Abstract

A virtual musical instrument including a multielement actuator which generates a plurality of signals in response to being played by a user; an audio synthesizer which generates audio tones in response to control signals; a memory storing a musical score for the multi-element actuator, the stored musical score including a sequence of lead notes and an associated sequence of harmony note arrays, each harmony note array of the sequence corresponding to a different one of the lead notes and containing zero, one or more harmony notes. The instrument also includes a digital processor receiving the plurality of signals from the multi-element actuator and generating a first set of control signals therefrom, the digital processor programmed to identify from among the sequence of lead notes in the stored musical score a lead note which corresponds to a first one of the plurality of signals, the digital processor programmed to map a set of the remainder of the plurality of signals to whatever harmony notes are associated with the selected lead note, if any,; and the digital processor programmed to produce the first set of control signals from the identified lead note and the harmony notes to which the signals of the plurality of signals are mapped, the first set of control signals causing the synthesizer to generate sounds representing the identified lead note and the mapped harmony notes.