Yamaha uses new technology to inspire musicians

NEW YORK, Jan. 16 (Xinhua) -- Following the verbal instruction, an acoustic piano started playing on its own. If members of the audience close their eyes, they'd probably believe a real pianist playing the song "I'll remember you."

The scene was part of an event on Tuesday in Manhattan, New York in the United States, where Yamaha presented musical instruments featuring engineering innovation and Amazon Alexa integration.

The instruments introduced include Venova, a lightweight "saxophone" with a special split pipe design and Clavinova Smart Pianist electronic keyboard that can teach any new song by telling users where and when to hit the key. On display was also a self-play Disklavier piano controlled by Amazon's voice assistant Alexa.

The magic pulled by the Disklavier piano could be done without Yamaha's multi-room audio system, MusicCast, which controls many of the company's smart products. By connecting Alexa with MusicCast, customers can play music in their houses only through voice commands.

Alexa has more than 30,000 skills or third-party apps. People use them mostly for day-to-day tasks like controlling room lights or playing music and news through devices such as the Echo smart speaker. Several new partnerships Amazon announced earlier this year will make Alexa enter television sets, PC computers and cars.

Tom Sumner, senior vice president of Yamaha Corporation in America, told Xinhua that the company's goal is to inspire musicians to play more music and help them compose music more efficiently.

"We want to bring more people into music and keep them playing music," said Dennis Webster, marketing manager of Yamaha's guitar division.

Having displayed a cheaper version of their TransAcoustic Guitar that has built-in reverbs and chorus effects, Webster said the new guitar and other technology-powered products would motivate the next generation and advance music education. Enditem