The subject of the invention is a wind instrument with continuously variable tone height that can ensure an easy and stable intonation of sound of any tone height within the sound range of the given instruments and also allowing the possibility of continuous slide (glissando) between two tones.

Known solution can be found in patents: US 1395107 (Hawk 1921), US 1505597 (Mann 1924), US 4320686 (Lewis 1982), however, these solutions did not gain popularity because of their deficiencies. Their disadvantage is caused by the fact that the strap or belt used for covering the slot could not close the passage of air entirely.

A solution is made known also by the patent publication document DE19832596A1, where the longitudinal slot or holes of the instrument tube are covered with a resilient mat, which is pretensioned by means of a tightening element. The cover can be lifted off at least partially at certain locations. The mat is forced to the instrument tube by a bracing strip, and the bracing strip can be separated from the instrument tube at a certain location by applying a force with finger, thus the instrument can produce sound.

The disadvantage of this solution is that the mat and the compression device are complicated, and that the opening of the hole is troublesome.

Also known the patent US 4401007 (improvement of patent US 4320686), which makes known a solution where the longitudinal slot of the instrument can be covered by manually forcing a sealed plate or profiled spring plate on it. According to the patent, the slot can be closed also by means of keys at certain locations.

It has a disadvantage, however, in that the spring steel is rather rigid, and it tends to become open always, therefore it is to be held down almost everywhere, otherwise false air flows into the instrument.

We set the aim to eliminate the disadvantages of the known solutions, and to ensure perfect closing on the longitudinal slot of the instrument always without the need for holding down along the length right from the beginning. Musicians have been thinking of the continuous change of tone height of wind instrument for a long time for the purpose of which longitudinal narrow slots were used for tuning instead of holes on the tube resonators, which were covered with different methods, but the cover of slot was not perfects when held down by fingers.

We recognised that if the longitudinal slot is closed with a strip which is flexible but not stretchable, and which includes magnetic strip, and such magnetic strips are also located along the longitudinal slot than the slot tends to close itself as opposed to the former solutions, then the set out aim can be achieved.

The flexible but not stretchable strip covering the slot is to be fixed firmly at its end near to the front of the instrument in the plane of the slot, while its lower end is tensioned in a flexible manner by keeping it apart from the slot, or it is kept lose that can be lifted freely away from the plane of the slot. With this arrangement it is possible to produce sound with any tone height, consequently the perfect intonation depends only on the musician similarly to the case of trombone or the string instruments. However, this is not just the correction of the intonation error of the instrument, but the mode of playing itself.

The wind instrument according to the invention with continuously variable tone height has sound opening and tube resonator, on which resonator a tuning opening is created, while a strip is fixed to the tuning opening near the sound producing opening, the width and length of which strip are dimensioned so that it ensures covering of the tuning opening. The solution is characterised by that, the strip, which is flexible but it cannot be stretched, and magnetic strip is mounted on it at the side towards the tuning slot and at the two sides of the tuning slot, where the negative and positive charges alternate in parallel zones, and are fixed in a manner, that the magnetic poles are arranged in matching pairs, so they always attract each other.

Other characteristics of the invention are described in the dependent claims.

Woodwind instruments are characterised by that, they have holes with the covering and opening of which the length of the air column vibrating in the tube resonator can be controlled, thus producing sound with various tone heights. Initially, these holes were simple openings, which were covered by the fingers of the players, but later on keys were also mounted on the instrument in order to widen the field of possibilities. The accurate tuning of the instrument has always been challenging because the open sound holes influence one another also, and such influence is different when register is changed relative to the influence in case of basic sounds. The selection of each hole influences the tuning of the adjacent hole, as well as the tone of the sound, therefore instruments with clear sound could be produced only with extensive experimenting and after introducing many compromises. Even then, a really clear intonation can be reached only by varying the position of lips and by controlled minute changes of the air pressure continuously.

Glissando can be realized in a natural way and easily when singing, but the continuous sliding from one tone to another on a woodwind instrument can be done only in certain ranges and in a troublesome manner. The situation is the same in case of brass instruments, except for trombone, which is capable of producing glissando in a rather wide range with the help of its slide tube, which has been exploited frequently.

