I Modified My Piano To Play Itself! (DIY Build)

My name is Brandon Switzer, and this is a self-playing piano I built!
This is an Arduino Project, so please share it around with others to show what you can do with Arduino!
If you were inspired by this project, I encourage you to visit my website to read more about it and find the resources to build it on your own: brandonswitzer...
NEW: We have a discord for those who are building their own player piano! We have channels to ask questions, showcase your builds, and discuss anything player piano related! If you need help regarding your build, can provide technical help to those who need it, or if you are just interested in building one, feel free to join: / discord
E-mail me: [e-mail]*
*This email is not for asking me questions about your own player piano build. If you are looking for support on your build, join the discord (above)! I will try my best to continue responding to emails about related topics.

[@brandonswitzer7112]

*NEW:* We have a discord for those who are building their own player piano! We have channels to ask questions, showcase your builds, and discuss anything player piano related! If you need help regarding your build, can provide technical help to those who need it, or if you are just interested in building one, feel free to join! discord.gg/reenxNyht5

[@Three2NineProject]

How is this so underrated

[@WandersOfficial]

seriouslly...wheres the 14 million views

[@haithem8481]

I don't even understand

[@shibalady206]

You may have been asking this rhetorically, but it’s because people don’t even realize this is in the realm of possibility. Unless you’re familiar with the tech (and the vast majority of people are merely content to just have their iPhones boot up regularly), you might figure this is possible, but in no way is it feasible for the average person. And this conversion is an intense process. I’m only familiar with Arduino tech because it’s mentioned on Nerdforge, and then it’s nowhere NEAR this level of intense. I got here because I searched “can you convert a piano to play by itself”. 😅

[@sirecartier7881]

@@shibalady206 That's a surely enlightening point of view! we tend to forget how mesmerizing things can be, when we become familiar with them. Is that the true definition of magic? what could still be magic for tech nerds like us?

[@BENCOINTERNATIONAL]

Self playing pianos are like 150 years old to be fair

[@dispositivo0065]

Man!! How could you commit that crime at the end of the music?? Everything was perfect until the moment of the last chords. the fermata was missing!! It was like a stab in my heart. Nice project, bro! I can't wait to build It too!

[@a1344]

now Tom can finally catch Jerry without having to play the song

[@c.c.1366]

Funny, I remember Bugs Bunny playing this.

[@ethanchua2335]

Totally insane build! And to think that you did it at the age of 15? I'm thinking of building a player piano after my final exams and this project is definitely helping me out a lot! Keep up the great work!

[@brandonswitzer7112]

I recently got the piano tuned, fixed some of the solenoids, and improved the general mechanics of some of the keys. I also updated the code and included some features that put more realism into the keys and sound. The result is what you hear in this video (I only updated the audio). This is a major improvement from past models IMO. I'll keep tweaking parts of the piano to get better sound.

[@MBMS]

You could also put something like silicone on the top of the metals that press the keys to get rid of that annoying clicky sound.

[@brandonswitzer7112]

MBMS yes, that would work. It’s just a matter of adding it to each of the rods and then repositioning all of the rods

[@MBMS]

Well yeah, it might take a bit of time but it will definitely save you a lot of noise. The easiest way would be to use a glue gun, I think.

[@paulbroadberry]

have a feeling its not necessarily the clicking from hitting the keys but the internal clicking of the solenoids

[@eduardovolvo]

Hello Brandon! This project of yours became too much, my friend. I'm an Electrical Engineering student, and I'm in the mood to do a similar project to learn eletronic ♥️

[@RileyPlaysPiano]

You are an absolute genius

[@DimJongUn]

This is incredible. You are a genius and a craftsman sir. Bowing to you.

[@albertf.9198]

Count yourself as one of the world's geniuses, Brandon! Welcome aboard!

[@JeremyChung]

this is absolutely insane and deserves so many more views

[@moseskfrost]

What an extremely well-made and interesting video, Brandon. Exactly this structure I want to see on KZbin: demonstrating the functionality, simultaneously as showing the process. Very well done, and thank You for sharing! Best regards: Moses K. Frost

[@LarryButler-kp3se]

Beautifully done! Congratulations... I spent 37 years working on various electronic organs, keyboards and electronic pianos. I'm 78 now, retired 18 years. It was a great ride while it lasted.

