- Roli has a new Piano AI Assistant to accompany its latest instruments.
- The AI Piano Assistant offers real-time personalized help and lessons.
- AI is here to make learning and creating music more intuitive.
Piano teachers, both strict and gimmicky, are a staple of film and television, but music technology company Roli now offers a piano teacher built right into the instrument. The new Roli Piano features personalized AI guidance under the 49-key keyboard worth $800.
Roli’s Piano AI Assistant does exactly what it sounds like: it makes learning music easier and more fun than practicing alone. It can guide musicians through scales, explain ways to vary a melody, and even explain some of the history of music in the context of specific compositions. It’s like having a music teacher who never gets tired and has an encyclopedic knowledge of the subject.
“In a few years, it will seem outdated that a piano or keyboard can’t guide you, can’t see your hands and respond to them in many ways, and can’t have a conversation to help you,” Roli CEO Roland Lamb explained in a statement: “Today we are unveiling the new Roli Piano system that will help usher in this big change. »
Look on it
Musical dreams
This piano system is more than just an AI tutor and includes several features built into the keyboard. The Brightkey feature identifies the song you’re playing, then lights the keys to guide you through notes and chords. Roli’s instruments also come with the Roli Airwave tool, which uses computer vision and AI to track hand movements on the keyboard, allowing the AI assistant to make specific corrections when you learn to play a new piece. Additionally, the keys are sensitive enough to how they are played that they can mimic player pianos in terms of pitch bends and other complex musical changes.
These AI tools could be used to make music more accessible to large numbers of people who want to learn the piano. Instead of giving up after their first awkward rendition of “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star,” the AI assistant might encourage you to keep going. And for experienced players, expressive features and personalized prompts can spark new creative ideas.
The $800 price tag is steep, but as these types of tools become more common, it’s not hard to imagine a future in which music education leverages AI to give more people a chance to learn.
AI may not be music to every pianist’s ears, but it might at least be worth humming along to.
