Electronic method for guidance and feedback on musical instrumental technique

An electronic method for tutoring a student to use a stringed musical instrument, wherein the method comprises:

• (a) selecting a lesson topic from an electronic menu;
• (b) activating the selected lesson topic, wherein the activation comprises the steps of:
• (i) retrieving the selected lesson topic from a memory component by means of a control processor;
• (ii) identifying a digital musical template corresponding to the lesson topic by means of the control processor;
• (iii) storing the digital template in memory associated with a correlator for subsequent comparison to a played emulation from the student;
• (iv) transforming the template to analog form by means of a digital-to-analog converter device;
• and
• (v) transforming the template analog form to an audible sound by means of an audio output device;
• wherein steps (iii) and (iv) are performed in any order relative to each other;
• (c) pre-treating the student's emulation of the audible sound from the template, wherein the pre-treatment comprises the following steps:
• (i) receiving the student's emulation by means of an audio input device that transforms audible sound to an analog electrical signal;
• (ii) transforming the analog electrical signal from the student emulation to digital form in an analog-to-digital converter device;
• (iii) optionally processing the student's emulation resulting from steps (i) or (ii) in a logic filter element to reduce extraneous elements of sound;
• (iv) storing the digitized, optionally filtered emulation in a memory associated with a correlator for subsequent comparison to the digital template;
• (d) providing a comparative assessment at a correlator device, comprising the steps of:
• (i) comparing the digital musical template and the digitized, optionally filtered emulation with regard to at least one attribute selected from the group consisting of frequency, rate of frequency change, wavelength, rate of wavelength change, amplitude, rate of amplitude change, wavelength phase, rate of wavelength phase change, articulation quality of notes, timing between notes, promptness in emulating, and consistency of repeated emulations with respect to any of these attributes;
• (ii) assigning a performance score to the quality of the match between the digitized, optionally filtered emulation and the digital musical template that it emulated;
• (iii) reporting the performance score;
• and
• (iv) optionally providing feedback information that is retrieved from a memory device and or that is programmed, wherein the feedback information corresponds to a performance score that is identified as being in a comparable range for at least one attribute of the comparative assessment as reported.