Last updated 07-30-2026
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Piano Genie
Piano Genie is a browser toy that turns eight buttons into a full 88-key piano using a neural network trained on classical performances. Press keys 1 through 8 on your keyboard, the home row, or colored touch blocks, and the model picks plausible notes so you sound like you know what you are doing. The space bar works as a sustain pedal.
Guitar Hero maps fixed note charts; Piano Genie lets you improvise freely. The model was trained on roughly 1,400 virtuosic performances from the International Piano-e-Competition, so the output skews classical rather than pop or jazz. Google Magenta published the research at ACM IUI 2019 and open-sourced the training code.
Anyone curious about music ML who does not read sheet music can use it for a few minutes of fun. The Glitch-hosted demo shut down with Glitch platform changes, but the creator still hosts a working copy at chrisdonahue.com.
8-button input maps to a full 88-key piano output in real time via an LSTM autoencoder
Trained on roughly 1,400 virtuosic performances from the International Piano-e-Competition dataset
Play with keyboard keys 1-8, home row letters, or touch blocks on mobile
Space bar controls the sustain pedal for held notes
Switchable 4-button or 8-button controller layouts in the settings panel
Runs entirely in the browser through magenta.js with no download required
Turns 8 buttons into convincing piano phrases without music theory knowledge
Fully improvisational unlike rhythm games with fixed note charts
Open-source model and training code available on GitHub for researchers
Runs in any modern browser with no install
Original Glitch URL is gone; users must find the creator-hosted mirror
Output style locked to classical competition training data
No MIDI export or song recording beyond what the browser captures
What is Piano Genie?
Piano Genie is a Google Magenta research project that maps presses on 8 buttons to realistic 88-key piano notes using machine learning. It lets non-pianists improvise melodies in a web browser.
How do you play Piano Genie?
Piano Genie uses keys 1 through 8, the home row letters a-f and j-;, or colored touch blocks. Press the space bar for sustain. The more you vary timing and rhythm, the more natural the output sounds.
Is Piano Genie free?
Yes. Piano Genie is a free browser demo with no account or payment. The model and training code are open-sourced on GitHub by the original researchers.
What AI model powers Piano Genie?
Piano Genie uses bidirectional and unidirectional LSTM autoencoders with a discrete bottleneck. The encoder learns button sequences from piano MIDI; at play time, your button presses replace the encoder output.
Why does Piano Genie sound classical?
Piano Genie was trained on about 1,400 virtuosic performances from the International Piano-e-Competition, the same dataset used in Magenta's Performance RNN. That training data shapes the improvisation style.
Where can I play Piano Genie now?
The original Glitch demo at piano-genie.glitch.me returns HTTP 410 after Glitch platform changes. A working copy is hosted at chrisdonahue.com/piano-genie/.