Patent ID: 7420114

Claim:
An electronic musical instrument comprising, at least 14 keys, each of which a user may alternate between a rest key state and a pressed key state, a data processing system, and a tone-generating device, wherein, said data processing system receives key state information from said keys, processes said key state information into musical event information according to a software program and transmits said musical event information to said tone-generating device, said software program divides said keys into at least two groups, said two groups consisting of a group of at least twelve root-select keys, and a group of at least two strum-trigger keys, said twelve root-select keys each correspond with a different note of the twelve standard notes contained within an octave, said two strum-trigger keys each correspond with a different chord type, said data processing system transmits musical event information representing a group of notes in response to a rest-to-pressed state change of a strum-trigger key, said group of notes comprises a musical chord based, at least in part, on: (a) the root note corresponding with a root-select key which has been pressed and thereby selected, and (b) the chord type corresponding with the pressed strum-trigger key, if a first root-select key is held in pressed state as a second root-select key is pressed, said selected root-select key is said second root-select key, and if either of the two pressed root-select keys are released as the other remains pressed, then said selected root-select key is the remaining pressed key.