FLL World Class

Piano Tablet

GROUP 5 - 7KP Amy Halder, Cristina Strimbu, Allison Lai, Aasta Tuatis, and Victoria Sokolowska

Specific Question

How can we improve the way that someone learns how to play the piano?

ProblemMany people who attempt to play the piano for the first time often do not play correctly because they barely know the notes and it gets confusing for them. They try to play piano, and they mix up the notes and can’t play the entire song correctly.

We want to help these people play piano correctly and efficiently. Learning piano is a great thing to learn because it can expand your brain power and make you a more intellectual person.

Data for Problem

Trial # Did Victoria correctly play the song?

Trial 1 No

Trial 2 No

Trial 3 No

Trial 4 No

Trial 5 No

Trial 6 No

We collected data for our problem by finding a member of our group that learned how to play the piano but does not know how to play the piano. We tested Victoria by asking her to play Fur Elise and she failed every time we tested her in the 6 trials.

Data for the Problem Cont.

Victoria learned how to play the piano with the method of using a piano teaching book. She read the entire book and tried to play a song, but she failed to play it and did not achieve anything. This method did not work since Victoria still does not know how to play the piano.

Current SolutionsYouTube

This is not a good solution because the people teaching you the song are usually advanced, they go too fast and just give you the music and play straight through it. Another solution is step by step instructions which is also not a good idea because the step by step instructions just ask you to replay the video if you don’t understand the instructions. If you still don’t understand the material, it is on you.

Piano Books

This is not a very good solution because the books don’t usually show the fingerings for the chords and they don’t explicitly explain how the fast the song is supposed to go. The books just give you the time signature and expect you to interpret it. The books also don’t explain the notes, and its hard for beginning players to know each note and its values. The players may not understand what the notes are or how many beats the notes are supposed to last.

When new piano players fail at their first attempt, they often go to other sources to help them play

Our Solution Our solution is a piano with an tablet inside of it that teaches you how to play the piano.

The tablet would be placed right above the keys of the piano and below the top. It would show piano keys that correspond with the piano and glow when the keys are supposed to be hit in a song or a chord. The songs would need to be download from a store online or downloaded from a computer. The Piano Tablet can test you on what you are playing, since it has your keystroke data. It will see if you can memorize the song and play it correctly. It will be your personal piano assistant.

The Piano Tablet is not a regular tablet. It is a touchscreen tablet stretched across a grand piano. You can only learn piano from it at the current time.

The songs the Piano Tablet would have will only be the easy, classical songs, like “Mary Had A Little Lamb” or “Row, Row, Row the Boat”. Songs by famous artists like “Let It Go” or “Immortals” would need to be bought online since they are a more wanted, popular request.

Our Solution cont. If you do not know anything about the piano, the Piano

Tablet can teach you the beginning of learning the piano. For example, the Piano Tablet can teach the basic notes, flats, chords, and sharps. It can also teach you music theory. It can teach you time signature, tempo and tempo markings, dynamics, the key signatures, and other musical markings.

The Piano Tablet has a recommended learning time for your level and which song you what to play. The recommended learning time factors in what level of difficultly you are at and the level of difficulty the song is. The recommended time can vary from 1 day to 6 months. If you need more time to learn the song, you can always get more time.

The Piano Tablet, in addition, to gathering data from your keystrokes, will give you a diagnostic test. The diagnostic test will be able to see where you are in terms of music theory. This test can tell the Piano Tablet where it needs to help you to improve your music theory.

Data for Our Solution Trial # Did Victoria correctly play

the song?

Trial 1 Yes

Trial 2 Yes

Trial 3 Yes

Trial 4 Yes

Trial 5 No

Trial 6 Yes

Trial 7 Yes

This shows how Victoria would play Fur Elise after using the Piano Tablet for the recommended learning time for her level. Victoria now learned how to play the piano in the correct way because of the Piano Tablet. These results prove that the Piano Tablet can actually help people learn to play piano, and become a better person. The 5th time, Victoria did not play correctly because she was tired of practicing and she needed a short break. The rest of the trials show how successful the Piano Tablet can be.

ExpertOur expert is Cristina’s piano teacher, Andrea Deliisorf. We asked her a couple of questions:

Q: Do you think that our solution is innovative?

