EMPiano: Electromyographic Pitch Control on the Piano Keyboard

The piano keyboard offers a significant range and polyphony for well-trained pianists. Yet, apart from dynamics, the piano is incapable of translating expressive movements such as vibrato onto the played note. Adding sound effects requires additional modalities. A pitch wheel can be found on the side of most electric pianos. To add a vibrato or pitch bend, the pianist needs to actively operate the pitch wheel with their hand, which requires cognitive effort and may disrupt play. In this work, we present EMPiano, a system that allows pianists to incorporate a soft pitch vibrato into their play seamlessly. Vibrato can be triggered through muscle activity and is recognized via electromyography. This allows EMPiano to integrate into piano play. Our system offers new interaction opportunities with the piano to increase the player’s potential for expressive play. In this paper, we contribute the open-source implementation and the workflow behind EMPiano.