GB2464727A

GB2464727A - Percussion instrument with peripherally divided tactile wall regions

Info

Publication number: GB2464727A
Application number: GB0819564A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Dion Dublin
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2008-10-24
Filing date: 2008-10-24
Publication date: 2010-04-28
Also published as: GB0819564D0; WO2010046680A1

Abstract

A percussion instrument in the form of a drum has at least one striking face, whose periphery is bounded by a wall. The wall is divided into peripherally successive regions, which preferably also constitute striking faces, each separated by a transition region. A user is able to sense the presence of at least one of the transition regions by touch. The drum is preferably substantially cube or pyramid shaped, may have triangular, trapezoidal or rectangular striking surfaces or walls, and may be manually struck on any one or more of its striking faces. Each of the striking faces may exhibit perforations in the form of slots, mesh, and ridged regions to provide a variety of different acoustic properties. At least one of the drum striking faces is removable and replaceable with another striking face. Corners and edges of the striking faces may comprise means for protecting them from impact.

Description

PERCUSSION INSTUMENT

Field of the Invention

The invention relates to percussion instruments and is specifically concerned with percussion instruments in the form of a drum.

The Inventive Concept Percussion drums are conventionally designed to produce their sound by striking the drum's playing surface with drumsticks or, in some cases, with the fingers and palm of the player. Such conventional drums are also designed either to be mounted on a stand or to be held between the player's knees. In each case, they are therefore relatively formal items and, whilst they can be carried from site to site, they are not designed or adapted to be readily manipulated during play.

The well known need of many people nowadays to have something to manipulate is taken care of conventionally by flexible and relatively small multi-limbed and/or differentially shaped fingerhandled objects -often given the generic name "executive toys" -which can be twisted, turned, and otherwise played with to give some repeated measure of relief to the user. These act as an effective outlet for excess energy as well as, or instead of, pent-up frustration on the part of the user.

A third category of equipment is the so-called washboard or (to an older generation) skiffle board whose generally planar surface is sequentially ridged so that a musician holding the board within the embrace of one arm can strum the ridged surface with the fingernails of the hand of his other arm. Performers using this instrument reached a brief heyday in the United Kingdom in the early and middle 1950s but the craze is long past and whist scattered remnants of the species still survive, virtually no regard is paid nowadays to the instrument as such.

None of these disparate objects provides any outlet at all for the natural and indeed overwhelming urge in many people to have something on which to tap out a rhythm, repetitively, for sheer enjoyment and which is large enough to give a pleasingly reverberating sound whilst being sufficiently compact and relatively light weight to be picked up, carried around, and manipulated and swivelled between the player's outstretched hands as the rhythmic striking of the object gathers pace.

The invention seeks to overcome this long-felt and unfulfilled need.

Summary of the Invention

In its broadest aspect the invention is embodied in a percussion instrument in the form of a drum having at least one striking face whose periphery is bounded by a wall, characterised in that the wall is divided into peripherally successive regions each separated by an actual or a notional transition region and the presence of at least one -or of the transition region can be sensed by a user of the drum if he feels his way around the drum wall.

In a presently preferred practical embodiment of the invention, the drum is a cube-shaped drum with a side length lying within the range 12 inches to 18 inches (approximately 30cm to 45cm) and preferably a side length of approximately 15 inches (say 40cm) and its faces are perforated, slotted, ridged, meshed and/or otherwise so treated as to give, to a user of the drum, a pleasingly varied reverberative sound output as he taps, slaps, strikes with the heel of his palm, and otherwise assaults the drum manually in an extempore and usually spontaneous manner.

Such a drum therefore combines features of each of the known objects reviewed when outlining the concept of the invention above, to give a usable result which none of them could attain, and yet with no connection at all between them that would lead to the invention.

Other aspects of the invention will become apparent from reading the description which now follows with reference to the accompanying drawings forming part of this specification. The scope of the invention as such is defined in the numbered claims at the

end of the description text.

The Accompanying Drawings The four successive Figures of the accompanying drawings show forms which a drum embodying the invention might take. Each shows its respective drum in diagrammatic perspective. These drums will now be described with reference to the drawings.

Description of the Preferred Embodiments of the Invention In Figure 1 a percussion drum is cube-shaped and has a side length of approximately 15 inches (say 40cm). Each of its square faces is made of Medium Density Fibreboard (MDF) and, as shown, each face is perforated and slotted so that sounds produced by striking any face will cause the face to reverberate and will be reflected internally and then out via the holes and slots formed in the face.

One of the faces is also ridged in the manner of a so-called washboard so that, when that face is strummed by the user's fingernails or fingertips, the sound so produced will be transmitted directly from the face to the user's listening ears.

