A book of Rock Band song transcriptions.
A clever press pitch crossed our desk recently that takes interest in music and rhythm video games and uses them to push the age-old business of selling sheet music.
Sheet Music Plus sells sheet music and songbooks for guitar, piano, and other instruments, and in a recent press release, ties that into the popularity of The Beatles: Rock Band and similar games, saying, "As music-driven video games continue to explode in popularity," the company aims to "help gamers channel their passion into becoming active musicians."
Being musically minded, that sounds like a laudable goal, but surprisingly, the Web site doesn't have a Rock Band/Guitar Hero tab or section. We searched for a few random songs from Guitar Hero 5 (AC/DC's "Jailbreak" and David Bowie's "Fame") and the Beatles: Rock Band ("Hey Bulldog"), and found multiple versions of each, ranging from complete multi-instrument scores to "easy" guitar chord books. Many examples of guitar/voice sheet music for a single song are $3.95, but most of the songs we checked are only available in larger collections that usually cost $20-$30.
Music publisher Hal Leonard, however, does publish licensed collections of sheet music based on music video games. Available through Sheet Music Plus as well as other sheet music retailers, we've seen books for Rock Band, Rock Band 2, Guitar Hero, and Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock.
Of course, just as playing Call of Duty doesn't mean you actually know how to load a machine gun, being a music game wiz doesn't make one any more likely to posses actual fretboard skills--so don't expect miracles if the only guitars you've ever handled have D-pads or power buttons on them.
The Avant Grand sounds like the real thing.
(Credit: Steve Guttenberg)Digital pianos aren't new, but Yamaha's Avant Grand is a very different kind of digital piano. Since Yamaha has been making fine "real" pianos for more than 100 years, its knowledge base is deep. Yamaha introduced its first digital piano, the YP-40, in 1983.
The new Avant Grand is a "hybrid," designed to perfectly mimic the touch of an acoustic piano. The Avant Grand not only uses the same key, level, and hammer mechanism of an acoustic piano, but also special embedded speakers recreate the feel of an acoustic piano's keys to the player's hands. The name for the technology is gimmicky; Yamaha calls it Tactile Response System. However, touching the keys at the Avant Grand's media demo in New York City last Friday, I came away a believer (I took a class in piano tuning 20 years ago, and I know pianos from the inside out).
I heard the instrument played by a pro and the sound was superb. I can't say it sounded identical to a nine-foot grand piano, but it was dramatically better than any digital piano I've heard to date.
No strings attached! The Avant Grand has four speakers on top and four subwoofers on its underside.
(Credit: Steve Guttenberg)The Avant Grand's software is upgradeable. It comes loaded with samples derived from Yamaha's $120,000 CFIIIS concert grand piano. Four speakers are strategically located on the Avant Grand's soundboard in the same positions as the four microphones that were used to sample the nine-foot grand source instrument. The Avant Grand's bottom panel houses four subwoofers. Each speaker driver is powered by a dedicated amplifier. The Avant Grand's pedals duplicate the sensation of a grand's pedals.
Priced at nearly $20,000, the Avant Grand is aimed at serious pianists with limited space; the piano is less than half the size of a nine-foot grand and nearly $100,000 cheaper! Of course, the Avant Grand never needs tuning.
The Avant Grand I heard also plays harpsichord or electric piano samples. First deliveries are expected in July 2009.
(Credit:
Yamaha)
If a computer could morph into a piano, or vice-versa, it might well resemble a Yamaha like this one.
We've been watching the development of this futuristic set of ivories for awhile now, ever since it made the leap from made the leap from a self-contained digital instrument to a networked system that can stream music live. And now the "Disklavier" has literally cut the cord in the latest stage of its evolution by adding Wi-Fi connectivity.
The piano can download tunes from a computer to its own hard drive or transmit files to a PC so that they can be burned to a CD. Or, as Gizmodo points out, you can program it to play itself while you're on the bench so your parents won't assume they wasted all that money on lessons.
(Credit:
SmartDesks)
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WP)
Regardless of its function, this has got to be the ugliest workstation since the "TreadDesk." Even its name, the "flipIT DUO," is irritating--it looks like the shift keys got locked while they were writing the press release.