[@MysticFrequencies]

Very cool, not quite as fun as pumping an original 100+ year old player piano pedals and watching it play music from a roll of paper while not using any electricity at all, but this is a very cool build. I may have to do this in my Knabe spinet so I can have the best of both worlds :) Well done!

[@okbridges]

This is so very cool, I have 1926 player piano that is pneumatic and uses rolls. I would love to find a plain tall upright and add this to it. This will be great when you figure out expression (loud and soft playing of individual notes).

[@normanbell-br7nf]

STECK pianos are sometimes used -- the Aeolian Pianola Company if I remember correctly

[@-______-______-]

This is a truly top tier, pro level accomplishment. How this video only has 64K views (at the time of writing) is absolutely beyond me!

[@craigadam]

Fantastic really well done. It does show how ingenious the victorians were. They did this in 1896 using just air. I have one from the 1920s, still works, even in a power cut. I am an electronics engineer and wanted to do this.

[@c.c.1366]

Your mother must have wept when she heard this playing for the first time. She must be so proud of you. I am astonished and loved the terrific video you made of the build. It's an inspiration for young kids.

[@frostmusicofficial]

Imagine all the pranks you could pull with this XD

[@bluemagic3800]

Like what?

[@cessposter]

Toccata and fuge at 3 am

[@Lex_VVV]

@@bluemagic3800 Rush F

[@uvitasf1701]

Brandon, what you just did is totally jaw-dropping. I hope that you know that and keep it up! Cheers from Argentina

[@fredbowling7968]

What an accomplishment!!!!

[@shageeladumas7835]

That is so cool ! I would love to hear how the westworld oppening sounds on it 😁!

[@danielsocir]

Insane! Genius! You can now patent it, as many acoustic pianos will come with this new feature: playing automatically.

[@arbel1990]

Good job! you need to design an extendable PCB for the shift registers and add a removable connector to the solenoids that will be less work to build/replace parts and more reliable then all the jumper wires on the prefboard... plus I would have added some kind of rubber padding to the solenoids to avoid them clicking...

[@AkinduDasanayake]

Amazing job! The new Steinway Spirio looks great!

[@ludwig4029]

🤣

[@rustyjones9425]

Hey Brandon! I hit subscribe, hoping you will put out a random piece of music a week. I love watching your actuators. I just gutted my upright grand to convert it to digital and was looking at what to do with the parts, but now you got me wishing I could invest the time and money to follow your lead! Here's hoping life never prevents your from tinkering. Cheers!

[@annecohen8927]

That took a lot of your work and energy to convert your ordinary piano to something completely phenomenal. But, at the end, all of that effort and energy you put in, paid off! Well done!!

[@egshorts6718]

Really really awesome, the exact perfect video that I was searching for. Really appreciated ❤

[@raminmammadzade]

What a great project! Well done!

[@nwhelan1743]

This is wild man, this is huge. So cool.

[@verxwaffles2338]

This is so cool. This reminds me of the Marantz Pianocorder player piano control system. They used mosfets for the switching, and used solenoids to actuate the keys. This is so cool. I want to use midi files to control an actual piano, and this is very helpful. And, Creative Engineering Inc. used the circuit boards from Marantz Pianocorder player pianos to control their animatronic shows. Most notably the Rock-afire Explosion. I hope that you have a wonderful existence.

[@Aclusios]

This is absolutely insane ! Great job man !

[@davidfick6822]

Sooooo impressed! I'm thinking of doing the same thing. It was just an idea I had. Thank you for sharing.

[@KatAxe055]

oh my god. this guy an incredible genius

[@user-wi7bz9zq3e]

Wow!! It's amazing!!

[@timhegan7976]

Simply genius, Brandon!!☀️🌜🌞

[@joseluispcastillo]

Awesome!