A top (as illustrated) face of the drum incorporates a removable central region which is a tight fit in the rest of the drum face and incorporates a thumbnail undercut region to allow it to be prised out of its surrounding face area when the user desires to remove it. This gives access to the interior of the drum and enables a powered microphone, for example, to be installed so as to amplify the sound generated within the drum in use before it is transmitted out through the holes and slots in the drum faces.

Each edge of the cube-shaped drum will of course inevitably make its presence felt to a user of the drum who will sense the presence of the drum edge if and as he feels his way around the drum wall. In that context each edge region constitutes a transition region separating peripherally successive regions of the drum wall.

As shown in Figure 1 each corner of the drum is faced with respective plastics corner protectors and these may be of the kind described and illustrated in published European Patent Specification number EP1483172 with modifications which will occur without the need for inventive thought to the intended skilled addressee of this specification.

In Figure 2 another cube-shaped drum embodying the invention consists of a framework whose individual members are slotted to receive, and to allow the ready removal and replacement of, each face of the drum. The one illustrated is meshed in a diamond pattern and the remaining faces whilst normally perforated would not be of so open a construction. The means whereby the drum face panels slot into and out of the framework can be selected, again, without the need for inventive thought; but the concept is believed to be inherently inventive as such.

In Figure 3 a drum is shown to comprise three successive regions, namely a first region of pyramidal form; a second, main body, region of rectangular-face form; and a third, lowest, region of triangular base and trianglular wall.

In Figure 4 the drum again is of composite form and the major drum body region has a top face which as illustrated is curcular over approximately 230° circumferential swept-out arc.

It then transitions to a linear edge and these two linear edges meet in an apex as shown.

The drum wall accordingly takes a number of contour changes.

In each of Figures 3 and 4, no perforations are shown but it will be appreciated that appropriate perforations are provided in the context of the acoustic needs of any given drum form embodying the invention.

The features of the invention which are believed to be new and inherently inventive are: 1. A percussion instrument in the form of a drum having at least one striking face whose periphery is bounded by a wall, characterised in that the wall is divided into peripherally successive regions each separated by an actual or a notional transition region and the presence of at least one -or of the -transition region can be sensed by a user of the drum if he feels his way around the drum wall.

2. A drum according to claim 1 with a plurality of striking faces.

3. A drum according to claim 1 or claim 2 in which at least one -or the -striking face is ridged.

4. A drum according to any preceding claim and in which at least one -or the -striking face is perforated.

5. A drum according to claim 4 and in which the perforations comprise slots.

6. A drum according to claim 4 or claim 5 and in which the perforations are of a mesh formation.

7. A drum according to any of claims 4, 5 and 6 in which the perforations are disposed asymmetrically about the striking face.

8. A drum according to any preceding claim and in which one at least of the drum faces and/or drum wall regions is readily removable and replaceable with another.

9. A drum according to claim 8 and in which the removable face or region is non-hinged to the rest of the drum.

10. A drum according to any preceding claim and in which at least one striking face or wall region is substantially rigid.

11. A drum according to any preceding claim and in which at least one -or the -striking face and/or at least one drum wall or region comprises or incorporates material which differs from that of another striking face and/or another drum wall region or -in the case where there is one striking face only a drum wall region.

12. A drum according to any preceding claim and in which different portions of the drum have differing acoustic qualities.

13. A drum according to any preceding claim in which at least one region of the drum is stretched taut.

14. A drum according to any preceding claim incorporating corner protectors and/or edge region protectors.

15, A drum according to claim 14 and in which there are protectors on each of its corners and/or edge regions.

16, A drum according to any preceding claim with a substantially rectangular striking face and/or drum wall region.

1 7. A drum according to any preceding claim and in which a striking face and/or drum wall region is substantially triangular.

18. A drum according to any preceding claim and in which a striking face and/or drum wall region is substantially trapezoidal.

19. A drum according to any preceding claim and in which the drum is at least partly cube-shaped.

20. A drum according to any preceding claim and in which the drum is at least partly pyramidal.

21. A percussion instrument in the form of a drum substantially as described herein with reference to and as illustrated in any appropriate combination of the accompanying text and/or drawings.

The scope of the invention is now formally defined in the numbered claims which follow.

V

Key to the Figures Figure 1 2 Drum 4 Central chamber 6 Wall 8 Edge Striking face 12 Ridged area 14 Perforation 16 Mesh 18 Aperture Frame 22 Middle mesh portion 24 Opening catch Notes on figure 1 Internal mike optional *S..

Symmetric or asymmetric pattern of holes / slots 0S*S*S * * Removable -readily? Mesh / grid? Corner (Durrant) protectors; of bard plastics on corners? ****** Corner protectors normally banded; Durrant ribbed and banded. *.S * ** * * * ***

Figure 2

V Frame

42 PaneL Figure 3 Drum 52 Cuboid 54 Pyramid 56 Elongated Pyramid Figure 4 Drum 102 Cuboidal top portion 104 Shaped body portion Figure 5 Pyramid 202 Square-based pyramid 204 Polyhedron S... * S

Materials and dimensions S..... * *

Wood fibreboard -metal loaded? S... S. Plastics. S. S

Stretched over frame? Stretched over some sides only. S..

