MusicRadar

Compose your song, then write it down...

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While many of us are now using our laptops as fully-fledged production studios, it seems that Yamaha has devised a musical notebook of a different kind.

Via Engadget, we’ve learned of the ‘Key For Journey’ - a keyboard/sketchpad hybrid that was on show at the Milano Salone design exhibition in Italy.

So, how does it work? We’re not sure, to be honest; our suspicion is that the keyboard probably has a built-in piano sound and a headphones socket so that you can write songs on-the-go. A USB output would make sense, too, though we can’t see where this might fit.

Presumably, the notepad has been included so that you jot down your ideas – be they lyrics, melodies, chord progressions or anything else.

We should stress that this is very much a concept product, but it’s certainly an interesting one. Whether it really offers anything over and above a laptop, though – those keys look too small to be used for anything other than simple note input – is open to debate.

You can check out more of Yamaha’s concept pianos here.