[@eingamel]

I've recently considered making my own player piano, like this, and now that I see how much work went into it, maybe not. Or I'll just buy jumpers, instead of making them like you did, and do it anyway. Lol. Or maybe I'll make a circuit board and avoid the jumpers altogether.... Anyway, this sounds and looks fantastic. Keep up the good work!

[@captioneer]

Absolutely delightful and brilliant. Great work.

[@mykhailodavidian3949]

BRAVO!!!

[@flecom5309]

congrats on a really nice project! always wanted to do a MIDI mod to a piano, maybe someday

[@48hours66]

This is amazing 😍 thank you for sharing this👍👍👍

[@infn8loopmusic]

This is amazing, and this is basically a lost art-form these days. Everytime I hear this I picture the bugs bunny cartoon. 🤣

[@abdessamadkhaled1767]

Great work Thanks for sharing

[@chewiespiano9386]

I am just speechless...

[@clydebermingham121]

VERY COOL 😎 🤗💥👍🏽🙏🏽

[@georgevaccaro9379]

This is amazing. Nice work!

[@keithwalter9089]

mesmorizing! BRAVO! Had to take days and days

[@marthagonzalez2462]

AMAZING 👏 AMAZING 👏 👏 👏

[@francescoelia.marino]

amazing guy...basically a genious

[@globaltop_multivideos.5694]

Perfect ! Congratulations!

[@hb3393]

Really impressive work. I'm a trained classical musician myself and I've been trying to get into mechanical instrument building so I can't begin to imagine how much effort something of this scale took. Surely the solenoids are quite noticeable? In my experience I've found the 'clack' sound it makes when it's activated quite distracting for performance

[@echodelta9]

If it isn't a reproducer level of expression you can add a variable pot to the voltage regulation rail supply buss and have the expression like any traditional player. Instead of pumping hard or softly you'd have a lever pot or good slider pot to play with. Or use a volume pedal on the floor wired for the DC buss control.

[@vintagepearlguitars]

Does that mean that you can set velocity (how loud a note plays) by deciding how much current you send to the solenoid? Isn't the solenoid on-off?

[@hobbyrob313]

respect! Healthy and Friendly Greetings from the Netherlands!

[@techtinkerin]

I bet that pulls some amps if you play all the notes at once!! Amazing work!!! ❤️😎👍

[@dave19cat]

You know what would be a cool variation of this to try? One of these that’s human-controlled using Apple’s Mainstage (which allows a human player to play those same kinds of really complex chords and harmonies) in place of Synthesia or Piano From Above.

[@anserkon5709]

my first thought was to use an electromagnet (magnetic coil) on each key and a permanent magnet on the other side respectively. This is still an incredibly cool and underrated project, but it seems to me that this way there will be almost no moving parts (electric motors don't last forever) and it will consume less power

[@zasti78]

This is insane Dude. Congrats!!! nice job! (subbed)

[@krzysiekmargo797]

That's some next fcking level.

[@CV-sj1gx]

Dude, you're amazing!

[@MichaelRushMusic]

Awesome build!

[@pranayy_art]

Wwwwwow 😮

[@thinkbaroque]

Impressive! Love this!

[@user-wb4ez9iz8o]

DAMN U R GENIUS!!

[@marioananda6525]

Amazing work

[@thatelectropig8678]

5:31 I was surprised that it was this song cuz I love this part Hungarian rhapsody no2 for anyone who sees this

[@ludwig4029]

piece*

[@fennecbesixdouze1794]

Awesome job! Although I can't help but wonder: is it safe to be pumping 24v @ 40a through solderless breadboards?

[@lupuscinus]

Fantastic!

[@tfw8738]

Imagine showing this to some peasant from the 1700s and you as a noble. You invite them over for dinner and then you clap your hands and then the piano starts playing by itself.

[@en6013]

- How many lines of code? - Yes!

[@JD-ei9pn]

Incredible, well done!

[@richardlibby2407]

Very nice work, sir!

[@tharii314]

Suggestion, did you set up another solenoid for the sustain pedal and map it to CC#64?

