Play it again , Sam - and again

Telecommunications Americas, Oct, 2003 by Sean Buckley

When one typically thinks of piano lessons, what comes to mind is a student playing through bars as the teacher looks on, evaluating his performance. But through MusicPath, a partnership jointly developed by CANARIE (Canada's advanced Internet organization), Acadia University, The Royal Conservatory of Music and Yamaha Canada, Canadian music students will soon shatter the barriers of distance and time to gain knowledge from musical experts at any location.

As part of the MusicPath project, two Yamaha Disklavier digital acoustic pianos will be connected via CANARIE's CA*net4 using the music industry standard protocol called MIDI (Music Instrument Digital Interface).

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Through this connection, every aspect of a specific pianist's performance can be digitally traced in real time and sent to remote locations over the network, where the process is then reversed. At this remote location, every musical element is reproduced through an acoustic piano over Yamaha's proprietary Disklavier technology. In other words, the pianist is actually moving all of the piano keys in another location. Initially, the MusicPath will deliver a method of interconnection of two Yamaha Disklavier pianos over the CA*net4 between Acadia University in rural Nova Scotia and the RCM in Toronto, however, the consortium plans to make this technology accessible to other locations.

A student at Acadia, for example, could play a network-connected Disklavier piano in Wolfville, Nova Scotia, and the music would be heard simultaneously on a Disklavier piano at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto. An expert musician in Toronto could then provide real-time instruction to the Acadia student via videoconferencing. Now, musical experts will not be bound by time and distance to share their expertise with students throughout the country, changing the fundamental dynamics of music education.

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