Loog Piano: Can Loog Guitars redefine the beginners piano?
2,7 / 5,0 | 
Loog Piano · Source: Loog
Loog Piano · Source: Loog
Loog Piano · Source: Loog
Loog Piano · Source: Loog
Loog Piano · Source: Loog
Loog Piano · Source: Loog
Loog is bringing its educational, easy and kid-friendly instrument-building approach to the piano with the Loog Piano. It’s portable, compact and looks pretty tasty.
Loog Piano
Loog has successfully Kickstarted a number of campaigns based on the concept of making guitars compact enough and accessible enough for the small hands of children. Its series of 3-string guitars are adorable, and while not cheap, you can see why they capture the imagination of parents wanting their kids to take up a musical instrument. I have a 6-string electric Loog that I bought for one of my kids a few years ago. It’s a decent instrument, with a built-in amp and speaker, which means it can sound like a rock guitar without bringing the house down. It still gets used, I’ve borrowed it from time to time, and it plays well enough.
So, can Loog do the same thing for the piano? Can Loog introduce an instrument that plays well, looks great and can inspire a new generation of players?
Loog Piano – not just for kids · Source: Loog
The Loog Piano certainly looks great. It’s in keeping with the style of the other instruments, the bright red top is fabulous, and the single wooden volume knob is a nice touch. The red top is made of fabric, allowing the sound from the two built-in speakers to come through. The rest of the case is solid and responsibly sourced wood. Along with the speakers, it has a rechargeable battery and a headphone socket, making it super portable.
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How does it sound?
It has just the one sound – piano. Loog says that it wanted to remove all the distractions, all the bells and whistles that you find on home keyboards and digital pianos, and focus on the one thing that’s important. The piano sound comes from sampling and modelling the “attack, decay and air in between notes”. It says here it sounds just like the real thing.
Loog says it has “piano dynamics”, meaning that it can play everything between the soft and loud sounds you’d expect from a piano. It claims that no one has ever done this at an appropriate weight and size for children before. This makes very little sense to me. Loog is talking about velocity, and there are countless velocity-sensitive keyboards out there of all sizes that are appropriate for children. Maybe Loog has developed a new-sized keybed that has a very specific weighting that’s scaled to the muscles in developing fingers. I suspect it’s a bit of marketing bluster.
Loog Piano · Source: Loog
The sound quality is hard to judge because the sound examples appear to be captured into cameras mics or phones. But as far as I can tell, it sounds all right. There’s no socket for a sustain pedal, which would be a major issue for me personally but not such a big deal for someone learning to play.
Does it hit the right note?
Most home keyboards aimed at kids are made of plastic and devoid of any style or taste. In comparison, the Loog Piano is gorgeous. Having just one sound in an electronic sample-based instrument is a bold choice, but I’m into the concept of focus and simplicity. It’s a bit of a stretch to suggest they might have invented velocity, but otherwise, it looks great.
There will undoubtedly be an App to accompany the piano as they did with the guitars. It also ships with educational flash cards to help you get started with your playing in a fun and engaging way.
Loog Piano · Source: Loog
At an early bird discount of $229, it’s quite pricey for a piano aimed at children. At a retail price of $300, you can pick up some pretty decent home keyboards and digital pianos with more bells and whistles than you can possibly imagine. But they are not as uniquely focused, sized or as beautiful.
The Kickstarter goes live on Tuesday.
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