see Figure 3) of the transverse-grain tone plate 1a having the fundamental frequency (a fundamental frequency of 525.6 Hz or less) is preferably 200 mm, and more preferably 180 mm. In the tone plate percussion instrument 10, by using the transverse-grain tone plate 1a as the diatonic tone plate 1 having the fundamental frequency, the longitudinal length of this diatonic tone plate 1 can be kept below the upper limit. If the longitudinal length L exceeds the upper limit, it may become difficult to sufficiently miniaturize the entire instrument. The lower limit of the longitudinal length L can be, for example, 100 mm. If the longitudinal length L is less than the lower limit, the thickness of the transverse-grain tone plate 1a may be insufficient, and the durability of the transverse-grain tone plate 1a may be inadequate.

[0033] The transverse-grained tone board 1a may be, for example, a laminate made of multiple veneers stacked together. However, it is preferable that the transverse-grained tone board 1a be a single layer. That is, it is preferable that the transverse-grained tone board 1a is composed of only a single piece of wood. With this configuration, the fundamental frequency of the transverse-grained tone board 1a can be easily and reliably lowered while reducing the longitudinal length of the transverse-grained tone board 1a. When the transverse-grained tone board 1a is the aforementioned laminate, it is preferable that the grain of all the veneers constituting the transverse-grained tone board 1a is aligned with the transverse-grained tone board 1a in the direction of the transverse-grained tone board 1a.

[0034] <Manufacturing method> Referring to FIGS. 5 and 6, an example of the manufacturing method of the soundboard percussion instrument 10 will be described. The manufacturing method of the soundboard percussion instrument (hereinafter, also simply referred to as "the manufacturing method") is used for manufacturing a soundboard percussion instrument 10 including a plurality of long trunk soundboards 1. As shown in FIG. 5, in the manufacturing method, as at least a plurality of trunk soundboards 1 on the bass side, a cross-grain soundboard 1a made of wood and having a grain along the short side direction is used so that the longitudinal length is smaller compared to the case where the grain is along the longitudinal direction (S1).

[0035] (S1) In S1, as the trunk soundboard 1 on the bass side, as shown in FIG. 6, a cross-grain soundboard 1a is used so that the longitudinal length becomes smaller while maintaining the fundamental frequency with respect to the vertical-grain soundboard 1b having a grain along the longitudinal direction. That is, in S1, by using the cross-grain soundboard 1a having a longitudinal length of L2 (where L2 < L1) instead of the vertical-grain soundboard 1b having a longitudinal length of L1, the longitudinal length of the trunk soundboard 1 is reduced while maintaining the fundamental frequency. In S1, it is preferable to use the cross-grain soundboard 1a as a plurality of trunk soundboards 1 arranged in order of frequency from the lowest sound, and it is more preferable to use the cross-grain soundboard 1a as all the trunk soundboards 1.

[0036] <Advantages> By using the cross-grain soundboard 1a as the trunk soundboard 1 on the bass side of the soundboard percussion instrument 10, the longitudinal elastic modulus of the trunk soundboard 1 in the longitudinal direction can be reduced. Since the longitudinal elastic modulus in the longitudinal direction has a positive correlation with the fundamental frequency of this trunk soundboard 1, by reducing the longitudinal elastic modulus of the trunk soundboard 1 in the longitudinal direction, the fundamental frequency of this trunk soundboard 1 can be lowered. That is, by using the cross-grain soundboard 1a as the trunk soundboard 1 on the bass side of the soundboard percussion instrument 10, it becomes easier to shift the fundamental frequency of the entire trunk soundboard 1 to the bass side. As a result, the soundboard percussion instrument 10 can emit a wooden sound and can reduce the sense of incongruity with respect to the pitch without controlling the tuning curve like a conventional trunk soundboard.

[0037] In this tone bar percussion instrument 10, by using a transversely oriented tone bar 1a as the fundamental tone bar 1, the longitudinal modulus of the fundamental tone bar 1 can be reduced, allowing for a relatively large thickness of the fundamental tone bar 1 while lowering the fundamental frequency. As a result, it is easier to maintain the durability of the fundamental tone bar 1 while reducing its longitudinal length.

