Yes, you heard that right: Duolingo now makes a piano. The popular language learning app teamed up with Loog to create the Loog x Duolingo Piano – a 37-key mini digital piano designed to work with the app’s music courses.
Loog x Duolingo Piano
I’ll admit that I wasn’t even aware of the fact that Duolingo now teaches music, too. The music course was added to the hugely popular language learning app about a year ago and teaches basic piano, sight reading, and ear training skills. Just in case you need a break from learning Spanish, Chinese, or Klingon.
What was missing was the right instrument. So Duolingo teamed up with Loog, a manufacturer best known for making guitars for kids. The Duolingo Piano is a rebranded version of the Loog Piano, which came out about a year ago after a successful Kickstarter campaign. Now it’s green instead of red and offers an integration into the Duolingo music course.
The hardware looks to be identical to the standard Loog Piano, with three octaves of velocity-sensitive synth-action mini keys, a built-in battery and loudspeakers, and USB-C, sustain, and headphone connectors. Duolingo says the piano sound is “musician-grade”, whatever that’s supposed to mean. It’s a bit hard to judge from the demo video, but it seems fine for beginners.
The Loog x Duolingo Piano connects to a smartphone over USB-C. There’s also a neat wooden phone stand to position the phone at the perfect angle.
As always with beginner gadgets like this, I’m on the fence about how useful it really is. I’m sure it’s fun to play through the app’s music lessons on the tiny keyboard. But as soon as your musical ambitions outgrow three octaves of mini keys, you’re going to want a bigger keyboard. And then your muscle memory will be all messed up because you need to adjust to bigger keys. So I’m not too sure about this one – even for kids.
Price and Availability
The Loog x Duolingo Piano is available for pre-order from the Duolingo website for $249. The manufacturers say it’ll ship in November 2024.
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