Patent ID: 7385131

Claim:
A method of encoding a file or stream of note information to prevent unauthorized playback of a musical instrument note sequence, comprising: accessing a file or stream of note information in the form of note commands for a plurality of good notes within a music composition described in a sequence of note commands and control commands, said note commands configured for directing the playback of a musical piece on a musical instrument; inserting note commands into said file or stream for a plurality of additional notes that are not part of the music composition, said additional notes comprising a plurality of bad notes; wherein playing of both said good and said bad notes within the file or stream of note information results in a cacophony of notes instead of the desired musical composition comprising only said good notes; and inserting control commands containing bad note identifiers for locating the bad notes inserted within the file or stream; wherein said control commands which contain bad note identifiers are configured for interpretation by a musical instrument controller which decodes the control commands to identify and ignore said plurality of bad notes which are not played during playback; and wherein a musical instrument controller that cannot properly decode said note identifiers will play both good and bad notes therein obfuscating the music composition with the plurality of said bad notes.