Virtual music instrument with a novel input device

A virtual musical instrument comprising:

• a hand-held accessory of a type that is intended to be brought into contact with a musical instrument so as to play that instrument, said hand-held accessory including a switch which, in response to said hand-held accessory being caused to strike another object by a person holding said hand-held accessory, generates an activation signal, said hand-held accessory selected from a group of accessories consisting of a guitar pick, a drum stick, and a glove that is worn when playing a keyboard;
• an audio synthesizer;
• a memory storing a sequence of notes data structures for a musical score, each of said notes data structures representing a note or notes within said musical score and having an identified location in time relative to the other notes in said sequence of notes data structures;
• a timer;
• and
• a digital processor receiving said activation signal from said hand-held accessory and generating a control signal therefrom,
• said digital processor programmed to use said timer to measure a time at which said activation signal is generated,
• said digital processor programmed to use said measured time to select one of the notes data structures within said sequence of notes data structures, and
• and said digital processor programmed to generate said control signal, wherein said control signal causes said synthesizer to generate the note(s) represented by said selected notes data structure.