Abstract

A virtual musical instrument including 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. The hand-held accessory includes a switch which, in response to the hand-held accessory being caused to strike another object by a person holding it, generates an activation signal. The musical instrument also includes an audio synthesizer; a memory storing a sequence of notes data structures for a musical score, each of the 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 the sequence; a timer; and a digital processor receiving the activation signal and generating a control signal therefrom. The digital processor is programmed (1) to use the timer to measure a time at which the activation signal is generated; (2) to use the measured time to select one of the notes data structures within the sequence; and (3) to generate the control signal, which causes the synthesizer to generate the note(s) represented by the selected notes data structure.