A computer system for producing a three dimensional illustration of a musical work includes determining for each sound of the musical work its tone, harmony and tonality. Each of these characteristics of the musical work is assigned a value so that it can be displayed on a three-dimensional graph having a time axis, a tone axis and a harmony axis. By plotting the tone and the harmony of each sound as a function of time on a graph, a three-dimensional illustration of a musical composition can be created. By visually inspecting the graph one can determine the tone, the harmony and the tonality of each sound by locating its position on the graph. The graph may also be colored with a color corresponding to the tone, harmony and tonality of a sound being played. Thus, in addition to determining the musical characteristics by locating the position of each sound on the graph, they can also be determined by noting the color of each sound displayed on the graph. A computer system for producing this graph contains an input device for inputting the characteristics of the musical composition to a computer programmable memory. The microprocessor can be controlled by the readable programmable memory that has stored numeric values corresponding to the tone, the harmony and the tonality of the sounds of the musical work.

A tool for learning positions of notes on a fingerboard of a stringed instrument having a baseboard and templates for placement over the baseboard so as to focus a student's attention on finger patterns that are necessary to master a stringed instrument. Additional embodiments include color-coded templates and finger pattern codons that correspond to finger patterns used to play notes on various stringed instruments.

The present invention generates 3D moving images representing various aspects of a musical performance that can be synchronized, as necessary, to the changing tempo of a live or recorded performance, either automatically, or with live-controlled user input, and either with or without a score.