• Casio Keyboard Sheet Music Stand
• Piano Sheet Music For Beginners

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Casio PX-870 Digital Console Piano Options available $999.00 View Options; Casio PX-S1000 Privia Digital Piano Options available $649.00 View Options; Casio Casiotone CT-S200 61-Key Digital Keyboard Options available $119.00 View Options. Now you can customize your HIGH-GRADE KEYBOARD or DIGITAL PIANO by adding Music Data (tones, DSP settings, registration memory data, songs, rhythms, etc). Available SMF data to a format that is supported by the CASIO electronic musical instruments named below, and then transfers the converted data to the instrument.

CASIO RELEASES A FREE MUSIC APP THAT MAKES LEARNING TO PLAY THE KEYBOARD FUN
Chordana Play Features Casio Keyboard Link Functions and Piano Roll Window That Enables Users to Visualize Notes and Keyboard Position

DOVER, NJ, January 19, 2017 - Casio America, Inc. announced today the release of Chordana Play, a free app for smart phones and other devices. The app makes it fun for users to learn to play the keyboard by displaying notes graphically in real time in the piano roll window.

In 1980 Casio released the Casiotone 201, its first electronic keyboard. Since then, it has developed a series of original electronic instruments, including Key Lighting Keyboards, in an effort to encourage people to play music. More recently, Casio has been developing free music apps. In 2013, Casio released Chordana Tap, which had chord analysis technology, and in 2015, it released CHORDANA TRACKFORMER, which can automatically compose electronic dance music (EDM). By focusing on both electronic musical instruments and music apps, Casio is aiming to bring the fun of music to an even broader range of people. Chordana Play is a free music app developed with the vision of enabling people who have no experience playing an electronic keyboard to have fun, while also helping experienced keyboard players expand their repertoires.Electronic Keyboard in the App Makes Playing Fun
The app can automatically play a variety of 50 songs, from pop to classical. As the song plays, the app displays the correct keyboard position for both hands in real time in the piano roll window. Thanks to this feature, even users who cannot read a musical score can have fun learning to play. Of course, users can play by touching the virtual keyboard, and they can go even deeper with the lesson function and scoring function.App Can Be Linked with a Casio Electronic Keyboard
Chordana Play can be linked with LK-265 or LK-266 Casio Key Lighting Keyboards, as well as CTK-2500, CTK-2550, or CTK-3500 Casio standard keyboards.^*1 Chordana Play can connect to these new Casio keyboards using a standard audio cable. No special USB cable or connection kit is required for use and the app will work on both iOS and Android devices. Users can play along with the data from the app in real time, or they can save the song data to the keyboard. Furthermore, the key lighting system on the LK-265 and LK-266 keyboards can be used for lessons with song data sent from the app.Wide Range of Functions Enables Users to Make the Most of Their Musical Skills
Users can import song data (MIDI format) into Chordana Play. Equipped with original chord analysis technology, the app automatically generates a suitable chord accompaniment for the left-hand part. Like the built-in songs, imported songs can be displayed in the music score^*2 and piano roll. Users can link to an electronic keyboard even when playing imported songs. To learn more about Chordana Play or Casio’s full portfolio of electronic musical instruments, please visit www.CasioMusicGear.com

Main Specifications

Platform	iOs	Android
Released on	App Store	Google Play
Google Play	Music	Music & Audio
System Requirements	iOS 8.4 or later required	Android4.4 or later required
Available Songs	50 built-in songs. MIDI files can be imported via browsers such as Safari.	50 built-in songs. MIDI files can be imported via browsers such as Google Chrome.
	Chord Play feature automatically determines chords and generates chord accompaniment for the left-hand part. Specify right- and left-handed parts in the track settings.
Music Score Window	Shows score for right-hand only, left-hand only, or both hands. Specify number of measures per line.
Piano Roll Window	Shows piano roll notation for right-hand only, left-hand only, or both hands. Specify the number of measures shown (from 2 to 8 measures). Specify the size of the visible keyboard (up to 61 keys).
Song Playback	Standard playback and AB repeat. Change tempo (20 to 300 bpm). Transpose key (-12 to +12).
Lesson Functions	Step lessons (Off / 1 / 2 / 3). Specify part (both hands / right hand / left hand). Scoring feature.
Keyboard Link Function	Performance Mode	Transmit melody and chord data along with the song playback.
	Save Mode			Save the song data to the keyboard device.

^{*1 A commercially available 3.5mm stereo mini-plug cable (stereo mini plug to stereo mini plug) is required.
*2 Based on the MIDI file, the grace notes and other musical ornaments are omitted from the music score.
*IOS is a trademark or registered trademark of Cisco in the U.S. and other countries..
*App Store is a service mark of Apple Inc.
*iPad and Safari are trademarks of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries.
*Android, Google Chrome and Google Play are the trademarks or registered trademarks of Google Inc.}
About Casio America, Inc.
Casio America, Inc., Dover, N.J., is the U.S. subsidiary of Casio Computer Co., Ltd., Tokyo, Japan, one of the world’s leading manufacturers of consumer electronics and business equipment solutions. Established in 1957, Casio America, Inc. markets calculators, keyboards, mobile presentation devices, disc title and label printers, watches, cash registers and other consumer electronic products. Casio has strived to realize its corporate creed of “creativity and contribution' through the introduction of innovative and imaginative products. For more information, visit www.casio.com.

