Meet LUMI: Revolutionizing music creation and learning with colorful, expressive instruments

ROLI, the maker of next-generation hardware and software instruments, is injecting color into the black and white world of the piano with LUMI Keys. From fun habit-forming games on the LUMI app to the colorfully illuminated keyboard, LUMI’s fully interactive system is the world’s first all-in-one platform for learning piano.

The two versions of LUMI Keys–the Consumer Edition for learning piano and the Studio Edition for producers and performers–offer an entirely new music-making experience with touch-controlled pitch-bend on each of its colorfully illuminated keys. While small enough to fit in a backpack, the LUMI Keys can also double or triple in size by magnetically snapping together.

The accompanying LUMI app for the Consumer Edition keyboard, developed to be habit-forming and make learning the piano more intuitive and fun, is a complete evolution of how people learn the piano–offering a catalog of over 1000 copyrighted songs ranging from Beethoven to Beyonce. Learners can choose a view from colorful shapes to sheet music to read a song or simply follow the keys as they light up one by one. With games and lessons set up in stages, the LUMI app keeps learning fun and engaging through the musician’s entire journey.

“I found the piano to be magical and began exploring it as soon as I could reach the keys. I clearly remember discovering that the black notes sound good together–what I learned much later is a pentatonic scale–and I would improvise across these combinations, excited by the emotion I could communicate, and the feeling of a world of possibilities in front of me,” explains ROLI CEO Roland Lamb. “I created LUMI to share that initial inspiration I felt as a child, that emotional connection that set me on my own musical journey. LUMI is here to bring the light of music to everyone.”

LUMI’s parent company, ROLI, first gained critical acclaim for their groundbreaking and multi-award-winning Seaboard–a next-generation, ultra-expressive keyboard. ROLI leads the pack in the development of MPE (MIDI polyphonic expression), the technology that allows digital instruments to behave more like acoustic instruments in terms of sound control. ROLI’s “5 Dimensions of Touch” which refer to the way musicians interact with a physical surface when playing an instrument, lets creators make more dynamic and expressive sound variations by striking, pressing, gliding, sliding, and lifting. The development of the 5D-Touch technology pioneered and championed by ROLI products has been the catalyst for the wider adoption of MPE and compatible platforms. Much like the Seaboard with MPE tech, LUMI Keys sets a new standard for lively, engaging music education that keeps learners excited to play.

About ROLI
Combining digital technologies and a new approach to culturally embedded designs, ROLI makes that are light years ahead in their musical powers. The Seaboard, ROLI’s award-winning keyboard, launched in 2014 to international acclaim. ROLI has been opening new frontiers in musical expression ever since with groundbreaking controllers, soft-synths, and sounds for producers and musicians.