The adjustment and cleaning of the many keys requires professional skill as well as regular maintenance, which can be performed only by experienced instrument makers.

The weight of keys could be significant in the total weight of the instruments; this may limit the age of children when they can start to learn to play on the instrument.

As opposed to most of the brass instruments, the woodwind instruments require the use of both hands, and in this respect handicapped people might not be able to utilize this opportunity.

The invention is explained in detail with the help of figures, where

Fig. 1 shows an embodiment of the instrument according to the invention in side view,

Fig. 2 shows another embodiment of the instrument according to the invention in side view,

Fig. 3 shows yet another embodiment of the instrument according to the invention in side view, Fig. 4 shows the top view of the instrument according to the invention without strip,

Fig. 5 shows a possible cross section of the instrument according to the invention,

Fig. 6 shows another possible cross section of the instrument according to the invention,

Fig. 7 shows the strip of the instrument according to the invention,

Fig. 8 shows the instrument introduced in Fig. 1 with the use of tightening ring,

Fig. 9 shows another cross-sectional configuration of the instrument according to the invention with "moustache" type vibration damper, which is fixed to the tube resonator of the instrument,

Fig. 10 shows another cross-sectional configuration of the instrument according to the invention with "moustache" type vibration damper, which is fixed to the strip,

Fig. 1 1 show the location of the vibration dampers.

Fig. 1 shows an embodiment of the instrument according to the invention in side view. A traditional sound hole 2 characteristic of the instrument 1 is located at the front part of the instrument 1 , which is followed by a strip 4 and a tube resonator 3 part. There is a tuning slot 5 in it. The figure shows a tensioned strip 4, which is partly held down by the finger 1 1 , which is mounted on a support 10 fixed at the lower part of the instrument 1 and is supplemented with a tensioner 9. The tensioner 9 is flexible and is made preferably of rubber.

A flexible magnetic strip 6 is used at the two sides of the tuning slot 5 at the internal half of the strip 4, which are perfectly fitted together. This is thin preferably (0.5 - 0.9 mm) and is characterised by alternating positive and negative charges in parallel zones, therefore it is very important to adhere them in matching pairs to the instrument 1 and to the strip 4.

The strip 4 is firmly fixed by the upper fastening 7 at the front of the tube resonator 3 of the instrument 1 , so that it closes the tuning slot 5 perfectly at this point. If the strip 4 is tensioned as a string with the help of a lower fastening 8 in a way that its lower end is kept apart from the support 10 at a distance of 10 - 30 mm with a tensioner 9, then eight fingers 11 of two hands can be used for playing, and at the same time one finger 1 1 can be slid to any extent. W

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Fig. 2 shows another embodiment of the instrument 1 according to the invention in side view. This is the simplest embodiment. No tensioner 9 or lower fastening 8 is used here. When using the instrument 1 the player places one finger 11 below the strip 4, while holding down the strip 4 with another finger 1 1. The player is capable of producing continuously changing tone height by moving the fingers 11 simultaneously.

Fig. 3 shows yet another embodiment of the invention. The magnetic strips 6 produce perfectly closing where they touch each other, so no external force is necessary to hold down the strip 4. The lower end of the strip 4 can be lifted to any height with the fingers 1 1 from the plane of the tuning slot 5, while the part beyond that remains hermetically closed. Playing with this instrument having this embodiment is possible by simply lifting the end of the strip (the higher the lift, the wider the opening).

Fig. 4 shows the top view of the instrument 1 according to the invention without strip 4. It can be seen here, that magnetic strips 6 are fixed at the two sides and at ends of the tuning slot 5 of the instrument 1.

Fig. 5 shows a kind of cross sectional arrangement of the instrument 1 according to the invention. In case of this embodiment the magnetic strips 6 are attached or adhered on the tube resonator 3 of the instrument 1 at the two sides of the tuning slot 5 in an elevated position. This solution is suitable, because the mode of fixing the magnetic strip 6 of the strip 4 ensures that its magnetic poles attract the magnetic poles of the magnetic strip 6 of the instrument 1 also in lateral direction.

