Roll up piano!!!

[bernhard]

 


https://www.hecsaninc.com/

Any comments?
 

[faulty_damper]

Any comments?

Umm... Buy one today!

[Glissando]

Uuuummmm...
Well it'd be good to get a kid interested in piano (maybe), but it'd be worthless for practice, ya know?
Cute idea though.

[benji]

You could take it on trips? It's only 4 octaves though.

[xvimbi]

You could take it on trips? It's only 4 octaves though.

Get two 

[donjuan]

well, it sounds cheap and tinny but Im sure it would have it's use on vacation for composing though.

[Bob]

There's no contour.  The black keys are up.

I suppose it might be marginally useful.  But....

Maybe for finger exercises, but how long would you be away from the piano to justify spending $150?

Why not just get a little plastic keyboard?

I'd be afraid of looking like dork practicing that thing.  I'd want headphones too.  I imagine the sound would be horrible.  Only good for knowing you hit the key.


The only advantage I can see is the size, being able to roll it up and tuck it away in a book bag.

Not having raised black keys sounds like a big disadvantage.

I'd want to see one in person and actually try it out.

Or, of course, if I had one for free.  To be able to try it out and maybe find something that is useful about it.


lol... Bernhard's title... I keep hearing it over "Roll Out of the Barrels!"...
(sings)
"Roll Out Piano!  Roll out the black and white keys!"
"Roll Out Piano!  I want my money back please!"   
rofl.....    There must be something in the water this week...

[donjuan]

I'd be afraid of looking like dork practicing that thing.

haha roflao I only just thought about that.. hehe Im sitting in the lunch room cafeteria with big nerdy headphones and my table top piano..everyone laughing..
haha why didnt I think of that before?

[Bob]

I have seen a plastic keyboard that comes in sections, by the 8ve probably.  You link them together.  It doesn't play, the keys don't go down, but it does have contour.  I think that would outweigh the roll up piano's flatness.

[JimDunlop]

Hehehe... This is THE hottest selling item since sliced bread here in Japan right now.  Every store sells em... They go for about 10,000 to 15,000 yen.... Divide by 105 (about) to get USD and by 86 to get CDN dollars.

I've played with them....  They are complete and utter sh!te.... :-) It has about 100 (all useless) instruments built in, and some other fun features....  The best one is the volume control so you can turn it OFF. 

No, seriously.. The entire thing is made of a rubber-like substance, so even in spite of the fact that the keys are flat and not contoured, your fingers cannot slide or anything.  furthermore, in order to make a sound, you must strike the rubber key pretty much dead-center in order to make a sound.  Any touch to the edge of the key, or anywhere the digital pickup is NOT, and there's no sound.  Also, I don't know you you can even play multiple tones at ones (i.e. chords)...  And, there is no hope of ever having a pedal or anything like that.  It's a toy, not a musical instrument.  I wouldn't even use something like this for composing...  I would be just as inclined to take my laptop on a vacation and compose with software, thus allowing me a moderately reasonable way to find out how things sound...

I would maybe buy one for a kid as a toy (not even to get him interested in piano) but that would be a rather expensive toy, IMO.

It's almost as useless as the expensive "digital guitars" they're pushing around here....  instead of strings, they have plastic buttons, and at the bottom you have 6 steel pieces of wire (about the thickness of coat hangers) that feel nothing like strumming a real guitar string.

End result: either toy is completely impossible for an experienced musician to play.   But it might be fun for someone.  Just not me.  ;-) 

[Bob]

hmmmm.... Should the roll up piano be in the Instruments board or the Anything but Piano?

[JimDunlop]

Does Toys-R-Us have a message forum board?

 

[donjuan]

It's almost as useless as the expensive "digital guitars" they're pushing around here....  instead of strings, they have plastic buttons, and at the bottom you have 6 steel pieces of wire (about the thickness of coat hangers) that feel nothing like strumming a real guitar string.

huh? you arent talking about electric guitars, right? Those things are so much fun to mess around with..
hmm I dont know what a digital guitar is..

[Bob]

rofl.... 

Maybe roll up pianos would make nice placemats.   

[JimDunlop]

donjuan:  No, I don't mean an electric guitar.  I mean a "digital" guitar.

Here ya go:

https://www.charlotte.com/mld/observer/business/5916907.htm?1c

Pictures/prices/more details on the beast here:

https://www.beststuff.com/articles/4880/

https://www.yamaha.com/yamahavgn/CDA/ContentDetail/ModelSeriesDetail/0,6373,CNTID%253D21546%2526CTID%253D500946,00.html

And yeah, it's something along the lines of the roll-up piano....  a toy -- and one that sounds like crap to boot.....

[donjuan]

hmm they actually dont look that bad for a beginner to use.  I learned on classical guitar and hmm I dont know, maybe it would have been easier to learn with "lighted frets".  But then again, Ive never played these digital things so you are most definately right about their use in reality.

[chopin_girl]

I don't like digital pianos, clavinovas, or anything artifficial concidering piano- this does sound interesting, but,,,,not my style

[JimDunlop]

chopin_girl:  I can understand your viewpoint... But for someone like me, living in a remote area of Japan, in a tiny apartment,  a digital piano is really the only option.

Considering that many of the new, modern digitals sound so good, I really can't afford myself a sense of instrumental snobbery, regardless of how much I really prefer the sound of a concert grand...

My only point was, that there is a big distinction between a serious instrument and a child's toy. 

[squinchy]

I had a dream once that I was in an arcade and it had a big keyboard on the floor for people to jump on and play with their feet. I think it lit up too, though not in a way to tell you which keys to step on.

(Sorry-this post seemed on topic when I started to type it.)