Patent ID: 8299346

Claim:
A method for operating a musical instrument tuner, the tuner comprising an input module, a signal analyzer, a display, a housing, a user interface, the input module, the signal analyzer and the display forming a part of said housing or being comprised in said housing, the input module receiving an input signal from a musical instrument, the user interface comprising a mode selector, the display enabling at least two display modes from a group of display modes, the display modes comprising monophonic display mode and polyphonic display mode, the method comprising the steps of initiating a user session mode the user session mode being selected among a set of user session modes, the set of user session modes comprising a polyphonic mode and a monophonic mode, the method further comprising the step of shifting the session mode from one of the previously selected user session modes to another user session mode in response to an input established by a user by means of said mode selector, when the user session mode is selected to be the polyphonic mode, establishing a polyphonic characteristic of the input signal, the polyphonic characteristic including representations of multiple pitch frequencies derived from said input signal, and displaying said polyphonic characteristic in the polyphonic display mode on said display, when the user session mode is selected to be the monophonic mode, establishing a monophonic characteristic of the input signal, the monophonic characteristic including a representation of a pitch frequency derived from said input signal, and displaying said monophonic characteristic in the monophonic display mode on said display; wherein the representation of a pitch frequency is different in the monophonic display mode than in the polyphonic display mode.