Patent ID: 8759658

Claim:
A computer-implemented method, comprising: receiving musical notation data including two or more note locations on a stringed instrument, the stringed instrument including a number of strings and a number of frets, wherein each note location corresponds to a particular fret and particular string of the stringed instrument, and wherein the two or more note locations define a chord; receiving stringed instrument data identifying a musical instrument, wherein the stringed instrument data includes tuning data for each of the number of strings on the musical instrument; determining difficulty criteria corresponding to the difficulty of physically playing the chord on a stringed instrument, wherein the difficulty criteria is determined using one or more physical fingering criteria for the stringed instrument; and determining a difficulty rating for the musical notation data using the difficulty criteria, the stringed instrument data and the two or more note locations defining the chord, wherein the difficulty rating represents the physical difficulty of a fingering required to form the chord on the stringed instrument.