Patent ID: 8367921

Claim:
A method for assessing an assessable performance of a played part of a musical composition by a musician, comprising: receiving audio input of a model performance of one or more parts of the musical composition; receiving input of computer-readable score data separately from said receiving audio input of the model performance; correlating the model performance, the model performance and the assessable performance being performed by different musicians, with a corresponding position of the score data of at least the played part of the musical composition, such that when the assessable performance is played in time with the model performance, the assessable performance is favorably assessed, even when at least part of the model performance is not played in tempo with a tempo prescribed by the score; receiving input of the assessable performance; determining, from the score data, one or more expected characteristics of the assessable performance based on the corresponding position of the score data, for the played part; and comparing at least one of the one or more expected characteristics to corresponding characteristics of the input of the assessable performance to make an assessment of the assessable performance.