Roli Unveils AI-Powered Piano System for Enhanced Music Learning and Creativity

This high-tech piano wants to teach you to play with the power of AI

The AI is there to make learning and creating music more intuitive. Piano teachers of both the strict and whimsical variety are a staple of movies and television, but music technology company Roli now offers a piano tutor built right into the instrument. The new Roli Piano features personalized AI guidance underneath the 49-key, $800 keyboard. Roli's Piano AI Assistant does exactly what it sounds like: It makes learning music more straightforward and fun than practicing alone. It can guide players through scales, explain ways of varying a tune, and even explain some music history 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 time, it will seem antiquated that a piano or keyboard can't help 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're unveiling the new Roli Piano System that will help usher in this big shift." That Piano System is more than just the AI tutor and includes several features built into the keyboard. The Brightkey feature identifies the song you are playing and 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 over the keyboard, thus enabling the AI assistant to make specific corrections as you learn to play a new piece. Plus, the keys are sensitive enough to how they are played that they can mimic mechanical pianos in terms of bending pitches and other complex musical shifts. These AI tools might serve to make music more accessible to a lot of people keen to learn piano. Instead of giving up after their first clumsy rendition of "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star," the AI assistant could encourage you to keep going. And for experienced players, the expressive features and personalized prompts can spark new creative ideas. The $800 price tag is steep, but as these kinds of tools become more common, it's not hard to imagine a future where music education leverages AI to give more people a chance to learn. AI may not be music to every piano player's ears, but it might be worth humming along with, at least.

Colorful keyboard offers AI-assisted route to piano speed learning

The combination of the Roli Piano and Airwave stand offers players an extra dimension of musical expression The struggle is very real for folks learning to play piano, so much so that many abandon study when faced with painfully slow progress. Music tech company Roli is offering new hope with the introduction of the Roli Piano with integrated generative AI coaching. "In a few years time, it will seem antiquated that a piano or keyboard can't help guide you, can't see your hands and respond to them in many ways, and can't have a conversation to help you," said Roli founder and CEO, Roland Lamb. The new expressive keyboard extends the playing area of the Piano M (previously the Lumi Keys) and offers students 49 "full-sized, full-plunge-depth keys" with per-key pitch bend and polyphonic aftertouch. It also comes with Roli's BrightKey technology, meaning that when used alongside the company's Learn app, the keys illuminate to guide your fingers to the correct positions at the right time to nail a melody or song. The Piano debuts a new built-in AI Assistant that serves as your very own virtual piano coach. As well as taking learners through keyboard essentials, it also sprinkles in some music history and theory - and will give you a nudge when there's something new to discover. Roli has "an exciting roadmap of future updates" planned for the coming year and beyond, so you'll never be short of things to absorb. USB-C and Bluetooth 5.0 are cooked in, for class-compliant MIDI, and there's support for an expression pedal as well. The keyboard is a portable music machine too, thanks to a pair of 3,500-mAh batteries for up to 6 hours of per-charge play. It will ship with Roli's Studio software, which includes hundreds of instrument presets to take it beyond, well, piano sounds. The Roli Piano can be used as a standalone learning system, but the addition of the Airwave controller launched last October will allow for more accurate analysis and honing of playing technique and fingering finesse. This is a modern-day music stand that you can prop your tablet (or sheet music) up against. But it also hosts IR cameras above that can register and track 27 points on each hand at up to 90 frames per second to generate real-time feedback and practice tips that helps the student improve. Voice interaction is also built into the setup, potentially putting a knowledgeable music tutor within reach at all times. The combination of the new Roli Piano with AI Assistant and the Airwave has been dubbed the Roli Piano System - "the most intelligent and intuitive system for musical learning and creation ever made." Outside of the learning environment, components of the System could prove useful to musicians recording in the home studio. The Piano caters for expressive control of MPE sounds in music production software, and Roli says that its BrightKeys technology could help players "get out of their comfort zone and explore new musical ideas." Adding in the Airwave means that sounds, tones or effects can be triggered with the wave of a hand in mid-air. "Roli Piano represents a thrilling opportunity for all musicians to experience expressive creation tools at their fingertips," said Sophie Solomon, Chief Content Officer at Roli."Combined with Roli Airwave, it offers an unparalleled level of control delivering rich textured sounds through intuitive gestures. The quality and sophistication of the presets on offer is quite unique and extremely inspiring for performers and composers alike." Compared to the cost of private lessons, the Roli offerings could be relatively inexpensive over the course of your learning journey but you'll still have to part with a sizable wad. The Roli Piano is up for pre-order now for US$399, which will rise to $599 once the introductory period closes. Bundle in the Airwave and the pre-order price flies up to $648 - increasing to $948 in the near future. Though the Learn app is free to download from Apple or Play stores, you may need to consider subscribing to unlock your full potential - which will add an annual fee of a hundred bucks to your bill.