A: Yes, I think that it is innovative and it is very good at helping future piano players.

Q: What do you think we should do to improve our solution?

A: You could allow the student to hear the song first and see the fingerings on the screen before trying it out. Doing this, will allow the student to see if the song is too hard.

Q: Would this be a good way for first-time players to learn piano?

A: It would be good, but you would need to give them less advanced songs so they can learn them easier.

Q: Do you think this would be good for advanced players too?

A: It would be good, but they would not need the fingerings, so you should have certain levels for certain people to play if they find them too easy.

DebateQ: Who am I supposed to turn to if the product doesn’t work?

A: If the piano has a technical issue, you can turn to us; the creators of the product. We will most likely be able to fix the piano if you contact us, telling us to fix it. You can also troubleshoot the piano with the customer service guide. However, the Piano Tablet is a piece of manmade technology and technology does not work all the time. Everything has its breaking point. When the Piano Tablet breaks to the point when it can’t be fixed anymore, we will give you a replacement for free.

Q: What if I am paying for something that is not worth my money?

A: You will not pay for something that is not worth your money because we will have a lifetime money back guarantee, which is something that most piano selling companies do not have. If you feel that the Piano Tablet is not satisfactional, we will give you your money back, with a few questions asked.

DebateQ: What do I do if I still do not know how to play the piano after using the Piano Tablet?

A: If you still do not know how to play the piano after using the Piano Tablet, you have some options. You can try to use the Piano Tablet some more, for more than the recommended learning time, in the correct way. You can read over the user guide to see the best and most beneficial way to use the Piano Tablet. You can also email or tweet us to understand how to use the Piano Tablet in the way that can help you the most. If you have done these things and still do not know how to play the piano, we’re sorry you’ve been inconvenienced. Remember that learning is not a one size fits all process and not all methods of learning piano work for everyone. We will take the Piano Tablet back from you free of charge, or you can choose to keep the Piano Tablet and use it only for practicing piano and not learning it.

ShareTo share our solution, we have made the following website to publicize it: www.pianotablet.weebly.com

We also have a Twitter called @tripleacv7KP Tweet us!

We have additionally hung posters around music stores, the library, and laundromats giving piano players information about the website and our solution.

To share the wealth even more, we have created a Google+ called PianoTablet

Hey! Check out our website at www.pianotablet.weebly.com! It’s about helping people learn piano in a new way!

Real Life Connection

We can connect this problem to real life in many different ways. It’s true that many people in the world cannot play piano. Many kids around the world cannot play the piano and struggle learning how to. For example, Victoria had a piano teacher that taught her how to play piano, but now she cannot play because she was taught by a method that doesn’t fit her. Many other kids have this exact same problem and we want to solve this problem with our solution.

Next StepsOur next steps is to improve the Piano Tablet by having more colors to the keys and to the actual outside of the Piano Tablet and having a Piano Tablet app.

The colors would not only be black, but red, orange, yellow, green, blue, pink, and purple. The new colors would make the Piano Tablet more customized for the consumers, so the consumers would be more excited to use the product.

The app for the Piano Tablet would be linked to your actual Piano Tablet and would test you on how well you memorized the song you are currently learning and music theory. It would not test you on your actual ability to play the piano, since there is no piano in front of you.

Plan for the FutureOur plan for the future is to sell the Piano Tablet in stores and add a new feature to the Piano Tablet.

We would sell the Piano Tablet in music stores such as Sam Ash and Rudy’s Music Store in NYC. The Piano Tablet would cost $350. Compared to other high-end pianos out there, this price is very cheap.

The new feature of the piano tablet is be an extra tablet attached to the Piano Tablet. The extra tablet would be in a hidden compartment and would be a travel piano. This tablet would allow you to take it along with you on trips or vacations so that you can still practice while gone from your Piano Tablet. The extra tablet would not follow you in real life as you play but, it would have data about how you play and you still would be able to learn so many things from it.

Bibliography

www.zebrakeys.com/lessons/preparation/

http://collaborativepiano.blogspot.com/2005/11/required-and-preferred-skills-for.html#.VIt7fHsuKpo

http://www.choose-piano-lessons.com/piano-exercises.html

http://pianoplayingadvice.com/ten-practical-strategies-for-improving-piano-skills/

http://www.davidnevue.com/pianoadvice.htm