Fire your piano teacher and back this smart piano instead

Learning a new instrument can be a gruelling, expensive and time consuming process, but one tech company thinks it has a way to make it all a little easier.

The One Smart Piano project is looking for backers on Indiegogo to start producing electronic pianos that connect to iPads and Android devices to offer you lessons without needing an actual human teacher.

It’s kind of like Guitar Hero for piano, but instead of randomly bashing at a plastic stick you’ll actually learn how to play. Keys light up to help guide you around the keyboard, and you can record yourself playing to hear how you’re progressing. There’s interactive sheet music guidance, lessons and games to make learning more fun and less of a chore.

The company behind it says it has sold over 70,000 of its pianos in China, and now wants to bring them to the US and the rest of the world.

It doesn’t come cheap, of course - the portable keyboard version is $300 (or $200 if you back the Indiegogo project) while the full size piano will set you back $1500 ($800 to backers).