Easy Piano brings keyboard peripheral to DS Lite

by Griffin McElroy { Jul 31st 2009 at 2:00AM }

Almost two years ago, Ubisoft dropped a virtual guitar simulator on the DS, titled "Jam Sessions" -- and that's just great, if you picked up the six-stringed instrument during your collegiate career in an attempt to woo Damien Rice-obsessed co-eds. Some of us, however, prefer the ivories. And by "prefer", we mean "we were forced to spend our childhood summers hunched over a beaten-up Steinway, pursuing our parents' feverish artistic dreams as our peers actually enjoyed their lives."

Fortunately for us, a Namco Bandai press release just revealed a Jam Sessions-esque title for the DS titled -- what else -- Easy Piano. The game comes with the keyboard peripheral you see above, so we hope interested parties have held onto their GBA slot-equipped DS Lites. With a lesson mode, a play-along mode and even a song creaion mode, it sounds like a neat offering for piano enthusiasts. We won't be sure until we try out that tiny, tiny keyboard, though.

Tags: easy-piano, keyboard, music, namco-bandai, peripheral, piano, rhythm

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Capgun @ Jul 31st 2009 2:03AM

I got a mental picture of keyboard cat when I read this. I half expected the video to be posted after the break. No dice.

ArchiGamer [Wiizer Sweatshop Human Resources] @ Jul 31st 2009 2:23AM

Keyboard Cat on the Go!!

Alex @ Jul 31st 2009 2:30AM

what do i get for getting a DSi????

The Aquacharger (PSN:Elvenmonk) @ Jul 31st 2009 2:40AM

Like me, a faster hand held.

Kawaiipikachu @ Jul 31st 2009 10:24AM

Gee you honesly believe that Nintendo would be willing to spend tenthounsands dollars on a stopgap.
The DSi has had only a small budget in it's devolopment & the acutal DS successor that Nintendo is currently devoloping would have a much bigger budget.

So out of the 2 which would you expact to have custom chips devolop ?
The only thing that's faster is the wifi.

In the end the DSi only has the excact same processor chip just like the lite it has a different numbering for no apparrant reason.

The DSi is the reason the I be replacing my worn out lite with another lite which should last me till Nintendo be releasing the DS successor.

Matthew @ Aug 1st 2009 7:18PM

^ WRONG.

DSi:

CPU: The DSi has two ARM architecture CPUs; ARM9 and ARM7.[52] The main CPU is clocked at 133 MHz.[53]
RAM: 16 MB of RAM (four times as much as previous models)[41]
Storage: 256 MB of internal flash memory[54] with an SD card (up to 2 GB) and SDHC card (up to 32 GB) expansion slot[7]
Wireless: 802.11b/g internal wireless connectivity[40]

DS Lite:
One 67 MHz ARM946E-S [2] and one 33 MHz ARM7TDMI
RAM: 4MB of RAM

4x as much RAM, faster processor, support for 802.11g. Regular DS games can't access the extra RAM or utilize the processor (but DSi-only download titles can), but it does give some games with slowdown a little more wiggle room.

Meh @ Jul 31st 2009 3:05AM

Wait, how is the octave changed? L/R?

mattprime86 @ Jul 31st 2009 3:06AM

typo!!!!!!!

jatie001 @ Jul 31st 2009 3:44AM

That's a DSi in the picture...is that some kind of hint that there will be a DSi version, or was it just a shortsighted Photoshop job?

Meh @ Jul 31st 2009 3:58AM

1) Look at a photo of the DSi
2) Facepalm
3) ?
4) PROFIT!

WhatIsThatThing @ Jul 31st 2009 12:57PM

Translation: that's not a DSi.

ynkhtr12 @ Jul 31st 2009 3:59AM

If this worked with Korg DS-10 I'd buy it

db73 @ Jul 31st 2009 4:05AM

That keyboard looks ridiculous! 1 octave? A mini octave at that. It's things like this that make me glad Nintendo sealed up the GBA slot & forgot about it. The thing is the DS/DSi has blue-tooth. So why not make a mini battery powered blue-tooth keyboard for this sort of thing?

THRILLHO @ Jul 31st 2009 8:29AM

the ds/dsi has bluetooth? since when?

Pastry @ Jul 31st 2009 8:05AM

And the piano sounds like a carnival
And the microphone smells like a beer
And they sit at the bar and put bread in my jar
And say "Man, what are you doing here"

Gnoll @ Jul 31st 2009 8:30AM

This is a great way to learn how to play the piano as long as the songs don't include playing more than 13 consecutive keys!

Gnoll @ Jul 31st 2009 8:33AM

Or maybe you just have to keep sliding the DS down the table as if it were a large piano.

And there'd still be chords you can't pull off. No wonder it's so easy!

GiggMan @ Jul 31st 2009 8:40AM

And by "prefer", we mean "we were forced to spend our childhood summers hunched over a beaten-up Steinway, pursuing our parents' feverish artistic dreams as our peers actually enjoyed their lives."

Wow.........

What a way to paint a picture.