Patent ID: 7633001

Claim:
A keyboard-type tone plate percussion instrument, comprising: a plurality of keys that constitute a keyboard; a plurality of tone plates each of which sounds a musical tone of a specific tone pitch when struck; a plurality of percussion units that are disposed so as to correspond to respective ones of the plurality of keys and the plurality of tone plates and are each driven in response to a corresponding key depression operation; a displacement member alters a tone color of a tone plate disposed for displacement between an intervening position where it is interposed between the tone plates and the percussion units and a non-intervening position where it is extracted from between the tone plates and the percussion units, the displacement member being different in material and hardness from the percussion units; and an operating device for being operated to displace the displacement member, wherein each percussion unit directly strikes a corresponding tone plate when driven with the displacement member extracted from between the tone plates and the percussion units, and indirectly strikes the corresponding tone plate via the displacement member thereby altering the tone color of the struck tone plate when driven with the displacement member interposed between the tone plates and the percussion units, wherein said displacement member is movable between the tone plates and the percussion units for movement between the intervening position and the non-intervening position thereof, wherein the displacement member is formed into a plate having a thickness thereof varying in a direction along which the displacement member is moved, and wherein the striking tone color varies depending on a thickness of that portion of the displacement member which is interposed between the tone plates and the percussion units when the corresponding tone plate is struck indirectly by the percussion unit via the displacement member.