[0038] The tone bar percussion instrument 10 can be made smaller overall by using a horizontal tone bar 1a as the low-frequency tone bar 1, making it suitable as a musical toy. In particular, with conventional musical toy instruments, it has been difficult to make the overall instrument smaller while providing a tone bar with a fundamental frequency of 525.6 Hz or lower. In contrast, the tone bar percussion instrument 10 can achieve both a smaller overall instrument and a lower frequency sound.

[0039] This manufacturing method makes it possible to produce a percussion instrument 10 that can produce woody sounds and reduce the sense of incongruity in pitch without having to control the tuning curve as in conventional diatonic tone bars.

[0040] [Second Embodiment] <Percussion instruments with sound plates> The tone bar percussion instrument 20 in Figure 7 comprises a plurality of long diatonic tone bars 21. The tone bar percussion instrument 20 also comprises a plurality of long derived tone bars 22. The tone bar percussion instrument 20 is, for example, a marimba or a xylophone. The diatonic tone bars 21 and the derived tone bars 22 are rectangular in plan view. The diatonic tone bars 21 and the derived tone bars 22 have striking surfaces 31 and 32 that are struck with a mallet, and recesses are provided on the surfaces opposite to these striking surfaces 31 and 32.

[0041] The soundboard percussion instrument 20 is a so-called xylophone. The soundboard percussion instrument 20 may also be a musical toy.

[0042] The tone bar percussion instrument 20 includes, at least, multiple diatonic tone bars 21 on the bass side, which are made of wood and have a transverse grain running in the shorter direction. The arrangement of the transverse grain tone bars 21a in the tone bar percussion instrument 20 as a whole, and the specific configuration of the transverse grain tone bars 21a, can be the same as that of the tone bar percussion instrument 10 in Figure 1.

[0043] The percussion instrument 20 is equipped with resonant tubes 23 corresponding to the transverse tone bars 21a. The resonant tubes 23 are provided in a one-to-one ratio, for example, with respect to the diatonic tone bars 21. Generally, the resonance of the resonant tubes 23 increases as the pitch gets lower. Therefore, by using transverse tone bars 21a, the percussion instrument 20 lowers the fundamental frequency, and by providing resonant tubes 23 corresponding to these transverse tone bars 21a, the sound emitted by the transverse tone bars 21a can be made to resonate more through the resonant tubes 23. The percussion instrument 20 may also be equipped with resonant tubes corresponding to derived tone bars 22.

[0044] <Manufacturing method> Referring to Figure 8, an example of a manufacturing method for the tone bar percussion instrument 20 will be described. This manufacturing method is used to manufacture a tone bar percussion instrument 20 comprising a plurality of elongated tone bars 21 and a plurality of resonating tubes 23 corresponding to the plurality of tone bars 21. In this manufacturing method, at least for the plurality of tone bars 21 on the bass side, wooden tone bars 21a with the grain oriented in the short direction are used such that the ratio of the longitudinal length of the tone bar 21 to the length of the resonating tube 23 is smaller compared to the case where the grain is oriented in the longitudinal direction (S11).

[0045] (S11) In S11, as the diatonic tone bars 21 on the low-frequency side, transverse-grain tone bars 21a are used, in contrast to longitudinal-grain tone bars where the wood grain runs along the longitudinal direction, such that the ratio of the longitudinal length of the diatonic tone bars 21 to the length of the resonating tube 23 is small. In other words, in S11, while maintaining the length of the resonating tube 23 at a predetermined length, the longitudinal length of the diatonic tone bars 21 is relatively reduced by using transverse-grain tone bars 21a, thereby making the entire instrument smaller and producing lower frequencies.

[0046] As mentioned above, the resonance of the resonating tube 23 increases as the pitch gets lower. Therefore, this manufacturing method, by using the horizontally grained tone bar 21a in S11, allows for a smaller overall instrument while still enabling the sound produced by the horizontally grained tone bar 21a to resonate sufficiently through the resonating tube 23.

