Patent ID: 8367920

Claim:
A method of creating a visual representation of a musical work which includes a plurality of notes, the method comprising the steps of using data processing apparatus (i) to analyse the musical work, (ii) for each note to determine attributes including at least the pitch and duration of the note and (iii) to create a data file which when accessed by the or another data processing apparatus will cause output of the musical work in a form readable by the human eye, in which notes are represented by coloured symbols and the pitch of a note is defined by a combination of the shape and the colour of the symbol representing that note, wherein: (a) there is defined a display layout with at least one horizontally extending line on which the symbols representing notes are placed, the horizontal position of a symbol representing a note representing the time for playing the note; (b) a first basic symbol shape is assigned to the natural notes in an octave, a second basic symbol shape is assigned to sharp accidentals; and a third basic symbol shape is assigned to flat accidentals, each of the first, second and third basic symbol shapes having a basic horizontal extent corresponding to a basic note duration; (c) each of said first, second and third basic symbol shapes is provided with at least one modified form in which the horizontal extent of the modified symbol shape differs from that of the basic symbol shape, the modified symbol shape representing a note whose duration differs from the basic note duration; (d) for each of the seven natural notes in an octave the first basic symbol shape is assigned a respective colour (e) for each of the sharp accidental notes the second basic symbol shape is assigned the same colour as the first basic symbol shape of the associated natural note; and (f) for each of the flat accidental notes the third basic symbol shape is assigned the same colour as the first basic symbol shape of the associated natural note; and wherein the symbols representing the natural notes in an octave are each allocated to a specific vertically spaced line, the symbols representing each sharp accidental are each allocated to the same line as the symbols representing the associated natural note, and the symbols representing each flat accidental are each allocated to the same line as the symbols representing the associated natural note.