Patent ID: 8389843

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for positioning, on an electronic display, an additional musical symbol based on the location of one or more existing musical symbols, the method comprising: determining one or more positional constraints on the additional musical symbol, each positional constraint of the one or more positional constraints comprising a preferred distance away from a corresponding existing musical symbol of the one or more existing musical symbols; automatically defining all of the one or more positional constraints representing temporal content as being time-based positional constraints, wherein the preferred distance of any time-based positional constraint represents a temporal relationship between the corresponding existing musical symbol and the additional musical symbol; automatically defining all of the one or more positional constraints not representing temporal content as being space-based positional constraints, wherein the preferred distance of any space-based positional constraint does not represent a temporal relationship between the corresponding existing musical symbol and the additional musical symbol; and positioning the additional symbol in a measure of a staff at a distance away from one of the one or more existing musical symbols, the distance being at least in part determined by the preferred distance of one or more of the one or more positional constraints; wherein if a space-based positional constraint of the one or more positional constraints is used to determine the distance, then the space-based positional constraint is based on the location of a symbol of the one or more existing symbols in the staff; and wherein if a time-based positional constraint of the one or more positional constraints is used to determine the distance, then the time-based positional constraint is based on the location of a symbol of the one or more existing symbols in the measure.