Fig. 6 shows another cross-sectional configuration of the instrument 1 according to the invention. In case of this embodiment the magnetic strips 6 are fastened, adhered to the tube resonator 3 of the instrument 1 in a countersunk manner at the two sides of the tuning slot 5. This solution ensures a safer cover, because the magnetic poles of the magnetic strips 6 of trip 4 are fastened in the same manner, so that they attract the magnetic poles of the magnetic strip 6 of the instrument 1 also in lateral direction, but the W

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strip 4 cannot be displaced in lateral direction inadvertently when holding down with the finger 11.

Fig. 7 shows the strip 4 of the instrument 1 according to the invention. The details shown in the figure include the frets that facilitate reaching the perfect intonation, which are actually crosswise streaks 12, and can be used on the external side of the strip 4 at locations corresponding to the chromatic half tones. These crosswise streaks 12 could be indicated visually, e.g. by means of painting, or as woven protrusions of the material of the strip 4, which can be recognised by touching with the fingers 11.

The excessive vibration of the strip 4 can be prevented by placing a friction sheet between the strip 4 and the instrument body. This sheet could be fixed to the strip 4 or to the body of the instrument 1.

The change of register can be facilitated with the use of register key(s) and hole(s). For locating the keys, it is to be considered that the hands are not necessarily positioned at the same places on the instruments, therefore it is important to have the possibility of accessing the key(s) from any possible position.

In certain cases (clarinet, oboe, saxophone, Turkish pipe, etc.) it is required to fasten the instruments with the help of collar or harness, because the hands must be able to move along the instrument body.

Fig. 8 shows the ring 13 used for adjusting the highest tone that can be produced without changing the register, which is fixed on the instrument 1 in a flexible manner or with tightening. This is similar to the capodaster often used on guitars, but in case of guitars the lowest tones, i.e. the empty strings can be readjusted with it.

Fig. 9 shows another cross-sectional configuration of the instrument 1 according to the invention with "moustache" type vibration dampers 14, which are fixed to the tube resonator of the instrument at its end. The purpose of this configuration is to make sure that the eventual vibrations generated when the strip 4 is held down could attenuate as soon as possible. Its height is determined so that at least it could reach the strip 4 at its end. In case of this solution the upward curving vibration damper 14 is a spring steel or plastic part fixed to the tube resonator 3 of the instrument.

Fig. 10 shows another cross-sectional configuration of the instrument 1 according to the invention with "moustache" type vibration dampers 14, which are fixed to the strip 4. The purpose of this configuration is the same as for the configuration introduced in Fig. 8, namely to make sure that the eventual vibrations generated when the strip 4 is held down could attenuate as soon as possible. In case of this solution the upward curving vibration damper 14 is a spring steel or plastic part fixed to the strip 4.

Fig. 1 1 shows the location of vibration damper 14. The fitting of strip 4 is facilitated by the vibration dampers 14, which are shown in Fig. 9 and Fig. 10. It is desirable to locate these dampers at the connection of the tensioner 9 near the end of instrument 1 , so that they would not hinder the movement of the hand of player.

This magnetic closing according to the invention can be used on the following musical instruments: recorder (block flute), flute (with wood or metal body), Turkish pipe, saxophone, clarinet, oboe, bassoon, zink (cornett), duduk, kaval, shakuhachi, and all similar instruments provided with sound holes, cylindrical and conic tube. This magnetic mechanism can be used on one or more flue pipes of organ, while providing the air supply with bellows or motorised pump and playing with fingers on the strip 4.

Based on their configuration and mode of use, the instruments can produce sound not customary for wind instruments, which could be efficiently exploited in the contemporary classic and improvisative music, such as:

- thrumming the strip 4 of the instrument according to the tensioned version (as if it was a string) during blowing can cause special vibration (the vibration damper 14 is to be disabled in such case),

- finger vibrato is similar to that used on string instruments can be applied,

- quaver with arbitrary tone interval can be produced easily,

- slide-sliding can be made from portamento to glissando. List of references:

1 - instrument

2 - sound hole

3 - tube resonator

4 - strip

5 - tuning slot

6 - magnetic strip

7 - upper fastening

8 - lower fastening

9 - tensioner

10 - support

11 - finger

12 - crosswise streak

13 - ring

14 - vibration damper