This app will get you playing Beatles songs on the piano in no time

Photo credit: MIKI Yoshihito

Nope, all of us can’t be the next Beethoven. But we don’t have to set that lofty a goal to learn to play the piano. It’s great for playing in an amateur band, or even shredding tunes in a bar. And if you feel you can’t afford those expensive piano lessons, don’t fret. Joytunes may have a trick up its sleeve.

The Israel-based startup runs a suite of apps which can help anyone learn how to play the piano. Its latest, and most popular one is Simply Piano. No prior training or knowledge is required, just an affinity for classical tunes. The app works best when it’s paired with a physical keyboard, but can also be used on its own.

“The idea is to make it accessible, affordable, and fun for people to learn how to play the piano in a space that is super frustrating,” says Yuval Kaminka, co-founder of Joytunes. “Not a lot of tech players have gone into this space because it’s challenging, fragmented, and difficult from the technology side. But the customer pains are immense.”

Yuval indicates their core audience is anyone who wants to learn how to play an instrument on the side. They’re not necessarily training to be the next member of AC/DC, for example, but there’s a huge market for people who want to take it up as a hobby.

“Every single person I’ve spoken to says ‘yeah I played for a year and a half and I hated my teacher and I quit. It’s not going to happen, it’s too hard.’ That’s what we’re trying to solve,” he adds.

Artificial intelligence

Simply Piano is, quite literally, a DIY solution. The app integrates a pretty nifty acoustic recognition engine which can understand when you’re hitting the right notes and when you’re not. Yuval says the algorithm is compatible with every single piano available in the world today, ranging from a cheap, entry-level Casio, all the way up to a US$150,000 classic Steinbeck.

When starting off, the app will teach you the basics and monitor your progress accordingly. To help users with the onboarding process, there’s a bunch of popular songs built-in, which they can learn and practice accordingly. The end goal is to play John Lennon’s Imagine, which Yuval says will take approximately 6-8 hours of lessons. More songs and complicated lessons can be unlocked via in-app purchases.

But this isn’t necessarily the finished product. Yuval says they’re constantly tweaking and modifying the algorithm to cater to user requests, which are becoming tougher day by day. “They want faster time recognition, they’re playing more complicated pieces, and they need help with that,” he explains.

More instruments

Joytunes started off approximately four years ago, and was initially an app to help children learn how to play the recorder. It gained traction in the US and was used extensively by schools and teachers. However, the startup pivoted to piano after the team understood most people didn’t consider the recorder to be a real musical instrument worth taking up. It was part of general music classes, but not much else.

But the acceptance it gained in US classrooms helped the startup with visibility and growth. That made the transition to piano easier. Joytunes currently boasts 400,000 monthly active users across its suite of apps, and Yuval claims it’s used by 10 percent of US piano teachers. Month-on-month growth is a steady 20 percent, and the startup has raised an impressive US$7 million to date.