Dust Off Your Old Joanna

It’s a sad fact, but many of us have old pianos or keyboards stored in solitary isolation somewhere in our home. Unloved and unused, they sit there languishing, as many of us simply gave up on trying to master anything beyond basic scales. Many people buy a piano fully intending to learn to play, or brush up on old skills – only to find the instrument becomes a new dining room sideboard when they become frustrated at their lack of progress.

One day, Ken Ihara bought a piano to fill up his home with the sweet sounds of Bach and Beethoven – despite not having touched a piano for 15 years! Needless to say, he found it incredibly difficult to play the right notes and read the music. He thought there had to be another way.

Ken wasn’t a musician by trade, in fact, he was an investment banker in New York and London, before deciding to move to Melbourne, Australia in 2009. Prior to banking, Ken had studied electrical engineering and developed an interest in building electronic equipment. He also developed computer programming knowledge along the way, working with the Harvard Robotics Laboratory. With these background skills, Ken had a keen mind for solving problems electronically, so he certainly wasn’t going to be beaten by an old piano – he just needed to find a creative solution to his problem.

Whilst looking for ‘another way’, the way in which most innovations come about, Ken noticed two key things; a piano has a life of around 50 years, so there are lot of them available relatively cheaply, he correlated this with the huge amount of inexpensive laptop computers available to most people. Ken wondered if the old pianos could be mastered by a person by using new technology, and so began developing his idea. He soon came up with the PianoMaestro, a brilliant new way to have people young and old playing their favourite tunes on pianos (or keyboards) in a fraction of the usual time.
So what does it do?

The PianoMaestro strip unit is placed on top of any piano or keyboard, positioned above the keys, and is then attached via a USB connector to a laptop. The laptop screen displays the sheet music, by reading the midi files for each piece (these are extremely common files, easy to download and access) and uses the information to light up the PianoMaestro strip above the correct keys to be played. By using the piano guide-light technology to train your fingers to reach for the right keys, you can be up and playing your chosen piece in a very short space of time.

Besides the visual cue of having lights to keep your fingers on track, PianoMaestro boasts several other excellent features. You can;
· Slow down the tempo – making it easier to learn difficult parts
· Repeat selections of a piece - until committed to muscle memory
· Follow the sheet music on the computer screen to mimic paper scores
· Practise just left or right hand independently for variation
· Easily download any music genre, from Pop to Classical, to practise

Piano guide-light technology is already recognised as a valuable teaching resource and is available on top of the range electronic pianos – but why should perfectly good traditional pianos go to waste, when the technology is available to be used with them, but at a fraction of the cost of private lessons or state of the art instruments?

Ken’s ambition is to get more people, adults and children alike, to take up the piano and to get those unused pianos out of retirement, dusted off and able to give hours of pleasure once more, to returners and newcomers alike.

The PianoMaestro can be seen at www.thepianomaestro.com – where you can also see footage of the unit proving how effective it is, with one complete novice learning to play a classical piece in one sitting!
The fusion of new and old technology is an ideal way to get more people playing pianos, whilst also encouraging the re-use of items which were perhaps considered as obsolete. With many people concerned about the effective use of our resources, what better way could there be to bring perfectly serviceable pianos back into use, with a new technological twist to help people to play?
So if you’re looking to touch up your piano skills, or simply are looking for an inspiration to invent something new, why not have a look at Ken’s website and see just what can be achieved? Fusing technology with tradition could prove to be just the idea you were looking for.

You can read this story in Inventors Showcase Magazine, August edition... www.inventorsshowcasemagazine.com