Playground Forums

Thinking of joining the lessons..can I use a real piano with these lessons?


Thanks Mike

Hi Mike,

You can use a real (acoustic) piano with Playground, but it wouldn't be the best experience unless you're using a piano that has MIDI capabilities, like Yamaha's Disklavier:
http://www.disklavier.com/

Without connecting your piano to a computer, Playground won't be able to track your playing and you'd therefore forgo all of the real-time feedback and interactivity features that make Playground so much fun.

Hi, would there be a device that one could use to transform an acoustic piano sound into midi feedback in order to take full advantages of the playground features? Ps other competing platforms like Flowkey have this built in as the mike on the iPad reads the acoustic piano sounds to give the feedback...

Please help I’m sure there are many customers out there with exactly this issue...

I too have an acoustic piano. I didn't realise that this program wouldn't be able to pick up the sound when I first subscribed. I kept my subscription because I like the lessons but it would be good to be able to record my playing as well.

I can't see why the mike on the computer or tablet can't pick up the sound. Will this ever be a feature of Playground?

Hi Samantha,

Unfortunately, Playground doesn't have pitch detection capabilities, and I'm not sure if we're going to implement it in the future. That's why the microphone can't pick up the sound.

The reason is because we believe that pitch detection methods are often misleading, and have proven to be. The best way to connect a piano and ensure accurate feedback and results is through a wired MIDI connection - MIDI to USB, or USB to Host.

Manolo wrote: ↑

Mon Mar 19, 2018 4:25 pm

Hi, would there be a device that one could use to transform an acoustic piano sound into midi feedback in order to take full advantages of the playground features? Ps other competing platforms like Flowkey have this built in as the mike on the iPad reads the acoustic piano sounds to give the feedback...

Please help I’m sure there are many customers out there with exactly this issue...

I'm not familiar with any such devices that can convert raw sound into MIDI. The only thing I could think of would be Ableton or Logic Pro, and those are both very expensive music production based software. Those wouldn't be suited for Playground.

If someone from the industry is here:
A consumer budget gadget doing this good enough (pich up piano sound via microphone converting taht into MIDI format feed-back via USB good enough to work with this kind of app) would surely have a market with all there piano apps becoming increasingly popular!

I've seen acoustic to digital, MIDI enabled, conversion kits for around $2000 (sans installation)... which is about what a Kawai VPC1 midi controller keyboard (i.e. what Billy Joel plays in concert hidden in a wooden PSO (piano shaped object)) costs. And, it's about what a Roland RD2000 costs, if you're into that sort of thing.

That's very interesting! But yes, costly for sure.

For anyone who has an acoustic piano, we do offer some inexpensive keyboard options on our website.

https://www.playgroundsessions.com/stor ... rd-bundles

I see that not being able to use an actual "PIANO" is a big concern for a lot of us. Very odd that a program that teaches how to play piano doesn't work with one. I was told that you can use an acoustic piano by support, but then saw no actual mention of it. With so many other much cheaper apps, and similar apps offering this, why not figure it out, even if it's accompanied by a disclaimer that spells out that "it may not work as accurately with acoustic pianos." I'm sure those of us who love real pianos would be able to deal with this. I'm truly perplexed by the replies from PS regarding this, and more than anything, the lack of action on their behalf.