Music stand tray accessory

An accessory removably mounted on a sheet music support stand is provided for musicians to accommodate accessories to musical instruments as well as other varied paraphernalia for which no convenient temporary storage place is provided when the musician is playing. In modified form, the accessory tray is separable into three elongated, compact parts easily transported in a separate custom-made carrying bag or together with a collapsible music stand.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
Most people carry a variety of paraphernalia with them such as keys, nail 
clippers, wallets, glasses and other small objects which are bulky and 
tend to distend the pockets when carried in that fashion. In addition to 
these articles, musicians have a variety of accessories accompanying their 
instruments which must be accessible periodically, or regularly, when they 
play. In an orchestral setting or even when practicing, no such place 
currently exists and the musician may keep reeds, extra mouthpieces, 
resin, a reed knife, mutes, guitar picks, extra strings, a tuning form or 
castanettes (not usually all of the above), stewn about the chair in which 
the musician sets or resting on the sheet music stand, thereby 
interferring with the sheet music. 
Clearly, musicians thus have a need beyond that of the average person for 
convenient temporary storage of their accessories in a fashion that makes 
they readily available for use with their instruments while playing. 
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
The present invention fulfills the above-mentioned need by providing a 
specially designed tray specifically adapted to attach to the front 
support ledge of a music stand. These stands, often of the portable type, 
have an oblique front ledge which supports the bottom of the sheet music, 
and over this ledge is engaged a slotted bar with a depending tray element 
connector which support an accessory tray element in horizontal relation. 
The tray element has a peripheral rib in its preferred embodiment and may 
also have an opening therethrough through which the body of a reed soaker 
vessel may be engaged. 
In its most portable form, the ledge-engaging bar defines an underlying 
track slidably and removably engaging the tray element connector which in 
turn defines a slot removably accommodating the planar tray element, so 
that these three portions of the device are separable and arranged in 
parallel fashion for convenient carrying in a specially designed carrying 
case.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
A typical music stand is pivotally shown in dotted lines at 10 in FIG. 1 
and includes rear support surface 11 against which the sheet music lays, 
the lower support ledge 12 which supports the bottom of the sheet music, 
and the support shaft 13. These music stands come in a variety of 
different forms, some of which are portable, having a rear surface 11 
defined by a planar array of pivotal rods, others being illuminated and so 
forth. However, one thing they all have in common, at least the type 
referred to here, is the generally upright reclining rear surface defining 
member 11 and the ordinarily orthogonally extended support ledge 12. 
The accessory tray of the present invention in both the embodiments 
illustrated herein are adapted to engage the support tray 12. The first 
embodiment, indicated at 14, is dismantleable and comprises horizontal 
tray element 16 which is engaged on the support ledge 12 by means of 
clamping means 18. The clamping means is in turn comprised of a 
ledge-engaging element 20 and a connector 22 which attaches members 20 and 
16. In the first embodiment, members 16, 20 and 22 are separable for 
portability as indicated in FIG. 3, and can be conveniently carried in 
their own specially designed case or may be combined with the collapsed 
music stand 10 and all carried together. 
Turning to the details of the first embodiment, the ledge-engaging element 
20 comprises an elongated bar 24 of wood, or the like, having a 
longitudinally extended rearwardly entrance slot 26 which slips over the 
support ledge 12 to engage the music stand. Note that this bar defdines an 
expanded upper surface 28 of greater area than the support ledge 12, 
thereby providing more space to accommodate sheet music or the musician's 
accessories. 
In the first embodiment, the bottom surface of the bar 24 defines a 
longitudinal track 30 into which is slidably accepted the rail 32 of the 
connector member 22. The track 30 and the connector 22 ordinarily would be 
made of sheet metal and the latter at its lower end defines a pair of 
opposed parallel panels defining interior slot 34 into which is laterally 
slid the rear edge of the tray element 16. The tray element is preferably 
covered with felt 36 or like padding and defines a peripheral retaining 
rib 38. To assemble the entire assembly, rail 32 is slid into track 30, 
tray 16 laterally slides into slot 34 and the entire accessory tray is 
mounted by virtue of slot 26 onto the music stand. 
A rigid, non-separable embodiment is shown in FIG. 7 at 40 which utilizes 
the same bar 24 and tray element 16 but rather than the removable features 
associated with the connector 22 in the first embodiment, a simple rigidly 
connected upright 42 connects the ledge-engaging element to the tray 
element. Other features remain the same except for optional aperture 44 
which is used to seat a reed soaker vessel 46. The upright 44 can be made 
of wood lending to a simpler construction than the previous embodiment, as 
exemplified by the nail construction indicated at 48. 
Yet another slight modification of the embodiment illustrated in FIGS. 7 
and 8 is indicated in FIGS. 9 through 11 wherein the above-described 
upright 42 of wooden construction is replaced by an extrusion or other 
channel-shaped product of aluminum, plastic, or the like. 
In any of its embodiments, the accessory tray is a boon to musicians and 
fulfills the long-felt otherwise unmet need, and in its portable 
modification is especially advantageous to the musician. The above 
embodiments are illustrative only and are of course not intended to 
restrict the invention to a form narrower than that lent by a fair 
interpretation of the claims appended below.