A musical device between one or more Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) controllers and one or more musical instruments comprises a housing and a plurality of potentiometers on a surface of the housing. A method of mapping music messages using a musical device is provided. The method includes defining a preset value corresponding to a frequency to be received within a MIDI message. Once a MIDI message having the frequency is received by the device, the device uses the data of the MIDI message and the preset value to create a new output MIDI message. The new output message is then transmitted to a sound module for producing a sound that differs from the sound that would have been produced from the MIDI message, had it been received.

A method for stringed instruments' pickup, the method comprising a step of: capturing mechanical vibrations of at least one string; and converting them to a signal representative of a string's current state, the method being characterized in that the capturing comprises the following steps: capturing, using an image capturing device, image frames comprising views of at least one musical instrument's string in a still state; storing the captured image as a reference of a still state; capturing (500), using the image capturing device, image frames comprising views of at least one musical instrument's string in a vibrating state; storing the captured image as a reference of a vibrating state; comparing (520) the still state reference with a vibrating state reference in order to find (530) amplitude of vibrations of each string as well as frequency of each string vibrations based on amplitude height in pixels with reference to the still state and determining a frequency of each vibrating string on the basis of the number of pixels between two nuts of at least half-period of a given periodic function.

A method for stringed instruments' pickup, the method comprising a step of: capturing mechanical vibrations of at least one string; and converting them to a signal representative of a string's current state, the method being characterized in that the capturing comprises the following steps: capturing, using an image capturing device, image frames comprising views of at least one musical instrument's string in a still state; storing the captured image as a reference of a still state; capturing (500), using the image capturing device, image frames comprising views of at least one musical instrument's string in a vibrating state; storing the captured image as a reference of a vibrating state; comparing (520) the still state reference with a vibrating state reference in order to find (530) amplitude of vibrations of each string as well as frequency of each string vibrations based on amplitude height in pixels with reference to the still state and determining a frequency of each vibrating string on the basis of the number of pixels between two nuts of at least half-period of a given periodic function.

Embodiments are directed to a musical instrument having buttons, where the buttons determine the magnitude of the interval by which the melody will jump from the last note played. With a small number of interval buttons and an up/down strum bar, embodiments can play almost any melody and more notes than a piano. One embodiment is directed to an interval-based guitar including fret buttons whose input signals are used to calculate the interval by which to change the pitch of the prior note. Providing input via a strum bar or a sensor, a new note is generated by adding or subtracting the interval to/from the prior note to generate a new note.

Embodiments are directed to a musical instrument having buttons, where the buttons determine the magnitude of the interval by which the melody will jump from the last note played. With a small number of interval buttons and an up/down strum bar, embodiments can play almost any melody and more notes than a piano. One embodiment is directed to an interval-based guitar including fret buttons whose input signals are used to calculate the interval by which to change the pitch of the prior note. Providing input via a strum bar or a sensor, a new note is generated by adding or subtracting the interval to/from the prior note to generate a new note.

An electronic musical instrument includes: a plurality of performance elements that specify pitch data; a sound source that produces musical sounds; and a processor configured to perform the following: when a user performance of the plurality of performance elements satisfies a prescribed condition, instructing the sound source to produce a sound of a first timbre and a sound of a second timbre, both corresponding to a pitch data specified by the user performance; and when the user performance of the plurality of performance elements does not satisfy the prescribed condition, instructing the sound source to produce the sound of the first timbre corresponding to the pitch data specified by the user performance and not instructing the sound source to produce the sound of the second timbre.

An electronic musical instrument includes: a plurality of performance elements that specify pitch data; a sound source that produces musical sounds; and a processor configured to perform the following: when a user performance of the plurality of performance elements satisfies a prescribed condition, instructing the sound source to produce a sound of a first timbre and a sound of a second timbre, both corresponding to a pitch data specified by the user performance; and when the user performance of the plurality of performance elements does not satisfy the prescribed condition, instructing the sound source to produce the sound of the first timbre corresponding to the pitch data specified by the user performance and not instructing the sound source to produce the sound of the second timbre.

A sound signal generation method includes receiving a pitch and an intensity, and generating a sound signal corresponding to the pitch such that a size of a sound image of the sound signal is adjusted in accordance with the intensity.

A sound signal generation method includes receiving a pitch and an intensity, and generating a sound signal corresponding to the pitch such that a size of a sound image of the sound signal is adjusted in accordance with the intensity.

A device is provided for capturing vibrations produced by an object such as a musical instrument such as a drum head of a drum kit. The device comprises a detectable element, such as a ferromagnetic element, such as a metal shim and a sensor spaced apart from and located relative to the musical instrument. The detectable element is located between the sensor and the musical instrument. When the musical instrument vibrates, the sensor remains stationary and the detectable element is vibrated relative to the sensor by the musical instrument.