Patent ID: 8158869

Claim:
A tool for assisting in teaching music to a player of a steel drum comprising: a substantially circular base divided into twelve radial sectors, with a substantially central point to which the radial sectors converge, the base further divided into three concentric, radially spaced rings, the base thereby divided into 36 elements, each element bearing at least one note name indicium representative of a unitary, distinct note in a range of three consecutive octaves, each ring arranged so that an adjacent note name in a first radial direction is separated by an interval of a fifth and an adjacent note name in a second radial direction opposite the first radial direction is separated by an interval of a fourth; and a translucent mask rotatably affixed at a substantially central point to the base central point, the mask comprising: a substantially circular central portion divided into twelve radial sectors that correspond to and align with the base's radial sectors that converge at the mask central point and three concentric rings radially spaced about the mask central point that correspond to and are alignable with the base concentric rings, thereby defining 36 annular sector elements that correspond to and are alignable with the base sector elements; and a first protrusion comprising a pair of ring sections, an inner ring section and an outer ring section, dimensioned to extend about seven of the radial sectors and divided into inner and outer sector elements that correspond to and are alignable with the central portion sector elements, wherein: the inner ring sector elements have a series of indicia therein that designate a location of notes in a respective key to which the mask is aligned, in clockwise order, vii 0 , iii, vi, ii, V, I, and IV, wherein a sector element containing the “I” indicium further contains an indicium indicating that a respective note represents a root of the key; and the outer ring sector elements have a series of indicia therein that designate a location of notes in a respective relative minor key to which the mask is aligned, in clockwise order, ii, v, i, iv, vii, iii, and vi.