Patent ID: 8912418

Claim:
A method for operating a keyboard to produce sound from a musical instrument, the method comprising the steps of: providing a musical instrument comprising a two dimensional keyboard having white and black or raised keys, the keys being arranged in a matrix with keys in a column producing sound of different octaves of a note, the musical instrument being operative for producing sound of different pitches by depressing different of the keys; providing a visually observable staff comprising substantially parallel lines operated in two distinct and separate groups of lines, wherein a first group consists of two lines separated by a first distance and a second group consists of three lines substantially evenly spaced at a distance substantially equal to the first distance, wherein the first group and the second group are separated by a second distance that is larger than the first distance; wherein spaces next to the lines of the staff represent a first plurality of the pitches, which correspond to pitches produced by depressing white keys in white key columns of the keyboard and the lines of the staff represent a second plurality of the pitches corresponding to pitches produced by depressing black keys in black key columns of the keyboard; and wherein a note-octave symbol represents a plurality of octaves of a note, which correspond to pitches produced by depressing keys in rows of a particular column of the keyboard; providing a plurality of note-octave symbols visually depicted in any of the spaces or on any of the lines of the staff to represent pitches of a musical composition which could be produced by depressing keys of the keyboard; and depressing, on the musical instrument, keys of the keyboard corresponding to the pitches represented by the note-octave symbols visually depicted on the staff, with a white key being depressed when a note-octave symbol appears in one of the spaces of the staff and a raised or black key being depressed when a note-octave symbol appears on one of the lines of the staff, whereby a sound is produced by the musical instrument.