Patent ID: 7332664

Claim:
A method for evaluating musical instrument performance by comparing performance musical data for a plurality of performed musical notes with model musical data for a plurality of model musical notes, the method comprising: forming a plurality of alternative musical note match lineups, wherein in each alternative musical note match lineup and each model musical note is matched with one of the performed musical notes to form a pair unless a corresponding performed musical note is missing, and wherein the alternative musical note match lineups are different from one another by at least one pair of matching model musical note and performed musical note; for each alternative musical note match lineup, calculating a set of note deviations, each note deviation being calculated from the data for one of the model musical notes and the data for the matching performed musical note; and for each alternative musical note match lineup, calculating an overall performance deviation of the performance musical data from the model musical data; selecting an optimum musical note match lineup from the plurality of musical note match lineups based on the overall performance deviations; and evaluating against a preset criterion the overall performance deviation calculated from the optimum musical note match.