Roli finally introduces a larger teaching piano keyboard, complete with AI

Roli just introduced the at NAMM, a 49-key smart keyboard that's primarily intended for learners, but has some neat bells and whistles for experienced musicians. It features light-up keys across all octaves, to help newbies get a handle on chords. These keys will also glow to show scales, arpeggios and more. It's basically a larger version of the company's beloved Piano M teaching keyboard. For veterans, the Roli Piano offers per-key pitch bend and polyphonic aftertouch, which should make for expressive playing. It also tracks fingers in four different ways while playing. This will allow the keyboard to successfully control MIDI Polyphonic Expression (MPE) instruments. The additional controllable parameters helps narrow the gap between digital and acoustic instruments. This is also a modern tech device, so Roli stuffed in some AI tools. The Piano AI Assistant uses generative AI to streamline the learning process. The company says it can help players get started with drills, teach music history and even go over theory. This tech will be improved upon as the year goes on, via software updates. Speaking of software, buyers also get Roli Studio, which is a collection of instruments and presets. The Roli Piano also offers some neat integration with the company's . This theremin-like device tracks a player's fingers and sends teaching data to a tablet. The Airwave is also an instrument in its own right, as users can raise their hands like a conductor to create and play sounds. "The ways we learn and play music are improving exponentially thanks to innovations like the Airwave, and now the Roli Piano and Piano AI Assistant," Roland Lamb, Founder and CEO of Roli, told Engadget. "Players now have access to the most intelligent and intuitive music system out there." Roli Piano connects via USB-C or wirelessly with Bluetooth. It works with all major DAWs and a whole lot of virtual instruments. Pre-orders , with shipments going out in May. Early adopters get a serious discount here, as the price right now is $400. However, it goes up to $600 upon official release. There's also a bundle with the Airwave that costs $650 for early birds, but $950 in May.

Roli releases a 49-key educational keyboard and generative AI play | TechCrunch

Roli on Thursday announced its latest educational product at the NAAM audio show in Anaheim. The simply named Roli Piano builds on products like the Roli Airwave and Piano M, more than doubling the latter's key count to 49. The Piano is much like its predecessor in most ways, with MIDI keys that light up and sync with an instructional app played back on a phone or tablet. The Airwave, meanwhile, adds hand tracking into the mix, creating gesture-based sounds. The new instrument is pricey, at $599, well over double the Piano M's current $249 price point. The London-based music tech startup is offering up the larger model at $399 for a limited time "super early bird special." And, of course, it wouldn't be a 2025 product launch without some mention of generative AI. That arrives by way of the newly announced Piano AI Assistitant, which the company refers to as, "the first step in using generative AI to make learning to play easier, more intuitive and more fun than ever before." The Assistant, which is rolling out as part of the Piano launch, aims to further instruction, while adding music theory into the mix. Over the past year, the Piano line has become Roli's primary focus. The pivot toward educational products makes sense for the company, which filed for bankruptcy back in 2021. Products like the Seaboard and Blocks were always cool and clever, but remained niche in the music world. Music education, on the other hand, offers massive market potential for a smaller hardware maker.