This contraption is designed to let two 19-inch monitors pop up from the desk surface like a reverse trap door, according to BornRich. But the saved desktop space is more than offset by its offensive aesthetics: It resembles an ill-conceived DIY project that gutted an old used upright piano and stuffed some computer hardware inside.
That would have been more practical, come think of it. Then they could have hooked up the foot pedals to handy "StealthSwitches" for both screens.
(Credit:
Yamaha)
No wonder all that talk about an Internet toaster never went anywhere--it should have been a piano instead.
While rival Steinway may be going for the whole sound system, Yamaha is sticking to the instrument itself as the centerpiece of its latest digital music endeavor. An updated version of the player piano, the "Disklavier" can stream music live so you can pretend you're Herbie Hancock playing Carnegie Hall, much to the chagrin of guests and family at holiday gatherings. And if you can't find the right accompaniment on the DisklavierRadio system--or don't want to pay the $19.95 monthly subscription--you can always buy the right tune at its sister store online, according to Technabob.
But if you still insist on playing your music on a toaster, there are ways to do that too. Either alternative is better than falling into the Dark Side.
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Newlaunches)
The devious feline will try anything to lull us into complacency before seizing our souls, and it has proven particularly effective in projecting its siren song through devices ranging from MP3 players to karaoke machines. Now, apparently no longer satisfied with mere electronics, Hello Kitty is aiming to control the origin of the music itself directly from the instrument--in this case, through a piano.
This miniature grand is one-sixth the scale of full-sized piano but has 88 keys and 100 pre-programmed pieces, 20 of which are naturally Hello Kitty's own ditties, as well as an SD card slot for more, according to Newlaunches. Only 500 of these limited-edition totems will be available for the bargain price of $600 at certain Sanrio stores. And lest you forget who's boss, the familiar mouthless image is etched into the instrument--in gold, no less, as is befitting of royalty.
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Steinway Lyngdorf)
We got word of a somewhat mysterious stereo by piano legend Steinway a few months ago, but little was known about it at the time. Now we hear that the system, made in partnership with Denmark-based Lyngdorf Audio, is about to debut in Singapore.
The so-called Model D is a half-ton behemoth that supposedly has the ability to "replicate the exact tone of one of Steinway's beloved Model D grand pianos," BornRich says. True to its roots, the receiver and speakers are finished in piano-black lacquer.
As mentioned earlier, only 100 of the systems will be manufactured at present. But, at a price of $150,000 each, they probably won't have to worry too much about back orders.
(Credit:
Strapya)
It must be a running bet among some bored developers, a game to see who can come up with the weirdest musical instument that can be folded away. That's the only way we would even attempt to guess how something like a canned piano was created.
This invention of the absurd has its limits, unable to play sharps or flats, but Japan's Strapya has priced it right at only $8.90, according to Plastic Bamboo. We've encountered other roll-up keyboards and have seen the concept applied to other instruments, including virtual drums. But a can? With a picture of a duck on it?
Come to think of it, maybe there's a more plausable explanation after all.
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Yamaha)
Given that we're long past the age of piano dancing, this might be the closest we get to playing any type of keyboard that's not connected to a computer. Yamaha, which is proving itself in the digital music world with products like its virtual drum set, has developed the equivalent of painting by numbers for the piano to debut in August.
Its EZ-200 keyboard has a "follow-the-lights" system that even tone-deaf types like us can handle, as well as touch-sensitive keys that sound louder as they're struck harder. "All you have to worry about is looking good while you are playing," according to the press release. (Easier said than done, unless Yamaha is working on some kind of hologram avatar too.)
No matter what, it's still better than resorting to something as creepy as the robotic hand.
(Credit:
Grand River Toy)
Want to feel old? Next year will mark the 20th anniversary of Big, the movie that everyone remembers for the scene where pre-Forrest Gump Tom Hanks plays an unlikely duet with Robert Loggia on a giant piano. (We all know, of course, that anyone in real life would have been eight-sixed by security at FAO Schwarz before their feet hit the second note.)
Now you too can play Josh (he apparently had no last name in the movie) with the "World's Biggest Piano Mat," which measures almost 6.5 feet long and nearly 3 feet wide. Forget about those puny roll-away versions you've seen. And when you get sick of "Heart and Soul," it can also play 15 other instruments, including the saxophone, guitar and xylophone. Batteries and Elizabeth Perkins not included.
