Patent ID: 7739595

Claim:
A system for facilitating learning to read musical notation on a standard staff, comprising: a musical keyboard; a computing element functionally linked to the musical keyboard; a display, functionally linked to the computing element, viewable by a user of the musical keyboard; a virtual keyboard initially displayed substantially at a top portion of the display, the virtual keyboard having a plurality of keys and initially displayed in an orientation corresponding to the manner in which the keys are to be normally played with each key having a back portion substantially at a top of the display and an opposed lower front portion; and computer instructions, accessible by the computing element, configured to instruct the computing element to: load a music file, the music file including data corresponding to an arrangement of musical notes; progress a plurality of game objects upward on the display toward the opposed lower front portions of respective keys on the virtual keyboard; detect each pressing of a key on the musical keyboard; and upon performance of a user reaching a threshold, as determined in response to detection of pressing of keys on the musical keyboard, rotate the virtual keyboard counter-clockwise to a position such that the virtual keyboard is substantially on a left side of the display and the plurality of game objects move leftward toward the respective keys on the virtual keyboard, such that the plurality of game objects will experience collisions with the respective keys on the virtual keyboard positioned substantially on the left side of the display.