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Casio Keyboard Sheet Music Stand

After much research into the best digital piano for my boat (including many hours of participating in the Piano World and Music Player forums), I chose the Casio Privia PX-5S. I am very pleased with the decision; this is a 24-pound board with excellent touch and fabulous sound, no larger or more expensive than it needs to be, yet rich in capabilities and so easy on 12V power that it can run on an internal AA battery pack. Sweet.

One of the recurring forum comments involved the lack of a built-in music stand (or any provision for same). This is not uncommon with stage pianos, and is indeed frustrating… my previous machine, a Roland RD-700SX, didn’t have a stand either, but I incorporated it into a large studio desk and it was not difficult to add. In a performance setting, depending on available stage furniture, keyboard players can use a music stand with a tripod base, or one with an arm that clamps to other structures.

None of that really helps, however, when the piano is sitting on a desktop as in the photo above, aboard my boat. I found myself propping sheet music against the equipment console mockup behind it, which was not only sloppy but about five inches too low. What I needed was a desktop music stand tall enough to clear the back of the keyboard and open enough to not interfere with cables… and I was unable to find anything off-the-shelf.

Life is too short to reinvent the wheel, and of course there is no reason to fabricate the “music desk” part itself… The Manhasset 5301 table top music stand is a classic and refined starting point for this little hack, and $30-ish gets you a nice aluminum orchestra-grade support that’s about 20″ wide and 12″ high (product info on Amazon in Feb 2019 is incorrect, so I have temporarily deleted the link). It has a little tilt-out leg and a couple of felt pads at the bottom corner of the shelf, and works fine. Now let’s raise it.

The basic challenge here is to add five inches of height without making it awkward to move around… so we certainly want to keep that original folding leg. An 8-inch piece of 21/32 brass tubing from a local hardware store was a pretty close fit, though it needed a piece of heat-shrink tubing (electrical tape would work just as well) to mate tightly with the original clamp. This angle adjusts easily, so you don’t have to be terribly precise with leg length. I suspect there is a dowel size that would work also. Their original chrome-plated tubing is about .675″ OD.

Now we need two legs on the front, and there are lots of possibilities… but in the spirit of having it pack for stowage, I decided to make them pivot. I cut a couple of 4-inch pieces of hemlock 1×2, then… since I already had some beautiful .5″ diameter anodized aluminum thin-wall tubing… drilled a 3-inch-deep hole of that size in each one and hammered in the 9″ struts. (That depth was overkill and led to difficult assembly; if you clone this, a 2-inch hole depth, with 8″ of tubing, would be easier.) With the addition of a couple of cheap tips, I had front legs ready to attach.

But how do we keep them properly locked in position with the stand is in use, carrying many pounds of music books? I puzzled over this for a while, almost accepting the ugly notion of having removable screws (hardware that can get lost). A little ramped detent was an intriguing possibility, but the wood would probably wear over time and make it sloppy… and it would be a pain to machine.

The solution may look a little busy, but it is strong and effective: I hinged each block on a single quarter-inch bolt with a large fender washer between wood and sheet metal, then mounted a couple of stray angle brackets in the desired “stop” position. To keep the legs firmly in place, I used a scrap piece of 1″ nylon webbing with slide-release buckle, and the resulting assembly is surprisingly strong. I suppose I should radius and paint those blocks black one of these days… they are a bit unfinished-looking.

To fold the thing up and stow it when not in use, I simply pop the buckle and swing the front legs up to the top of the stand (with the nylock nuts and fender washers providing enough friction to keep them in place), then pivot the original extended leg up to join them. Unfortunately, the added length does make this peek past the top of the stand, which could be annoying for some folks; if that’s a problem, you can just loosen the clamping screw and pop it out.

This is one of those simple projects that ended up taking about 5 times longer than expected, and could have been done in a variety of ways. If you don’t need portability, there’s no need to bother with all the moving parts; just extend the middle leg as described and clamp on a couple of struts for the front (dowels, tubing, or even ripped square pieces of hardwood). In my case, living on a boat, every cubic inch counts… so folding was an important feature!

Of course, you could do the whole thing from scratch with some thin plywood or clear plastic, and another approach is to start with a book stand of about the same dimensions such as the Freesia… I almost bought one with the idea of mounting it to a 5″ support. That would accomplish the same objective, though it would not fold as small nor allow as much cable clearance from the back of the PX-5S.

This stand works well the iPad too. I am having fun imagining Erik Satie, 99 years ago, having just written “Le Yachting” as #8 in his Sports et Divertissements series to accompany a set of drawings depicting the popular pastimes of Parisian society. Could he have imagined it being played, one long human lifetime hence, on a synthesized piano aboard a sailboat, using a tablet computer to display the sheet music? How quickly things change…

However you do it, enjoy having the music up where you can see it… and cheers from Nomadness in the San Juan Islands!

Piano Sheet Music For Beginners

2016 Follow-Up

A few years have passed since I wrote the above, and I have sold both the sailboat and the PX-5S… and moved aboard a 50-foot Delta powerboat with a Kawai MP-7. This created a different sort of packaging problem, and I have a post about building a heavy-duty locking piano drawer incorporated into my lab console: