Yamaha's notepad / keyboard hybrid concept: a songwriter's dream

Yamaha's got a thing for making dreams into reality, and we must say, we're crossing our fingers and hoping to all that's good and merciful in this world that the above pictured device goes commercial. Little is actually known about the keyboard / notepad hybrid aside from the fact that it was showcased at the Milano Salone trade fair in Italy, and for what it's worth, Yamaha christened the device "key for journey." Look, there are even slots in the leather-bound lid so the keys have room to breathe when it's all closed up. Ah well, a boy can dream, can't he?

[Via kanYe West Blog]

[gabe @ Apr 30th 2008 3:47PM]

To think you can jam on your notebook... technology is amazing.

[Mike10010100 @ Apr 30th 2008 8:22PM]

Now what they need to do is learn how to create the smallest fully-functional keyboard with USB midi output.

That would be so useful to hook up to another computer with editing software. Just imagine....a UMPC with the fully-functional keyboard hooked up to it. Create real music any time.

THAT would be what I would buy.

[smi1ey @ Apr 30th 2008 3:49PM]

That's actually pretty damn brilliant. My wife writes piano music, and would be ecstatic if she could get her hands on one! I'm assuming the keyboard output would be through headphones, which works great.

[Nabil @ Apr 30th 2008 4:19PM]

I hope audio is headphone only, otherwise coffee shops will become really annoying

[Mr Murda @ Apr 30th 2008 3:50PM]

This dream has already been made possible, it's called a Macbook!

[Brendan Sheehan @ Apr 30th 2008 3:55PM]

I'm an Apple fan just as much as the next guy, but WTF are you talking about?

[Darkroom @ Apr 30th 2008 4:03PM]

i'm guessing this is for *REAL* musicians, the kind that can actually read and write notation... with a pencil... without software... ya know?

[Austin @ Apr 30th 2008 4:08PM]

I think he was referring to Garage Band, which is altogether neat, but not very similar to this.

[Blaktornado @ Apr 30th 2008 5:03PM]

@Darkroom

"i'm guessing this is for *REAL* musicians, the kind that can actually read and write notation... with a pencil... without software"

So to be a real musician you have to use pen and paper? What a load of bollocks. I play the cello, guitar, bass guitar and a bit of piano, and have been playing music since I was 8 years old.

I'm a *REAL* musician and I use Sibelius all the time because I can't really play the piano that well, and have only ever really read music in bass clef - I can read treble but not very fluently (Have to do the whole "FACE in the Space" and "Every Green Bus Drives Fast" crap each time). Trust me, software makes composing a LOT easier.

Your claim that *real* musicians don't use software is nonsense. Not only do I use software but almost every other musician I've met has used Music software to write their scores. Music Teachers, Orchestra conductors, etc.

Now, if you had said "real musicians don't use Garageband" I would partially agree with you. Fall Out Boy (although their status as musicians will vary depending on your opinion of them) use Garageband and I'm sure various other musicians on a budget do, too. However, the large majority of Garageband users just use Apple loops, so therefore you are right in that respect.

But please don't make a daft comment like that :P It provokes responses like these :P


On the actual topic, however, this looks like a great idea. Hopefully the paper will be replaceable though because otherwise you'd end up with a keyboard in a wallet that can't do anything :P

[LarryLarryLarry @ Apr 30th 2008 5:46PM]

You can relax. Illiterate musicians are still musicians. They just can't read or write.

[billedluh @ Apr 30th 2008 6:33PM]

I agree actually. Looking at this device (at least superficially) it's too small to actually play on like a piano, and undoubtedly doesn't have velocity modulation. It's just for plunking out melodies. Which is great, I have a piano of about that scale that I take with me and do that with. But the truth of the matter is that that level of plunking you actually can do on a laptop keyboard basically as well as you can on a small keyboard like this. Plus that allows you to record and actually input the notes rather than having to scribble them out by hand.

That being said the notebook is really quite sexy, I think my existing too-small-to-play-chords-portable-midi-piano is getting jealous.

[Jay Schubert @ Apr 30th 2008 3:53PM]

The arrangement of the binder clips stops seeming so clever as soon as you have to replace the pad of paper.

[Tim @ Apr 30th 2008 4:15PM]

well i'm guessing with the odd dimensions you'd be going back to yamaha for a refill anyway, but point taken.

[sitruc @ Apr 30th 2008 4:32PM]

That was my initial thought after look at it. I'd love to have something similar, but the binder clips are the deal breaker in this instance.

[orpheus @ Apr 30th 2008 4:37PM]

Remember to keep in mind that it is a concept.

