In the decade ahead, music education software will become very effective at teaching music and playing skills and will have the ability to intelligently assess and address areas of strength and weakness, says Ray Kurzweil.  “It will become routine to learn keyboard and other skills using intelligent computer assisted music instruction.

“At Kurzweil Music (now a subsidiary of Hyundai), we’re working on software along these lines. ‘Easy play’ software will involve more than just preprogrammed patterns that the user needs to follow.  Rather the instrument will follow the user.  Intelligent software programs that understand music theory will instantly interpret and even predict the creator’s intentions, and adjust the composition to ensure it’s in key and follows inherent musical rules.

“There will be applications that will be able to gather all the subtle patterns present in one song, and apply them to another song, like a tint. Playback platform technologies will emerge that allow listeners to deeply and spontaneously interact with the music they consume – for example letting them ‘assign’ a new singer to any song.”