[0047] <Advantages> The tone bar percussion instrument 20 can produce woody sounds and, unlike conventional tone bars, can reduce the sense of incongruity in pitch without controlling the tuning curve. Furthermore, since the tone bar percussion instrument 20 is equipped with a resonating tube 23, the sound produced by the transverse tone bar 21a can be made to resonate more.

[0048] This manufacturing method makes it possible to produce a percussion instrument 20 with a horizontally oriented sound plate 21a that can produce a more resonant sound.

[0049] [Other embodiments] The embodiments described above do not limit the configuration of the present invention. Accordingly, the embodiments may omit, substitute, or add components of each part of the embodiments based on the description herein and common technical knowledge, and all such additions should be interpreted as falling within the scope of the present invention.

[0050] The number of diatonic tone plates in the tone plate percussion instrument is not limited to the number described in the above embodiment. For example, the number of diatonic tone plates in the tone plate percussion instrument of Figure 1 may be 9 or more, or less than 8. It is also possible to have 8 or fewer diatonic tone plates in the tone plate percussion instrument of Figure 7.

[0051] In the configuration shown in Figure 1 (i.e., the configuration without derived tone bars), the tone bar percussion instrument may be equipped with resonating tubes corresponding to the transverse tone bars.

[0052] When the tone bar percussion instrument is equipped with derived tone bars, from the viewpoint of miniaturizing the entire instrument, it is preferable to use wood tone bars with the grain running in the shorter direction as multiple derived tone bars on the lower end. Furthermore, in such a configuration, it is even more preferable to use wood tone bars with the grain running in the shorter direction as multiple derived tone bars arranged in frequency order from the lowest note, and it is even more preferable to use wood tone bars with the grain running in the shorter direction for all derived tone bars. [Industrial applicability]

[0053] As described above, a tone plate percussion instrument according to one aspect of the present invention is suitable for reducing a sense of incongruity with pitch without controlling the tuning curve. [Explanation of symbols]

[0054] 1. 21 Diaphonic tone plates 1a, 21a Horizontally oriented tone board 1b Vertical-grained tone bars 10, 20 tone plate percussion instruments 11, 31, 32 hitting surface 22 Derived tone plate 23 Resonance tube L, L2: Length in the longitudinal direction of the horizontally oriented tone bars. L1 Length in the longitudinal direction of the vertically oriented tone bars

Claims

1. A percussion instrument with multiple long, straight tone plates, A percussion instrument comprising, at least on the lower end, multiple diatonic tone plates, which are made of wood and have a transverse grain running in the shorter direction.

2. The sound plate percussion instrument according to claim 1, further comprising a resonating tube corresponding to the aforementioned horizontally oriented sound plate.

3. The percussion instrument with sound plates according to claim 1 or claim 2, wherein the fundamental frequency of at least one of the horizontally oriented sound plates is 525.6 Hz or less.

4. The percussion instrument with a tone plate according to claim 3, wherein the longitudinal length of the transverse tone plate having the fundamental frequency is 200 mm or less.

5. The sound plate percussion instrument according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the aforementioned horizontally oriented sound plate is a single layer.

6. The percussion instrument with sound plates according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein all of the aforementioned diatonic sound plates are the aforementioned transverse sound plates.

7. A musical instrument toy, a sound plate percussion instrument according to any one of claims 1 to 6.

8. A method for manufacturing a percussion instrument with multiple long tone plates, As at least multiple of the aforementioned diatonic tone boards on the low-frequency side, wooden tone boards with the grain aligned in the short direction are used, such that their length in the long direction is smaller compared to the case where the grain is aligned in the long direction at the same fundamental frequency. A method for manufacturing percussion instruments using sound plates.

9. A method for manufacturing a sound plate percussion instrument comprising a plurality of long diatonic sound plates and a plurality of resonant tubes corresponding to the plurality of diatonic sound plates, At least for the lower-frequency side, multiple diatonic sound plates are used, which are made of wood and have a transverse grain along the short direction, such that the ratio of the longitudinal length of the diatonic sound plate to the length of the resonating tube is smaller compared to the case where the grain is oriented along the longitudinal direction. A method for manufacturing percussion instruments using sound plates.

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