[@coyoteserranoband]

I want to learn how to do this with my bass, guitar drums and keyboards. So behind the learning curve dot-dot-dot

[@bossgroove]

Good Lord. I want to do this now....

[@elviradesantos]

This is one of the coolest videos I may have ever seen in my life.

[@nightmisterio]

I am going to need something like this to play a original version of a concerto

[@orlandolopez7271]

Increíble! Eres un genio!

[@Ififitzisitz]

4:34 my favorite part of the song btw

[@lianrobintribunal484]

No It's my My favorite part of the *piece* btw

[@lianrobintribunal484]

This part is called Friska

[@hurontermico8677]

this is so cool!!

[@sandrojosesilvett]

Bravo !

[@shenaniganguy]

Amazing!

[@krise99391]

You had me thinking i might be able to do this myself at the beginning, but now i think i might just have to save up the 40k for one...

[@CyberGenious24]

Great Genius

[@antonio.scalia]

Bravo que impresionante. Tengo un piano para hacer lo mismo. Pero diseñare la PCB en ves de usar protoboards ....

[@fortun8diamond]

GREAT JOB

[@alfredocortes9750]

You are a crack !!!! Congratulations. I fell in love with your project. I will work to match on my piano !! I will tell you!!! Greetings and again congratulations

[@coralizamazingodom1884]

holy shit?!?!?

[@joelyao7680]

You're a genius! A used disklavier sells for more than 20K....

[@jordanclarke2996]

Hi Brandon, I've worked out why the PWM stopped working, I asked it to serial print the velocity and found no change with different volume / velocity. Anyway on the pro micro on the piano just get it to ignore this line //velocity = round(velocity * (MAX_PWM - MIN_PWM) / static_cast(127) + MIN_PWM); I sent you an email a few days ago I was having some trouble with the ESP but I've got it all worked out now. Hope this helps :)

[@brandonswitzer7112]

Thank you! And sorry for not having been able to fix this issue. We’re doing some work in the house and there is a lot of stuff in front of the piano right now. This line is supposed to conform the raw MIDI velocity to work in the range of the PWM frequencies, and I guess it’s giving a fixed value somehow... I’ll update the code in the next few days.

[@jordanclarke2996]

@@brandonswitzer7112 All good thanks for the reply, Carl and I are looking at ways to get the PWM working nicely its quite buzzy and not working too well I'll let you know how we go :)

[@brandonswitzer7112]

@@jordanclarke2996 Yes. The buzzy PWM is something I tried to account for. The solenoids only utilize PWM when the key is in the process of being pressed. Once the key is fully pressed, the frequency of the PWM is set to its max. In other words, the PWM is turned off once the note is pressed, which stops the buzzing noise. Since the line that conforms the velocity is commented out, the PWM won't be set to its max when a note is pressed. A temporary fix for you might be to set MAX_PWM to 127.

[@brandonswitzer7112]

@@jordanclarke2996 I just updated the Github code with a possible fix to the PWM bug. Let me know if it works!

[@jordanclarke2996]

@@brandonswitzer7112 will do Brandon! Cheers

[@v3_venom_78]

Is it brain or 🤪🤪🤪 No words.😊😊😊 XD 🔥🔥🔥

[@torch1975]

What is the material for this project?

[@buk1962]

Bravo...!!!!...

[@boojiqueendoodoopants231]

😯😯BRILLIANT!

[@dennisthebrony2022]

5:31 What are those cooling fan boxes on both sides for?

[@andrewb5717]

They’re power supplies

[@FiRe_Prime22]

Cool !!

[@vccground3072]

so cool

[@----___________----]

John Cena is so good playing at the piano

[@luisgholl]

amazing. I loking for a similar project to play a percussion kit. I'll study you project. thanks

[@SiegfriedDeniz]

Nice!!!!! Subscribed 👍👍👍👍😁😁

[@SuperRetroville]

WOW now thats a great Project! Maximum respect. I made a roll reader with a MIDI output, you made a MIDI acoustic piano :-) Any plans to modulate the intensity of notes? Maybe with PWM.