Disklavier

Good morning, everyone.

Carol raises some interesting points comparing older and newer models of Disklavier when used as teaching/learning tools.

I have been teaching with Disklavier for over 25 years. In the early days, the Disklavier offered 2 basic capabilities: 

(1) recording

(2) playback

With those two features, I could:

—record students and let them listen to themselves
—play files recorded by other pianists for demonstration
—play pedagogical MIDI files with General MIDI backing tracks (provided by most of the educational publishers)

Those features are largely the same, today, as they were in the past although the media for storing recordings has changed.

The big innovations for teaching have come in the form of 3rd party software, available for Mac, PC, and iPad. Many companies have created educational software that can work with the Disklavier by communicating over a MIDI connection. Examples from my company, TimeWarp Technologies, include:

—SuperScore Music (iPad)
—Home Concert Xtreme (Mac, PC, iPad0
—Classroom Maestro (Mac, PC)
—Internet MID (Mac,PC)

As the Disklavier as evolved, it has become easier to use interactive 3rd party software because the MIDI connections have become easier. USB MIDI was added (starting with the Mark IV), and more recently, wireless Bluetooth MIDI has become available for all models of Disklavier.

Using 3rd party software, you can do so many things that you can’t do with the instrument by itself, such as practice a piano concerto with an orchestra that follows your playing, read music off the iPad screen using an app that responds to your playing, or connect your instrument over the Internet to another technology-equipped piano.

Carol did make mention of recent model Disklaviers and teaching over the Internet. The international standard way of connecting Disklaviers over the Internet is with a Mac/PC application called Internet MIDI, from TimeWarp Technologies. To the best of my knowledge, nearly all teachers and institutions that regularly connect pianos over the Internet for teaching purposes use Internet MIDI.

Internet MIDI can be used with older Disklaviers as well as modern Disklaviers, and it can be used to connect Disklaviers to digital or hybrid pianos as well. It is not necessary for both the student and the teacher to have the same instrument.

Regards,
PianoBench