Hand held electronic music encyclopedia with text and note structure search

A hand held electronic music reference machine having a platform, a keyboard, and a display for displaying text, comprising:

• a memory mounted to said platform, said memory having a first memory portion for storing preselected ancillary textual identification information for each of a plurality of musical works, said identification information including an identifier for each of said musical works, said memory further having a second memory portion storing a predetermined reproducible segment of each of said musical works;
• note structure determination means disposed on said platform for providing a reference sequential note structure for each of said musical works;
• user actuated note structure input means on said platform for providing an input search sequential note structure, said keyboard enabling user input of a textual search term;
• search means disposed on said platform and operatively connected to said keyboard, said user actuated note structure input means, said memory and said note structure determination means for searching the identification information in said first memory portion in response to said search term and for cooperating with said note structure determination means to search said reference sequential note structures in response to said input search sequential note structure, to provide a set of proposed identifiers on said display, said set of proposed identifiers being determined by said search means in accordance with dual match criteria comprising (a) a first match criterion between said textual search term and said identification information and (b) a second match criterion between said input search sequential note structure and said reference sequential note structures;
• user actuated selection means on said keyboard for selecting one of said proposed identifiers on said display;
• and
• melody production means disposed on said platform and connected to said memory for enabling generation of an audio reproduction of one of said predetermined reproducible segments in said second memory portion corresponding to the selected one of said proposed identifiers.