[CraigJ @ Apr 30th 2008 4:42PM]

Well, as mentioned, the paper is oddly sized, and you'd (I would, anyway) want a few blank staffs printed on the paper, so as long as they don't charge a huge amount for the paper, I think it is fine...

[friko @ Apr 30th 2008 3:56PM]

Cool. And the wire (or however the metallic thing that keeps all the pages sorted) has the black keys pattern.

[Scott Lanning @ Apr 30th 2008 3:56PM]

this is amazing!

[Samus @ Apr 30th 2008 3:58PM]

Yahama?

Forget to use the spell-checker?

[velocitystrike @ Apr 30th 2008 4:38PM]

I noticed this too. Unless it's like...a new franchise

[Jay @ Apr 30th 2008 4:02PM]

Why isn't the paper lined? If I'm writing music I don't wanna have to draw in my own staff

[phanbouy @ Apr 30th 2008 4:18PM]

i'm perfectly capable of drawing with my staff, thank you

[smi1ey @ Apr 30th 2008 4:25PM]

Hopefully the rings will allow you to add more paper and refills, although it doesn't look like it from the pic.

[Wwhat @ May 1st 2008 10:31AM]

Concept artist doesn't know diddly about music probably.

[Moburkhardt @ Apr 30th 2008 4:34PM]

you just took this post and the other one about the foosball table from born rich, sorry to hate but don't do two right in after each other from the same page, mix it up a little, experiment, get some other pics from the linked pages, you know...

[JS @ Apr 30th 2008 4:35PM]

"Key for journey"?

I guess "Brown note" was already taken.

[YankeesRule @ Apr 30th 2008 4:54PM]

Why is the keyboard on the bottom and not the top? When you (or at least I) write anything with the keyboard on the bottom, your wrists are going to be on the keyboard keys the entire time... hopefully before this becomes a real product that change is made...

[sean @ Apr 30th 2008 5:40PM]

if you have the keyboard above, your arms will drag through and smear the pencil/ink on the paper, ruining what you wrote as well as making your shirt an inky mess.

[Wwhat @ May 1st 2008 10:32AM]

Just add a $300 non-swipe pencil.

[falafeln @ Apr 30th 2008 5:26PM]

I hope it will write piano scores automatically

[ethana2 @ Apr 30th 2008 5:40PM]

My keyboard can do four full octaves without moving my hands more than 5 cm, theoretically. I just want software that can take advantage of that.
...as a colemak typist, I don't like, you know, moving things.

It's possible such software would have to be its own operating system to work correctly though... and I don't know how many keypresses most normal keyboard hardware can handle simultaneously....

[ethana2 @ Apr 30th 2008 5:42PM]

Also note that when you're writing music, you shouldn't have to play it yourself. Anyone here used noteworthy composer or some such thing? Really nifty.
...course, it was proprietary software, and the ramifications of that on its use made me ditch it completely.. but you get the idea. When the notes are on paper, /you/ have to play them, and really i think that's crap.

[LarryLarryLarry @ Apr 30th 2008 5:50PM]

This is brilliant - if your fingers are the diameter of a pencil (see photo). Normal humans will have to wait for the piano-sized version, which is not quite so portable.

[billedluh @ Apr 30th 2008 7:09PM]

and @ Darkroom the ability to read and write music is as totally irrelevant to the question of musicianship. There were brilliant musicians before musical notation was introduced. Hence the decision to introduce it.

[Randy @ Apr 30th 2008 7:19PM]

That is quite possibly the most beautiful gadget I have ever seen! (sniff)

[eggothewaffle @ Apr 30th 2008 7:50PM]

Add USB and MIDI outs and you've got something really really beautiful.

[TareX @ Apr 30th 2008 8:19PM]

looks great. I'd get it for lecture notes, and play a tune or 2 between classes :)

[someone @ Apr 30th 2008 9:04PM]

Shouldn't the keys be on top of the paper because once you start jotting down anything on the paper, you are going to get very disturbed.

[sprite @ Apr 30th 2008 10:50PM]

There is nothing dreamy about that platter of junk.

I will stick with my lovely Kurzweil K2600SX keyboard attached to my laptop running Sibelius.com software.

[Creator @ Apr 30th 2008 11:19PM]

Why does every thread have to involve someone who loves apple products oh I know read this.

http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.wordpress.com/2008/01/30/39-apple-products/

[eric @ May 1st 2008 1:22AM]

Get over it.
That site isn't clever or productive.

[stompntom @ May 1st 2008 1:47AM]

I want that - I could sit in meetings at work and play "The Final Countdown" just to piss people off