Music instrument which generates a rhythm EKG

A control program tangibly stored on a digital storage medium for use with a virtual musical instrument that includes an actuator for generating a sequence of actuation signals in response to a corresponding sequence of activations of the actuator by a user, an audio component, a video playback component, a video display unit, and a digital processor receiving said sequence of actuation signals from said actuator and generating a corresponding sequence of control signals therefrom, and a digital storage device storing a sequence of note structures representing a musical score, wherein the digital storage medium is readable by the digital processor, and wherein the video playback component contains a pre-recorded video track associated with the musical score, said control program being configured to operate the virtual musical instrument to perform the functions of:

• establishing a timer resource;
• in response to receiving a start signal from the user, simultaneously starting the timer resource and playback of the pre-recorded video track on the video component so as to cause playback of the pre-recorded video track through the video display unit to be synchronized with the musical score;
• and
• in response to receiving each actuation signal of said sequence of actuation signals,
• (a) determining from the timer resource a time at which the received actuation signal occurred;
• (b) selecting a corresponding one of the note structures in the sequence of note structures based on the time at which said received actuation occurred;
• and
• (c) generating a control signal from the selected note structure, wherein the control signal causes the audio component to generate the musical sound corresponding to the selected note structure.

A digital storage medium having a control program stored thereon for use with a virtual musical instrument that includes an actuator for generating a sequence of actuation signals in response to a corresponding sequence of activations of the actuator by a user, an audio component, a video playback component, a video display unit, a digital processor receiving said sequence of actuation signals from said actuator and generating a corresponding sequence of control signals therefrom, and a digital storage device storing a sequence of note structures representing a musical score, wherein digital storage medium is readable by the digital processor and the video playback component contains a pre-recorded video track associated with the stored musical score, said control program comprising:

• means for establishing a timer resource;
• means for simultaneously starting, in response to receiving a start signal from the user, the timer resource and playback of the pre-recorded video track on the video component so as to cause playback of the pre-recorded video track through the video display unit to be synchronized with the musical score;
• means for mapping the sequence of activation signals to a corresponding plurality of note structures from the sequence of note structures, wherein each of the note structures of the sequence of note structures has associated therewith an indicator identifying a corresponding musical sound and has an associated time identifying when that musical sound is supposed to be played relative to a beginning time, and wherein the mapping is based upon a correspondence between times at which the activation signals occurred and the times associated with the note structures of the sequence of note structures;
• and
• means for causing the audio component to play the musical sounds associated with the plurality of note structures to which the sequence of activation signals is mapped.

A control program tangibly stored on a digital storage medium for use with a virtual musical instrument that includes an actuator for generating a sequence of actuation signals in response to a corresponding sequence of activations of the actuator by a user, an audio component, a digital processor receiving said sequence of actuation signals from said actuator and generating a corresponding sequence of control signals therefrom, and a digital storage device storing a sequence of note structures representing a musical score, wherein said digital storage medium is readable by the digital processor, said control program being configured to operate the virtual musical instrument to perform the functions of:

• in response to receiving a start signal from the user, starting a timer resource;
• and
• in response to receiving each actuation signal of said sequence of actuation signals,
• (a) determining from the timer resource a time at which the received actuation signal occurred;
• (b) selecting a corresponding one of the note structures in the sequence of note structures based on the time at which said received actuation occurred;
• and
• (c) generating a control signal from the selected note structure, wherein the control signal causes the audio component to generate the musical sound corresponding to the selected note structure.