Three apps that change what your piano can do.
Your Yamaha talks to your phone. One app controls it, one records it, and one teaches you to play. Here is what each one actually does.
Yamaha Smart Pianist
Smart Pianist gives your piano the screen it does not have. Voices, layers, splits, reverb and tuning become visible controls instead of button combinations. Piano Room lets you set lid position, brightness, tuning and string resonance on voices like the CFX concert grand and the Bösendorfer Imperial, and Registration Memory saves a setup so you can recall it later.
It also handles music. Read PDF sheet music, play built-in songs with accompaniment, run MIDI files, and use Audio to Score to pull a chord chart out of a recording. Drum and band accompaniments are available on CSP and CVP models. Recording works in MIDI or audio.
Works with: CLP-800 Series, CSP-200 Series, CVP-900 Series, CVP-701, AvantGrand N1X and NU1XA. Connects by Bluetooth, by USB cable, or over Wi-Fi with the UD-WL01 adapter. iOS and Android.
Cost: No charge, from the App Store or Google Play.
Yamaha My Music Recorder
My Music Recorder captures video, audio and MIDI of a performance at the same time, wirelessly, from an iOS device. Because the notes are recorded over MIDI, the performance carries none of the room noise a phone microphone would pick up, and the playback stays in sync with the video.
It also keeps a record of the work behind the performance. The app counts the notes you play, measures how long you practice, and awards stamps as you go, so progress is visible over weeks rather than guessed at. Finished recordings go out by email, text, social media or YouTube.
Works with: compatible Yamaha pianos over a wireless connection. Apple iOS devices only.
Cost: No charge, from the App Store.
Flowkey
Flowkey is a learning app that listens to you. It shows a song as sheet music above a keyboard diagram, and Wait Mode holds the music in place until you play the correct notes. The piece moves at your pace instead of a recording's. You can slow the tempo down and work the left and right hand separately.
The library runs to thousands of songs sorted by difficulty and by genre, including classical, pop, film and TV, and video game music. Each one includes video of a player's hands, so you can watch the fingering and hand position rather than infer them.
Works with: iOS and Android.
Cost: every new Yamaha Clavinova and AvantGrand includes a three-month flowkey Premium subscription. Register at flowkey.com/en/yamaha.