Duo, Duolingo’s owl mascot, is tired of reminding you to practice your French. Got a bad flu—You will now be urged to put your hands on the piano keys to practice the chords. Duolingo now offers physical keyboard For beginner pianists. Although it promises to help you understand the basics of the ivory key, it may not be necessary if you’re just scratching the surface of basic music theory.
Duolingo promises that this $250 beginner’s keyboard is “just a piano, nothing more.” To sum up, the Loog x Duolingo Piano is undoubtedly a small piano suitable for beginners. It’s 19 inches wide and weighs less than 4 pounds. The piano features built-in stereo speakers, a headphone jack, octave shifter and sustain pedal connections, as well as a USB-C port for charging and MIDI connectivity. The only physical control besides the buttons is a wooden volume knob.
As for how it sounds, Duolingo promises to provide note samples that recreate a physical piano. It’s pressure-sensitive and changes the sound based on how hard or hard you press each key.
The language learning app said it collaborated with Loog, a company with extensive experience in guitar production, to create a 3-octave, 37-key piano specifically for Duolingo users. The company is primarily known for releasing learning tools for children through Kickstarter. Loog is about to release its own piano songs, first appeared on Crowdfunding last year. The version shown in the crowdfunding campaign has a red cloth cover, rather than the Duolingo’s green version. The wooden end pieces are the same on both versions. The Duolingo version comes with a wooden stand that fits your phone.
There’s basically nothing stopping you from using Duolingo Piano with any other piano learning app, or even holding up your sheet music. The basic version of Loog also sells for $250 and is available for pre-order at the same time as Duolingo’s version. Essentially, the only differences are the color and the extra stand. You can also buy a $300 piano and pair it with a magnetic music stand.
Duolingo launches music learning app last year. It uses the same incentive-based lesson learning structure as the language app, but instead of fumbling through Spanish sentences, you learn basic music theory and play notes at the right time using your phone’s touch screen. In a pinch, it can also be used with an instrument or on-screen keyboard.
Virtually any piano keyboard can be used with Duolingo Music. The app is currently limited to learning piano. Remember, a $250 piece of equipment isn’t necessary if your grandma’s player piano is still gathering dust in a corner of her house. Plus, if your grandma still remembers how to play, she’s probably a better source of information than any app.
