I have blogged about this briefly on my website, where there is a diagram of the row, and colum LED idea:
https://sites.google.com/site/hybritar/Downhome/Topic1/usingwiimotetomakebluetoothbasstapmidiguitarHere are some links to get you familiar with MIDI guitars.
MIDI is the musical instrument digital inface. It is a protocol for sending musical notes to a synthesizer.
This enables the hardware for generating tones to be seperate from the hardware that interfaces with the player.
This is commonly called a MIDI controller.
Using a segmented fret design. Conventional guitars have a single fret. Frets conduct electricity, so the string in conjunction with the fret can be used as a switch instead of using buttons.
If you look at the neck of the guitar you will see strings and frets crossing the strings. It forms a grid.
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/guitars/you-rock-guitar-yrg-1000-midi-controller-electric-guitar?src=3WWRWXGBUsually with a guitar, in order to initiate the sound the guitar strings are strummed or picked with a plectrum.
Some players, most notably Eddie Van Halen have developed a technique of "tapping" the frets and strings on the neck to initiate the sound without picking. If this was done electrically, using the strings, and frets in conjunction as a switching mechanism, then a tapping method could be used to initiate the notes.
Or the position of the finger on the fretboard could be sensed by closing a circuit when the string is pressed against the fret.
My idea is to translate this grid of the fretboard into a grid of IR LED' lights that the Wiimote, interprets as mouse pointing, or clicking in music software that is designed for this purpose.
I see two ways of presenting the grid.
One way is to have an IR LED representing each position on the fretboard grid. Representing each place where a string crosses a fret. Another way is to have a row of LED's representing the frets, and a row of LED's representing the strings.
When a string makes contact with a fret, the corresponding fret, and string LED is lit.