S V'

Side length 12"-18" (30 cm -45 cm) preferably 1511(40 cm) gilar solid. * * *

****** * *

S

S..... * S * S S 555 S..

Claims

CLAIMS1. A percussion instrument in the form of a drum having at least one striking face whose periphery is bounded by a wall, characterised in that the wall is divided into peripherally successive regions each separated by an actual or a notional transition region and the presence of at least one -or of the -transition region can be sensed by a user of the drum if he feels his way around the drum wall.
2. A drum according to claim 1 with a plurality of striking faces.
3. A drum according to claim 1 or claim 2 in which at least one -or the -striking face is ridged.
4. A drum according to any preceding claim and in which at [east one -or the -striking face is perforated.
5. A drum according to claim 4 and in which the perforations comprise slots.
6. A drum according to claim 4 or claim 5 and in which the perforations are of a mesh formation.
7. A drum according to any of claims 4, 5 and 6 in which the perforations are disposed asymmetrically about the striking face.
8. A drum according to any preceding claim and in which one at least of the drum faces and/or drum wall regions is readily removable and replaceable with another.
9. A drum according to claim 8 and in which the removable face or region is non-hinged to the rest of the drum.
10. A drum according to any preceding claim and in which at least one striking face or wall region is substantially rigid.
11. A drum according to any preceding claim and in which at least one -or the -striking face and/or at least one drum wall or region comprises or incorporates material which differs from that of another striking face and/or another drum wall region or -in the case where there is one striking face only -a drum wall region.
12. A drum according to any preceding claim and in which different portions of the drum have differing acoustic qualities.
13. A drum according to any preceding claim in which at least one region of the drum is stretched taut.
14. A drum according to any preceding claim incorporating corner protectors and/or edge region protectors.
15. A drum according to claim 14 and in which there are protectors on each of its corners and/or edge regions.
16. A drum according to any preceding claim with a substantially rectangular striking face and/or drum wall region.
1 7. A drum according to any preceding claim and in which a striking face and/or drum wall region is substantially triangular.
18. A drum according to any preceding claim and in which a striking face and/or drum wall region is substantially trapezoidal.
19. A drum according to any preceding claim and in which the drum is at least partly cube-shaped.
20. A drum according to any preceding claim and in which the drum is at least partly pyramidal.
21. A percussion instrument in the form of a drum substantially as described herein with reference to and as illustrated in any appropriate combination of the accompanying text and/or drawings.Amendments to the claims have been filed as followsCLAIMS1. A percussion instrument in the form of a drum having at least one striking face whose periphery is bounded by a wall which is divided into peripherally successive regions each separated by an actual or a notional transition region and the presence of at least one -or of the -transition region can be sensed by a user of the drum if he feels his way around the drum wall, and in which one at least of the drum striking faces is readily removable and replaceable with another and at least one of the striking faces has a multiplicity of perforations.2. A drum according to claim 1 with a plurality of striking faces.3. A drum according to ciaim 1 or claim 2 in which at least one -or the -striking face is ridged.4. A drum according to any of the preceding claims wherein the perforations comprise slots.5. A drum according to any of the preceding claims in which the perforations are disposed asymmetrically about the striking face. S...6. A drum according to any of the preceding claims and in which the removable face * : or region is non-hinged to the rest of the drum.7. A drum according to any preceding claim and in which at least one striking face or wall region is substantially rigid.8. A drum according to any preceding claim and in which at least one -or the -striking face and/or at least one drum wall or region comprises or incorporates material which differs from that of another striking face and/or another drum wall region or -in the case where there is one striking face only -a drum wall region.9. A drum according to any preceding claim and in which different portions of the drum have differing acoustic qualities.10. A drum according to any preceding claim in which at least one region of the drum is stretched taut.11. A drum according to any preceding claim incorporating corner protectors and/or edge region protectors.12. A drum according to claim 11 and in which there are protectors on each of its corners and/or edge regions.13. A drum according to any preceding claim with a substantially rectangular striking face and/or drum waR region.14. A drum according to any preceding claim and in which a striking face and/or drum wall region is substantially triangular.15. A drum according to any preceding claim and in which a striking face and/or drum wall region is substantially trapezoidaL * �L* * 20 16. A drum according to any preceding claim and in which the drum is at least partly cube-shaped.17. A drum according to any preceding claim and in which the drum is at least partly pyramidal.18. A percussion instrument in the form of a drum substantially as described herein with reference to and as illustrated in any appropriate combination of the accompanying text and/or drawings.