"Let's meet this evening!" "Must remember to take the kids swimming this afternoon" "Can you be in work early tomorrow morning?" "Let's watch that movie on Netflix tonight"

Modern family life has never been so hectic. With every family member having their own packed schedule and with ever more demands on your time, it can sometimes seem impossible to do everything you've agreed to do. Which makes it even more important to make time to relax and unwind - and playing piano can be one of the most rewarding ways to do so. But with daylight hours already fully booked, how do you practise at night without waking the kids or disturbing the neighbours?

Enter the Silent Piano. A true acoustic pianos at its heart (with traditional hammers, strings and soundboard), the Silent Piano can be made virtually inaudible on demand - allowing you to play using headphones any time of day or night.

 

We've worked hard to ensure that, when playing a Silent Piano using headphones, the experience is every bit as immersive and dynamic as you'd expect. And we've developed a range of technologies which come together to reach that goal...

• Binaural CFX Piano Model:
  The astonishing illusion of sitting at a concert grand in a recital hall (when, in fact, you're at home playing through headphones) is created by the binaurally-sampled Yamaha CFX Piano. By capturing the exact sound each ear would hear using state-of-the-art recording technology, we've created our most immersive simulated piano experience yet. This technology delivers a three-dimensional sound like nothing you have heard through headphones before. It's so realistic, you may even find yourself removing the headphones to check that you really are practising silently. (Available on SH2 Silent Pianos.)
• Quick Escape Mechanism:
  Featured on our Silent Grand models, our patented Quick Escape Mechanism lets you play with exactly the same touch and feel in both acoustic and silent modes.
• Choice of sounds:
  Along with a stunning piano sound, we've include a variety of great sounds from other instrument - such as an electric piano, church organ and string orchestra.
• On-board Metronome:
  An essential for every pianist, a metronome is as vital as it is loud - which is why we've built-in a digital metronome which only you'll hear in Silent Mode.
• Aux In & Transposition:
  Want to play along with a track from Apple Music, Amazon Prime or Spotify? We've built in an Aux connection to connect to your phone or tablet. And, if the track is in a key you're not comfortable with, you can transpose the piano - so that you can physically play one key but hear a note-shifted key instead.
• App & Computer Connectivity:
  Whether you want to use our brilliant Smart Pianist app with the piano, or delve into the world of score-writing, recording and production using studio software on a Mac or Windows PC, there's a USB connection at the ready.

 

Ordinarily, pressing down a piano key causes a hammer to momentarily strike one or more strings; the strings vibrate at a particular pitch and the tonewood soundboard immediately behind the strings begins to resonate in sympathy. It's a beautifully-simple mechanical process - and something we've refined over more than a century of piano crafting. But the power and volume created clearly isn't suitable for silent playing.

For Silent Pianos (with Silent Mode active), the first part of the sound-making process is the same; you press a key which in turn causes a hammer to move. But rather than that hammer striking the strings, the hammer's motion is tracked by an optical sensor grid. The hammer stops just short of the strings - and the Silent Module within the piano translates the sensor input into a detailed description of the note - including its pitch and how much energy it moved with. That digital description is then translated into a digital note - which you hear through headphones, inaudible to anyone around you.