The world's biggest musical instrument manufacturer, Yamaha has endeavored "to deliver the joy of music equally to all" for over 130 years since foundation, demonstrating its craftsmanship through development of Japan's first organ and piano. It has also led the music industry in the technology field covering semiconductors, AI and the Vocaloid "Hatsune Miku". In THE JOYFUL PIANO, Yamaha focused on fulfilling the potential of people with physical limitations as pianists by using an AI that has learned a large amount of the players' data, and realized a highly challenging concert where they played with Japan's leading orchestra and choir.

Context 1: While many Japanese corporations are committed to tackling the issue of DE&I, the progress is lagging behind in the world. About 60% of the Japanese public say when meeting with people with disabilities, they do so consciously. Comparing it to the situation in the US and Europe (roughly 10%), we must admit that there still is a tendency to view physical disabilities as unusual. It is, therefore, no surprise that when it comes to disabled people wanting to enjoy music, opportunities for them to play musical instruments and to play with others are still quite scarce. Considering the situation, we thought this was a challenge that Yamaha, as a leading musical instrument manufacturer, was best positioned to tackle.

Context 2: Listening to Beethoven's Ninth Symphony has become a year-end tradition in Japan, with as many as 23 concerts per day are held in December every year. Numerous orchestras and choirs play the symphony at the end of the year, wishing for people to reunite in the hope for peace. Holding a concert of the Ninth at this time of the year naturally attracted attention but it was also necessary to make it a truly unique one to stand out among many other concerts.

The joy of playing a musical instrument, and doing so with others, is beyond compare. But it is also true that it takes a huge amount of time and effort to attain that joy, and many people give it up halfway through the process. People with physical disabilities are all the more likely to do so, because however passionate they may be, they face great difficulties with playing a musical instrument on stage together with other musicians due to their physical limitations. That is why Yamaha, a leading company in musical instrument manufacturing, decided to rise to the challenge and make the joy of music equally accessible to anyone.

Introducing THE JOYFUL PIANO:

Yamaha’s AI-assisted Piano is an instrument that learns from a huge amount of performance data and automatically plays the part for unmovable fingers in synchronization with the pianist’s performance. Building on it, Yamaha has now developed and installed a new AI technology that controls the strength of keyboard touch and pedal movement to compensate for the player’s physical limitations. Taking advantage of the technology, Yamaha organized a concert performance of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony that includes the well-known “Ode to Joy” in the fourth movement, featuring three pianists with different disabilities as soloists. Playing with a leading orchestra and choir in Japan, they delivered to the world an encouraging message that with passion, everyone can become a musician.

Accompaniment data was created based on the data gathered during practice sessions since March 2023 (total 360 hours). It took nine months for Yamaha to develop the best possible AI system for the concert, which reads the physical data entered by the pianist through keyboard on a real-time basis and moves the hammer, while controlling the keyboard and pedal as well.

In the development of performance-assisting AI, Yamaha placed the highest priority on re-creating the pure joy of playing music. To enable three pianists with physical disabilities (two fingers missing on the right hand, being bed-ridden from birth, cerebral palsy) to play the piano by themselves and feel a sense of accomplishment, Yamaha embedded in the piano a sound generating function that enhances their individual performance style.

1. Power-Assisting Technology: It adjusts the strength of hammer in synchronization with the pianist’s performance, when the keyboard is struck too weakly to generate properly audible sound, ensuring that all the sounds reach the audience.

2. Ultra-Low Latency Sound Generation: A technology that prevents accompaniment part from lagging behind the piano, when both should be heard simultaneously. Even the faintest touch on the keyboard is detected and transmitted to the system in order to minimize the delay.

3. Performance Continuation Technology: It adjusts to the pianist's irregular movements, maintaining seamless music flow.

The concert was held in Suntory Hall, one of the most prominent classical concert venues in Japan in December 2023. It was also streamed real-time to the world on YouTube and X, reaching 546 million people in 36 countries including post-event audience.

Yamaha also made this AI system into an app for over 10 million pianos worldwide, creating an enabling environment where anyone, with or without disability, can attempt to play the piano.