In the past 10 months Italo Leiva, junior in psychology, developed a new idea for a product and company, P-Synth Natural Talent Strings Inc., to ease the process of learning an instrument. Leiva has since bought the patent and established a manufacturer in China.

The idea for the project developed last summer while Leiva began learning the guitar while he was recovering from an illness. Frustrated with learning difficult chords, he color-coded the strings to help with the process and to develop a visual understanding of stringed instruments.

When Leiva explained the idea to Gene Reinert, teacher at Guru Guitar, Reinert said, “Son, I think you just made yourself a millionaire.”

Leiva pitched the idea to Ahmed Abdul-Ghani, his friend and now vice president of the company, and Abdul-Ghiani said it sounded like a good idea.

“When I first heard his [Leiva’s] idea I thought it sounded great,” Abdul- Ghani said. “Everybody has their ideas when it comes to business, but anytime you are dealing with a patent there is room for success. I believed in it and the more and more he talked about it the more I felt comfortable investing with him.”

The two pooled their life savings to hire a lawyer to begin the patent process but found out in Feb. the idea had already been patented a year before.

“My heart broke right then,” Leiva said. “We had just sent all of our money because we believed in this idea and we hit a wall.”

Leiva attempted to find the owner of the original patent, Rodney Shelton, who lived in Nashville, TN.

“We talked everyday for three weeks [on the phone],” Leiva said. “I just knew we had to work something out.”

After discussing the situation, Shelton agreed to hand over the rights to the patent under two stipulations: the colors corresponding to the notes would not be changed and the focus of the product be centered around building a foundation with which anyone can learn to play guitar or base.

Leiva said he was very fortunate for the success he experienced

“You never know. I never thought this would happen; I never planned on it. All I can tell you is that I am blessed,” he said.

Leiva’s current business plan involves eventually producing colored guitar and bass strings for players followed by instruction books to aid in learning guitar and bass. He said he hopes to expand the business to one day produce colored teaching strings for all stringed instruments.

Leiva said the company’s mission was promoting the learning of stringed instruments through visuals and the books will be typical learning manuals brought to life with color.

“Everything we do is very visual and this is what will speed up the learning process,” he said. “We want to revolutionize music by starting with unlikely musicians and proving that anyone can learn to play.”

P-Synth Natural Talent Strings Inc., which will soon be renamed Leiva’s Strings, are slated for release in stores in late April.