Patent Publication Number: US-6342662-B1

Title: Tune changeable panpipe without harming the lips of a player

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention relates to musical instruments and more particularly to a tune changeable panpipe which has a smooth mouthpiece without harming the lips of a player. 
     Typical panpipe (as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2) comprises generally an alignment of sound pipes  1  combined together. The pipes  1  are arranged gradually from a longest one to a shortest one and from the largest diameter to the smallest diameter. The mouthpieces  2  of the pipes are formed by two U-shaped slopes so as to define a sharp edge on the top. When plays, the panpipe is moved to and fro in the mouth. Many students who study to play this panpipe are stopped on halfway because their lips are always harmed by the sharp edge. Besides, the sound pipes  1  are fixed that can not incorporate with the changes of notes in music. 
     SUMMARY OF THE PRESENT INVENTION 
     The present invention has a main object to provide a tune changeable panpipe without harming the lips of a player which has smooth mouth pieces not harming the lips of a player. 
     Another object of the present invention is to provide a tune changeable panpipe without harming the lips of a player in which the sound pipes are changeable to incorporate the changes of notes in music. 
     Accordingly, the tune changeable panpipe without harming the lips of the present invention comprises generally an arcuate alignment of blow pipes each of which has a smooth mouthpiece without harming the lips of the player and a plurality of sound pipes engaged with the blow pipes. The sound pipes are arranged from the longest one gradually to the shortest one and from the largest diameter to the smallest diameter so as to represent different notes in music. There is a plurality of spare sound pipes prepared to change the corresponding sound pipes in the panpipe when changes the rhyme of music. 
     The present invention will become more fully understood by reference to the following detailed description thereof when read in conjunction with the attached drawings. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
     FIG. 1 is a perspective view to show a panpipe according to a prior art, 
     FIG. 2 is a sectional view of FIG. 1 indicating the mouth of a player engaged with the sharp edge of the mouthpiece, 
     FIG. 3 is an exploded perspective view to show the preferred embodiment according to the present invention, 
     FIG. 4 is a top view of FIG. 3, and 
     FIG. 5 is a plane view of FIG. 3, and 
     FIG. 6 is a sectional view indicating that the-mouth of a player engages with the smooth mouthpiece of the panpipe of the present invention. 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
     With reference to FIGS. 3 to  6  of the drawings, the tune changeable panpipe without harming the lips of a player of the present invention comprises generally a plurality of blow pipes  10  laterally combined with each other to form a slightly arcuate alignment each having smooth slope  11  on one side adjacent a semi-circular mouthpiece  13  in the top of the blow pipe  10  and an annular shoulder  12  inside the blow pipe (as shown in FIG.  6 ), and a plurality of sound pipes  20  each having a reduced portion on the top engaged into the bottom of the blow pipes  10  with the top of the reduced portion stopped against the annular shoulder  12  of the blow pipe  10 . The sound pipes have different lengths and different diameters in order to give off different sounds. The sound pipes  20  are pressedly engaged into the blow pipes  10  on one by one basis from the longest one gradually to the shortest one which has the smallest diameter. The panpipe is played as a harmonica moved to and fro through the mouth of the player without harming the lips of the player because. The smooth slopes  11  of the blow pipes define no any sharp edge between the mouthpieces  13 . 
     There is a plurality of spare sound pipes such as C # D # F # G # A #  which are prepared to replace with the sound pipes  20  in the blow pipes  10  in order to change the scale of music. For instance, if replace the B, E sound pipe from the C scale with C # , F #  respectively, it will become D scale and if replace B, E in the C scale with the sound pipes B b  (A # ) E b  (D # ), it will become B b  scale. So that spare sound pipes provide many functions to change the scale of music. 
     The panpipe of the present invention has many features and advantage set forth as follows: 
     a) the smooth slope  11  of the blow pipes will not harm the lips of the player so as to promote the interesting of the learner who will more mature in playing. 
     b) the spare sound pipes provide great function to change the scale of music. 
     c) the sound pipes  20  can be disassembled with blow pipes  10  in order to save the space to pack up. 
     The specification relating to the above embodiment should be construed as exemplary rather than as limitative of the present invention, with many variations and modifications being readily attainable by a person of average skill in the art without departing from the sprit or scope thereof as defined by the appended claims and their legal equivalents.