Stringed instrument finger positioning guide and method for teaching students to read music

The present invention is an improvement on U.S. Pat. No. 5,920,023 by Steven Ravagni, et al. U.S. Pat. No. 5,920,023 is hereby incorporated by reference. The present invention is directed to a device for teaching students of stringed instruments note locations and proper finger placement on the fingerboard of the instrument. The device may be adapted for use with either a fretted or non-fretted instrument. The device comprises a sheet of autogenously adhesive plastic, such as cling vinyl, within which is a set of dynamically operated markers such as LED lamps or other electro-luminescent devices for indicating fingering locations for scales or chords. Music from any source such as a recording, microphonic pickup, synthesizer, MIDI equipment, or instrument pickups, or the like is the data input to a computer program which can denature the source music into essential components which are then reconstructed into the tonal patterns of a target instrument such as a guitar. The synthetic target instrumental music is then rendered into one or more analogs, such as a score displayed on the computer screen, recorded in the computer memory, a MIDI output, a printed score, and most importantly, to dynamically drive a set of illuminated "dots" removably attached to the finger board of a stringed instrument, thereby showing the novice player or other exactly where to place his fingers to produce the proper notes.