Despite being someone without a musical bone in his body – unless convinced otherwise by too many shots and a copy of SingStar – this may be the coolest thing I’ve seen coming out of CES so far. What’s more, it wouldn’t exist without crowdfunding from Indiegogo.
The One Smart Piano takes a leaf out of Guitar Hero and Rock Band’s books by gamifying the process of learning music. It comes in two flavours: a $1,500 piano or a $300 keyboard.
Simply plug in your tablet or smartphone, load a tune into the accompanying app, and then play… even if you have no idea how to read sheet music. The app has a number of ways of displaying the notes, all accompanied by glowing keys that tell you what to press next to make beautiful – or at least acceptable – music.
For people weaned on plastic guitars and drum kits, the app can adapt to display incoming notes as lines on the screen for you to keep up with, as well:
Okay, purists may object and state that the real way to learn piano is with a stern tutor, a metronome and the repetitive tedium of “Chopsticks” over and over again. For those of us who just want to hammer out “Werewolves of London” every once in a while, however, this could be just the ticket.
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